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HEALTH PROMOTION |
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Bottom Line |
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health.
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Significance
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At one time health education was seen as one of the principle responsibilities of the Public Health workforce. Education however focused too much on the individual and when it was accepted that individuals were very strongly influenced by the environment and that unhealthy behaviour was not simply a matter of ignorance there was a shift in which to think more about health promotion as the objective which could encompass social and environmental change. The term health promotion however had implications of campaigning, and although campaigning has a long and strong tradition in Public Health comparing against industry was one thing but campaigning to persuade Communities of Health to change their behaviour, using mass media and other methods, was seen as being relevant of paternalism.
Thus the term health improvement now represents one of the three principled domains in most definitions of Public Health practice, the other two being health protection and health service improvement.
Health improvement however does embrace all of the concepts adhered in the previous terms namely the presentation of unbiased information to the public, education, which is more than simply presenting information, campaigning both for social change, increasingly using social marketing techniques and against forces in that respect on the health education of populations. Health improvement appears to be a relatively staple term but so to were health education and health promotion before they were overtaken.
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Examples of how the term is used; Extract from the Better Value Healthcare 21st Century Glossary |
1. “Health promotion comprises efforts to enhance positive health and reduce the risk of ill-health, through the overlapping spheres of health education, prevention, and health protection.”
2. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. Source: World Health Organisation (1998) Health Promotion Glossary: Section 1: List of Basic Terms (p.1)
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