Health communication in primary health care -a case study of ICT development for health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmud, Amina Jama; Olander, Ewy; Eriksén, Sara; Haglund, Bo Ja

2013-01-30

Developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supported health communication in PHC could contribute to increased health literacy and empowerment, which are foundations for enabling people to increase control over their health, as a way to reduce increasing lifestyle related ill health. However, to increase the likelihood of success of implementing ICT supported health communication, it is essential to conduct a detailed analysis of the setting and context prior to the intervention. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of health communication for health promotion in PHC with emphasis on the implications for a planned ICT supported interactive health channel. A qualitative case study, with a multi-methods approach was applied. Field notes, document study and focus groups were used for data collection. Data was then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Health communication is an integral part of health promotion practice in PHC in this case study. However, there was a lack of consensus among health professionals on what a health promotion approach was, causing discrepancy in approaches and practices of health communication. Two themes emerged from the data analysis: Communicating health and environment for health communication. The themes represented individual and organizational factors that affected health communication practice in PHC and thus need to be taken into consideration in the development of the planned health channel. Health communication practiced in PHC is individual based, preventive and reactive in nature, as opposed to population based, promotive and proactive in line with a health promotion approach. The most significant challenge in developing an ICT supported health communication channel for health promotion identified in this study, is profiling a health promotion approach in PHC. Addressing health promotion values and principles in the design of ICT supported health communication channel could facilitate

A future task for health-promotion research: Integration of health promotion and sustainable development.

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Jelsøe, Erling; Thualagant, Nicole; Holm, Jesper; Kjærgård, Bente; Andersen, Heidi Myglegård; From, Ditte-Marie; Land, Birgit; Pedersen, Kirsten Bransholm

2018-02-01

Based on previous studies and reflections collected from participants in a workshop at the 8th Nordic Health Promotion Research Network conference, we reveal current tendencies and discuss future challenges for health-promotion research regarding integration of sustainable development principles. Despite obvious interfaces and interactions between the two, our contention is that strategies for health promotion are not sufficiently integrated with strategies for sustainable development and that policies aimed at solving health or sustainability problems may therefore cause new, undesired and unforeseen environmental and health problems. As illustrated in previous research and as deliberated in the above-mentioned workshop, a number of barriers are identified. These are believed to be related to historical segregation, the conceptual understandings of health promotion and sustainable development, as well as the politics and implementation of policy goals in both areas. Three focal points are proposed as important challenges to address in future research: (a) the duality of health promotion and sustainability and how it can be handled in order to enhance mutually supportive processes between them; (b) the social dimension of sustainability and how it can be strengthened in the development of strategies for health promotion and sustainable development; and (c) exploring and identifying policy approaches and strategies for integrating health promotion and sustainable development.

Health promotion, environmental health and Agenda 21.

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Scriven, A; Young, S

1998-04-01

In 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, many governments, including our own, committed themselves to developing local strategies for sustainable development in the form of Local Agenda 21. Sustainable development is discussed, as is the philosophy and practice of health promotion and environmental health. Common approaches are identified and the links in relation to key areas of activities, strategies, values and principles are outlined. Finally, recommendations are made and conclusions drawn in relation to the overlap between environmental health action, Agenda 21 strategies and health promotion practice.

Promoting Global Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margaret A. Winker, MD

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA is a member of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME. The Editorial Board of IJMA believes it is important that the statement on promoting global health and this accompanying editorial is brought to the attention of our readers. Medical journal editors have a social responsibility to promote global health by publishing, whenever possible, research that furthers health worldwide.

