Developing a pedagogy to support science for health literacy

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), primarily cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease and cancer, cause 63% of deaths globally. Prevention of 80% of these deaths is possible through changes to behaviours throughout the life-course surrounding the four major causative risk factors of tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol (WHO, 2008). The increasing burden of NCDs is creating a significant economic and social load on society (ibid; Beaglehole et al., 2011). Recognition of the need for international action to address the socio-economic impact of this growing epidemic led to the United Nations Global Summit on Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Control in September 2011. The gravity of the issue is highlighted by the fact that the only previous health issue that has warranted a meeting of the UN General Assembly was AIDS (UN, 2011). Addressing the NCD epidemic is complex. While the four major causative risk factors are agreed upon, these cannot be isolated from the complex and multiple socio-economic and environmental determinants of health and wellbeing (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 2007) and the growing knowledge of the impact of early life environment on NCD risk in later life. It is now well established that early life development (pre-natal onward) is a critical time for setting trajectories for health and wellbeing throughout the life-course (Gluckman and Hanson, 2006). As a consequence of developmental plasticity, the potential exists for the early life environment to permanently modify post-natal phenotype and therefore alter vulnerability to disease risk in later life (Gluckman et al., 2011). This is known to extend across a full range of maternal environments during pregnancy, from under-nourishment through to obesogenic, therefore it is relevant for all children from both the developing and developed world (Gluckman et al. 2007). Evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms partially account for this pattern of effects with some indications of transmission of these effects into subsequent generations (Godfrey et al. 2010). The compulsory education sector can potentially play a significant role in supporting efforts to reduce NCD risk though education that facilitates adolescents to explore the underpinning science and social issues. So while many teachers of science are utilizing aspects of NCD as contexts for the development of understanding of key science concepts, and many health programmes in schools are addressing aspects of this issue related to healthy behaviours, the complexity of the issue calls for greater interdisciplinary interaction within schools, and between schools and the science and health sectors. There is a need to support teachers to engage in open accessible dialogue with the science and health communities, provide access to real data that students can explore, and support the development of learning resources that allow the compulsory education sector to play a role in the global efforts of addressing the NCD burden on future generations.