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HEALTH PROMOTION

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Health promotion is the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotion, social, spiritual and intellectual health. It is more than lifestyle change, it is also about changing environments so they are more supportive of making healthy decisions.

Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to:

  1. enhance awareness,
  2. change behavior and
  3. create environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting changes.

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion outlines the role of Health Promotion, especially the importance of increasing people's control over their own health.

Some health researchers and advocates stress the importance of community development and "facilitating a process whereby communities use their voice to define and make their health concerns known." (Lawrence Wallack, quoted in Minkler) Meredith Minkler is a prominent advocate of this approach, which is also closely tied the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).

See also

References

  • O'Donnell, Michael, MBA, MPH. "Definition of Health Promotion: Part III: Expanding the Definition." American Journal of Health Promotion. Winter 1989, Vol. 3, No. 3. p. 5.
  • Minkler, M. Ed. Community Organizing & Community Building for Health. Rutgers State University Press, 1997.

External links

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