Social capital and health--implications for health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Malin

2011-02-08

This article is a review of the PhD Thesis of Malin Eriksson, entitled 'Social capital, health and community action - implications for health promotion.' The article presents a theoretical overview of social capital and its relation to health, reviews empirical findings of the links between social capital and (self-rated) health, and discusses the usefulness of social capital in health promotion interventions at individual and community levels. Social capital, conceptualized as an individual characteristic, can contribute to the field of health promotion by adding new knowledge on how social network interventions may best be designed to meet the needs of the target group. The distinction of different forms of social capital, i.e. bonding, bridging, and linking, can be useful in mapping the kinds of networks that are available and health-enhancing (or damaging) and for whom. Further, social capital can advance social network interventions by acknowledging the risk for unequal distribution of investments and returns from social network involvement. Social capital, conceptualized as characterizing whole communities, provides a useful framework for what constitutes health-supporting environments and guidance on how to achieve them. Mapping and mobilization of social capital in local communities may be one way of achieving community action for health promotion. Social capital is context-bound by necessity. Thus, from a global perspective, it cannot be used as a 'cookbook' on how to achieve supportive environments and community action smoothly. However, social capital can provide new ideas on the processes that influence human interactions, cooperation, and community action for health promotion in various contexts. © 2011 Malin Eriksson.

Promoting people's health: challenges and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Heitkamp, P

1998-01-01

Promoting health underlines the right of each individual to the highest attainable standard of health. It stresses the importance of the participation of people and recognizes different sociocultural values and beliefs that are prevalent throughout the world. Working on health development has a sustainable effect only when done comprehensively: personal development, community development, organizational development, and political development. The international conferences that have marked the way of health promotion have been goal posts of an energetic movement to strengthen health worldwide. The Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion has been a worldwide source of guidance for health promotion through its five strategies: building health policy, creating supportive elements, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. Moreover, the Jakarta Declaration on "Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century" identifies five priorities in the next millennium: 1) promote social responsibility for health; 2) increase investments for health development; 3) consolidate and expand partnerships for health; 4) increase community capacity and empower the individual in matters of health; and 5) secure an infrastructure for health promotion. Increasing the investment in health development calls for the need to find new mechanisms for funding as well as reorienting existing resources towards health promotion and health education.

Health promotion practice and its implementation in Swedish health care.

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Brobeck, E; Odencrants, S; Bergh, H; Hildingh, C

2013-09-01

Health promotion practice is an important work assignment within the entire health and medical care sector. Nurses are important for the development and implementation of health promotion in clinical practice. The aim was to describe how district nurses view health promotion practice and how it was implemented in clinical practice following a training initiative. The study has a descriptive design and a qualitative method. The sample consisted of three focus groups with 16 participants. The interviews were conducted as a conversation with focus on the district nurses view of health promotion and its implementation in clinical practice. The data have been processed using manifest qualitative content analysis. Three categories, titled Training as motivation, Lack of grounding and Lack of scope were identified. The result demonstrated that training provides motivation, but also the importance of grounding in the organization and the need for scope in performing health promotion practice. Our results show that the training initiative has contributed positively to the district nurses' view of health promotion practice, but that they also feel that there are obstacles. The district nurses in our study suggest that health promotion practice should be more visible, and not something that is done when time permits. The district nurses feel motivated and have an enthusiasm for health promotion practice but more time and resources are required to design successful health-promoting initiatives. Before implementing a major training initiative for healthcare personnel in health promotion, it is essential to examine whether the conditions for this exist in the organization. © 2013 International Council of Nurses.

Promoting employee health by integrating health protection, health promotion, and continuous improvement: a longitudinal quasi-experimental intervention study.

Science.gov (United States)

von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica; Augustsson, Hanna; Hasson, Henna; Stenfors-Hayes, Terese

2015-02-01

To test the effects of integrating health protection and health promotion with a continuous improvement system (Kaizen) on proximal employee outcomes (health promotion, integration, and Kaizen) and distal outcomes (workability, productivity, self-rated health and self-rated sickness absence). Twelve units in a county hospital in Sweden were randomized to control or intervention groups using a quasiexperimental study design. All staff (approximately 500) provided self-ratings in questionnaires at baseline, and a 12- and 24-month follow-up (response rate, 79% to 87.5%). There was a significant increase in the proximal outcomes over time in the intervention group compared with the control group, and a trend toward improvement in the distal outcomes workability and productivity. Integration seems to promote staff engagement in health protection and promotion, as well as to improve their understanding of the link between work and health.

