Introduction to Health (OER) - 2nd edition

Reviewed by Heather Bannick, Adjunct Professor, Mt. Hood Community College on 9/3/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book thoroughly addresses the topics covered in a Personal Health class. It could also be used as a standalone chapter reading if wanting to provide a basic topic overview. The TOC is labeled with easy to find key words. It also contains a continued learning module for each chapter that has key questions, and many video links that can be incorporated into a lesson as well. I appreciate the chapters on Enviro wellness and the Planet and Consumer Health as it's not seen much in all textbooks.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

the book is current, accurate and non bias. the author does a wonderful job of presenting difficult topics without any judgement being made. Health tips are practical and based in science.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I really appreciate the current info, mostly 2020 and up, which is difficult to find in Health textbooks. It would be very easy to use this text to pair with a slideshow because of the way it is structured. Almost all links, including video links, work. The continued learning section is great-with relevant reflection questions that are applicable to all topics,

Clarity rating: 5

This book is definitely written with the student in mind. Language is academic, but not overly. Definitions or breakdown of words provided when necessary.

Consistency rating: 4

For the most part the book follows the same flow. However, some chapters (like the one on infectious disease) seems to go deeper in content than the others. STI/STD are also covered in this section which seems like it can be it's own chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

There are not references in the text like "as we saw in chapter 2" or "as you'll read in Chapter 10." It would be really easy to assign a specific segment of this textbook at one time because of the easily defined subheadings. A teacher would not need to teach these chapters in order, there is not really any "building on" knowledge chapter by chapter so it can be assigned in any order.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The flow makes sense, but it does not need to be taught in that order. There are chapters in this book could definitely be used as readings in non health classes.

Interface rating: 5

This is one of the best online books I have seen in terms of format. Super easy to navigate chapters, and continued learning. The images are clear and consistent. Not a whole lot of excess imagery or nonsense icons on the sides. Links actually work, and the font is large enough to read without zooming.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Very well written. No grammatical errors. Different bolding, underlined and italicized used to separate topics.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

While the book points out there may be cultural differences, there isn't a lot of time spent on WHY those differences matter, and HOW we can take steps to improve upon them. It's a pretty standard, white, cis, hetero viewpoint. Not a whole lot of differing voices represented.

Really easy to use, great student centered language and objectives.