This paper discusses which conceptions of health underlie a collection of science textbooks, using Content Analysis, as defined by Bardin, as the main methodological reference. Our results show that views of Health in connection with Hygiene and Biology were the most frequently present in the textbooks. Broader conceptions of Health, as those introduced by the Ottawa Conference in 1986, were fully explored. There were not many references to conceptions of Health as well being and not only as the absence of disease. The greater emphasis in Biological determinants represents a choice which is criticized by the Brazilian Curriculum Guidelines (PCN).
content analysis; health; science textbooks.