A future task for Health Promotion research: Integration of Health Promotion and sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jelsøe, Erling; Thualagant, Nicole; Holm, Jesper

2018-01-01

Based on previous studies and reflections collected from participants in a workshop at the 8th Nordic Health Promotion Research Network conference, we reveal current tendencies and discuss future challenges for health promotion research regarding integration of sustainable development principles....... Despite obvious interfaces and interactions between the two, our contention is that strategies for health promotion are not sufficiently integrated with strategies for sustainable development and that policies aimed at solving health or sustainability problems may therefore cause new, undesired...... and unforeseen environmental and health problems. As illustrated in previous research and as deliberated in the above-mentioned workshop, a number of barriers are identified: these are believed to be related to historical segregation, the conceptual understandings of health promotion and sustainable development...

Community health workers in Lesotho: Experiences of health promotion activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Seutloali, Thato; Napoles, Lizeka; Bam, Nomonde

2018-02-27

Lesotho adopted primary health care in 1979, and community health workers (CHWs) were included in the programme to focus on health promotion, particularly to reach people in underserved rural areas. Although the CHW programme has been successful, the heavy burden of disease because of HIV and/or AIDS and tuberculosis shifted resources from health promotion to home-based care. The study explored the lived experience of CHWs in conducting health promotion activities in Lesotho. The study was conducted in four health centres in Berea district, Lesotho. A qualitative study was conducted using an interviewer guide translated from English into Sesotho for four CHW focus group discussions, four individual interviews of key informants and four semi-structured interviews with the health centre nurses. The roles of CHWs in health promotion ranged from offering basic first aid and home-based care to increasing access to health care services by taking patients to the facilities and promoting behaviour change through health education. Their perceived successes included increased access to health care services and reduced mortality rates. CHW challenges involved their demotivation to carry out their work because of lack of or inconsistent financial incentives and supplies, work overload which compromises quality of their work and limited community involvement. This study concludes that CHWs are beneficial to health promotion and its various activities. They had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, although they did not fully comprehend that what they were describing was, in fact, health promotion. When it came to advocacy, CHWs did not fully understand it, nor did they consider it as part of their roles, although they acknowledged its importance. Their role of increasing access to health care services by accompanying patients to the facilities has increased considerably because of changes in disease burden. This is affecting their ability to practise other

Health promotion in the workplace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sultan T Al-Otaibi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this review was to describe the scientific evidence for coordinating health promotion at the workplace and to discuss the required future research in this field. Literature review from March 1990 to November 2014 was performed. Using the keywords ′health, promotion, worksite and workplace′, literature was searched in the following databases: Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar; with no time limit. There is emerging evidence that workplace health promotion enhances the effectiveness of effort to promote and protect workers′ health. It proves both cost-effective and cost-beneficial to health promotion at the worksite and subsequently further reduces absenteeism. However, future research is needed to identify the impact of other factors such as age, gender and race on workers′ exposure. There is also a need to develop valid tests to measure the outcome of these programmes at the workplace. Health promotion should be central to workplace planning and should be recognised as an integral part of proactive occupational health. Indeed, the workplace is viewed as one of the most popular venues for promoting health and preventing diseases among employees.

Health and the need for health promotion in hospital patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oppedal, Kristian; Nesvåg, Sverre; Pedersen, Bolette

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND: Integrated health promotion improves clinical outcomes after hospital treatment. The first step towards implementing evidence-based health promotion in hospitals is to estimate the need for health promoting activities directed at hospital patients. The aim of this study was to identify...... the distribution and association of individual health risk factors in a Norwegian hospital population and to estimate the need for health promotion in this population. METHODS: We used a validated documentation model (HPH-DATA Model) to identify the prevalence of patients with nutritional risk (measurements...... drinking and smoking was sustained. CONCLUSION: Nearly all patients included in this study had one or more health risk factors that could aggravate clinical outcomes. There is a significant need, and potential, for health-promoting interventions. Multi-factorial interventions may be frequently indicated...

