Nutrition Education in Greek Secondary School Textbooks: A Content Analysis of Coverage and Thematic Orientation.

Background

In Greece, nutrition education is not taught as an independent subject but is incorporated across multiple disciplines.

Objective

To evaluate the extent, distribution, and thematic orientation of nutrition-related content in Greek secondary school textbooks.

Methods

A systematic content analysis was conducted on all officially approved textbooks used in Greek secondary education during the academic year 2022-2023. A total of 164 textbooks (26,914 pages) were analyzed. Nutrition-related references were systematically identified using predefined keywords and categorized into thematic domains. Coding was performed independently by two researchers (Cohen's κ = 0.84).

Results

A total of 1426 nutrition-related references were identified. Nutrition-related content was unevenly distributed, with 57.1% in Gymnasium textbooks and 42.9% in Lyceum textbooks. When normalized, Gymnasium textbooks contained 7.47 references per 100 pages compared with 3.82 in Lyceum. Content was primarily focused on biological concepts (27.1%) and health/disease prevention (20.3%), while behavioral (16.5%), psychosocial (16.2%), and sustainability-related (19.8%) dimensions were less represented. No references addressed skills-based nutrition education.

Conclusions

Nutrition education in Greek textbooks is present but fragmented and predominantly biologically oriented. The lack of behavioral and skills-based content suggests the need for more comprehensive and interdisciplinary educational approaches.