Every year parents spend a lot of money on textbooks for their children because they need them for school and, obviously, because they are a source of wisdom and reliable information that children will learn in their classes.
Well, it seems that this is not entirely true, because it has been observed that much of the information they contain has no scientific evidence to support it, that is you can no longer trust the textbooks.
They have reached this conclusion at the Hospital de Baza, in Granada, where they have conducted a study published in the magazine BMC Public Health in which he has evaluated the quality of health related information contained in various textbooks.
How have they done the study?
For the study they were analyzed a total of 844 health messages included in 80 textbooks and classified them according to the level of scientific evidence into three categories: messages with high, medium or low level of evidence, messages with an unknown level of evidence or messages with no known evidence.
Results of the study
61% of the health messages analyzed in textbooks were classified as messages with evidence, but without knowing to what extent they are reliable, 15% as those messages whose level of scientific certainty is known (either low, medium or tall and 24.6% was formed by messages that have no known evidence. Speaking in silver, one in four health tips written in textbooks has no scientific basis.
Messages without scientific evidence
As examples of messages that have not been supported by scientific studies The following have commented:
- Breathing through the nose instead of through the mouth prevents colds.
- After eating do not swim, the digestive process can be disturbed and you can suffer a digestion cut.
- Before a muscle injury you should always rest.
- Wounds must be disinfected with hydrogen peroxide.
Conclusion
Well, the one that titled this post: you can no longer trust the textbooks. People usually complain (and often rightly) that the Internet is a somewhat dubious source of information. Well, to be honest it is not the internet, but some websites that offer health information that cannot be supported by scientific evidence and this has made people very critical of using the Internet as a means of information (surely many of you will have heard someone say that "now with the internet they are all doctors").
On the other hand, books are presupposed documented and more textbooks, which are often updated annually (thinking parents who are completing the edition and making it more rigorous and current) and surprising, and much, see that this really does not It’s like that.