Health promotion: an ethical analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Stacy M

2014-04-01

Thinking and practising ethically requires reasoning systematically about the right thing to do. Health promotion ethics - a form of applied ethics - includes analysis of health promotion practice and how this can be ethically justified. Existing frameworks can assist in such evaluation. These acknowledge the moral value of delivering benefits. But benefits need to be weighed against burdens, harms or wrongs, and these should be minimised: they include invading privacy, breaking confidentiality, restraining liberty, undermining self-determination or people's own values, or perpetuating injustice. Thinking about the ethics of health promotion also means recognising health promotion as a normative ideal: a vision of the good society. This ideal society values health, sees citizens as active and includes them in decisions that affect them, and makes the state responsible for providing all of its citizens, no matter how advantaged or disadvantaged, with the conditions and resources they need to be healthy. Ethicists writing about health promotion have focused on this relationship between the citizen and the state. Comparing existing frameworks, theories and the expressed values of practitioners themselves, we can see common patterns. All oppose pursuing an instrumental, individualistic, health-at-all-costs vision of health promotion. And all defend the moral significance of just processes: those that engage with citizens in a transparent, inclusive and open way. In recent years, some Australian governments have sought to delegitimise health promotion, defining it as extraneous to the role of the state. Good evidence is not enough to counter this trend, because it is founded in competing visions of a good society. For this reason, the most pressing agenda for health promotion ethics is to engage with communities, in a procedurally just way, about the role and responsibilities of the citizen and the state in promoting and maintaining good health.

[Workplace health promotion in public health policies in Poland].

Science.gov (United States)

Puchalski, Krzysztof; Korzeniowska, Elzbieta

2008-01-01

In this paper the author analyses how far in Poland the idea of workplace health promotion (WHP) does exist in the area of public health understood in its broadest sense. The analysis encapsulates the following issues: (a) the national legislative policy, (b) strategies, programs and projects concerning health issues launched or coordinated by the state or local administration, (c) grassroots initiatives for health promotion supported by local and regional administration, (d) civic projects or business strategies for health. In addition, the author emphasizes the marginalization of workplace health promotion and lack of cohesive policy in this field as well as, the fact that health problems of the working population arising from current demographic, technological, economic and social changes that could be dealt with through developing and implementing WHP projects are not yet fully perceived by public health policy makers.

Workshop salutogenesis and the future of health promotion and public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindström, Bengt

2018-02-01

This presentation is a synthesis of a workshop on Salutogenesis and the Future of Health Promotion and Public Health at the Nordic Health Promotion Research Conference in June 2016. A brief historical review of Public Health and Health Promotion development in a Nordic perspective is included. However, the main thrust of the article is to present how the salutogenic theory and approach could strengthen society's organised efforts to prevent disease, promote health and prolong life. A critical view based on existing evidence is maintained through the presentation that arrives at the conclusion it would be worthwhile to invest in effective theory driven approaches to the development of Public Health and Health Promotion in the future.

School health promotion--international perspectives and role of health care professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Prasla, Munira; Prasla, Shameer Ali

2011-01-01

Schools have great potential in health promotion; however, this is often neglected area and fewer efforts are done in exploring status of school health promotion in Pakistan. This paper attempts to outline brief historical background of school health promotion in Pakistan; presents critical review of some international school health promotion perspectives; and finally explore opportunities and role of healthcare professionals in Pakistan's context. A critical review of peer-reviewed literature divided into two broad themes of international perspectives on school health promotion, and role of healthcare professionals. Results are presented in cross-cutting themes and in narrative style. School health promotion is very diverse phenomenon, situated in respective cultural contexts. Programmes pesent a range of characteristics from focusing on integrated approach to health education to behavioural changes; and from involving youngsters to policy advocacy. Like the programmes, role of healthcare professionals is also varied and dynamic and without clearly defining their role, development of effective health promotion programmes is difficult. School health promotion could be facilitated by appropriate trainings for healthcare professionals and evidence-based policy changes.

