[Health Education in the Spanish Education Laws: comparative analysis between LOE and LOMCE].

OBJECTIVE: The current Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality (LOMCE) incorporates substantial changes from the previous law, especially a new curricular configuration with a higher prevalence of optionality, which may affect the development of health competencies by students. The objective was to evaluate the treatment of Health Education (HE) in the last two educative Spanish laws, based on the amount and varia- bility of Health related terms that they incorporate.

METHODS: A comparative quantitative analysis was performed based on the presence of 281 terms related to eight areas of Health Education in both laws and for the two compulsory education stages (Primary and Secondary). Differences in the number of terms between laws was tested using an independence test. The effect of law, health area and educational level was tested using a logistic regression, and differences among curricular itineraries was assessed using a Wilcoxon test.

RESULTS: LOE included 156 terms versus 153 in LOMCE. The educational level and health area affected the presence of terms (p-value < 0.001). The difference in the number of terms studied by a student depending on the curricular itinerary is 28% in Primary and ESO in LOMCE, compared to 0% and 7% in LOE.

CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences have been found between laws in the number of terms, nor in the treatment of the health areas between laws. However, the increase in optional subjects in LOMCE allows a considerable asymmetry in the training of young people depending on their curricular itinerary.