Feasibility of contextualizing the Informed Health Choices learning resources in Italy: A pilot study in a primary school in Florence

Background The Informed Health Choices (IHC) project team developed learning resources for primary school children to teach critical thinking about treatments claims and health choices and evaluated their effect in a cluster randomized controlled trial of 120 schools in Uganda in 2016. Children taught with the IHC resources showed a better ability to think critically about treatments claims and health choices than children not taught with these resources. Teams in multiple countries are contextualising the IHC resources for use in other languages and settings; in this pilot we describe contextualizing the resources for use in Italian primary schools. Methods After translating IHC learning resources to Italian and holding an introductory workshop with participating schoolteachers, we piloted the resources with two classes of a primary school in Florence over nine lessons. The aims of this study were: 1) to assess the feasibility of introducing the IHC curriculum in Italian primary school; 2) to evaluate the pilot students’ ability to assess health claims and make informed health choices; to explore 3) students’ and 4) teachers’ experiences with the IHC learning resources; 5) to identify barriers and facilitators to implementation of the IHC learning resources in Italian primary schools. To assess these objectives, we used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Results Both qualitative and quantitative analyses consistently showed that the IHC learning resources had a positive impact on the objectives we examined. The resources integrated well into the Italian primary school curriculum. Both students and teachers considered these resources highly comprehensible, appealing in design and content, and stimulating for the development of a critical attitude. The only barrier teachers and students expressed experiencing during the pilot was using the resources in a remote learning context (initiated in the final stages of the pilot due to school lockdown). Conclusions Findings from our contextualisation of IHC learning resources in Italian primary schools indicate that these resources are well-suited for Italian teachers and students in an Italian primary school context and compatible with the Italian primary school curriculum