Introduction to Global Health Promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Jennifer

2017-03-01

Global health education is becoming increasingly prominent in universities throughout the country especially in programs focused on health and behavioral sciences, law, economics, and political science. Introduction to Global Health Promotion is a book that can be used by both instructors and students in the field of global health. The book provides theories and models, human rights, and technology relevant to the field. In addition the book is designed to share best evidence for promoting health and reducing morbidity and mortality in a variety of areas. The book can be used by health educators, public health practitioners, professors, and students as a resource for research and practice in the field of health promotion and disease prevention.

Association of health professional leadership behaviors on health promotion practice beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Jacqueline D; Belcher, Harolyn M E; Attoh, Prince; D'Abundo, Michelle; Gong, Tao

2017-04-01

Leadership is a process by which an individual influences a group or individual to achieve a common goal, in this case health promotion for individuals with disabilities. (1) To examine the association between the transformational leadership behaviors of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) network professionals and their practice beliefs about health promotion activities, specifically cardiovascular fitness and healthy weight, for people with disabilities. (2) To determine if discipline and/or years of practice moderate the association between transformational leadership behaviors and practice beliefs regarding health promotion. There is a positive association between transformational leadership behaviors and health professionals practice beliefs regarding health promotion activities for persons with disabilities. A quantitative cross-sectional web-based survey design was used to determine the association between leadership behaviors and practices beliefs regarding health promotion for people with disabilities. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and an adapted version of the Role of Health Promotion in Physical Therapy Survey were used to measure leadership and practice beliefs, respectively. Multiple regression analysis was applied to determine the association of leadership behaviors with health promotion practice beliefs variables. Transformational leadership behaviors of the AUCD network professionals were positively associated with health promotion practice beliefs about cardiovascular fitness for people with disabilities. Years post licensure and discipline did not moderate the association between transformational leadership and practice beliefs regarding health promotion. Transformational leadership may facilitate health professionals' health promotion practices for people with disabilities. Further research and training in leadership is needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AAHD's Health Promotion and Wellness, Part 2: Health Promotion Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Exceptional Parent, 2011

2011-01-01

This article is part 2 of a 4-part series on "Health Promotion and Wellness" from the American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 54 million people--one in five Americans--have a disability, and these Americans are more likely to report: (1) Being in poorer overall health; (2) Having less…

Health and the need for health promotion in hospital patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oppedal, Kristian; Nesvåg, Sverre; Pedersen, Bolette

2010-01-01

of waist and weight), self-reported physical inactivity, daily smoking and hazardous drinking. We used logistic regression to describe the associations between health risk factors and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Out of 10 included patients, 9 (N = 1522) had one or more health risk factors......BACKGROUND: Integrated health promotion improves clinical outcomes after hospital treatment. The first step towards implementing evidence-based health promotion in hospitals is to estimate the need for health promoting activities directed at hospital patients. The aim of this study was to identify...... the distribution and association of individual health risk factors in a Norwegian hospital population and to estimate the need for health promotion in this population. METHODS: We used a validated documentation model (HPH-DATA Model) to identify the prevalence of patients with nutritional risk (measurements...

