ABSTRACT
99 children, aged 6 to 14, received health education and were compared to 93 controls, living in another "children house" at the same resort. The two groups were similar, and completely separated. All children had respiratory and cutaneous infections or allergies, none of them being disabled. The health education consisted in five sessions held over three weeks. Topics were the excesses of what people put into their glasses, ash-trays, plates and medicine chests. The teaching method was mainly based on creative games. Evaluations were presented as games, with colored blocks. The answers given to ten questions, before the educational sessions, were similar in both groups. The final answers did not show any progress in the control group, whereas the rate of correct answers increased by 30% in the educated group. Differences were highly significant, in all age groups. Progresses concerned especially the excesses of sugar, tobacco and meat. The educational needs seemed different according to age, with the main excesses being sugar and other food in children under ten, and tobacco and alcoholic drinks in older children. Spa resorts, and La Bourboule in particular, are suitable for brief controlled health education actions.