Social capital and health – implications for health promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Malin

2011-01-01

This article is a review of the PhD Thesis of Malin Eriksson, entitled ‘Social capital, health and community action – implications for health promotion.’ The article presents a theoretical overview of social capital and its relation to health, reviews empirical findings of the links between social capital and (self-rated) health, and discusses the usefulness of social capital in health promotion interventions at individual and community levels. Social capital, conceptualized as an individual characteristic, can contribute to the field of health promotion by adding new knowledge on how social network interventions may best be designed to meet the needs of the target group. The distinction of different forms of social capital, i.e. bonding, bridging, and linking, can be useful in mapping the kinds of networks that are available and health-enhancing (or damaging) and for whom. Further, social capital can advance social network interventions by acknowledging the risk for unequal distribution of investments and returns from social network involvement. Social capital, conceptualized as characterizing whole communities, provides a useful framework for what constitutes health-supporting environments and guidance on how to achieve them. Mapping and mobilization of social capital in local communities may be one way of achieving community action for health promotion. Social capital is context-bound by necessity. Thus, from a global perspective, it cannot be used as a ‘cookbook’ on how to achieve supportive environments and community action smoothly. However, social capital can provide new ideas on the processes that influence human interactions, cooperation, and community action for health promotion in various contexts. PMID:21311607

Health Promotion at the Ballpark.

Science.gov (United States)

Hodges, Bonni C

2017-03-01

The arrival of a new summer collegiate baseball league franchise to a small central New York city was seen as an opportunity for health promotion. The initiative was set up to explore two overarching questions: (1) Are summer collegiate baseball events acceptable to local public health organizations as viable places for health promotion activities addressing local health issues? (2) Are summer collegiate baseball organizations amenable to health promotion activities built in to their fan and/or player experiences? Planning and implementation were guided by precede-proceed, social cognitive theory, social marketing, and diffusion of innovations constructs. Environmental changes were implemented to support healthy eating and nontobacco use by players and fans; four health awareness nights were implemented at home games corresponding to local public health priorities and included public service announcements, between inning quizzes, information dissemination at concession and team market locations, and special guests. Sales and fan feedback support mostly healthy concession offerings and a tobacco-free ballpark; postseason evaluations from team staff and public health partners support continuing the trials of this sports event as a venue for health promotion.

Improving Health Promotion Using Quality Improvement Techniques in Australian Indigenous Primary Health Care

Science.gov (United States)

Percival, Nikki; O’Donoghue, Lynette; Lin, Vivian; Tsey, Komla; Bailie, Ross Stewart

2016-01-01

Although some areas of clinical health care are becoming adept at implementing continuous quality improvement (CQI) projects, there has been limited experimentation of CQI in health promotion. In this study, we examined the impact of a CQI intervention on health promotion in four Australian Indigenous primary health care centers. Our study objectives were to (a) describe the scope and quality of health promotion activities, (b) describe the status of health center system support for health promotion activities, and (c) introduce a CQI intervention and examine the impact on health promotion activities and health centers systems over 2 years. Baseline assessments showed suboptimal health center systems support for health promotion and significant evidence-practice gaps. After two annual CQI cycles, there were improvements in staff understanding of health promotion and systems for planning and documenting health promotion activities had been introduced. Actions to improve best practice health promotion, such as community engagement and intersectoral partnerships, were inhibited by the way health center systems were organized, predominately to support clinical and curative services. These findings suggest that CQI can improve the delivery of evidence-based health promotion by engaging front line health practitioners in decision-making processes about the design/redesign of health center systems to support the delivery of best practice health promotion. However, further and sustained improvements in health promotion will require broader engagement of management, senior staff, and members of the local community to address organizational and policy level barriers. PMID:27066470

Improving health promotion using quality improvement techniques in Australian Indigenous primary health care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikki ePercival

2016-03-01

Full Text Available While some areas of clinical health care are becoming adept at implementing continuous quality improvement (CQI projects, there has been limited experimentation of CQI in health promotion. In this study, we examined the impact of a CQI intervention on health promotion in four Australian Indigenous primary health care centres. Our study objectives were to: (a describe the scope and quality of health promotion activities; (b describe the status of health centre system support for health promotion activities; and (c introduce a CQI intervention and examine the impact on health promotion activities and health centres systems over two years. Baseline assessments showed sub-optimal health centre systems support for health promotion and significant evidence-practice gaps. After two annual CQI cycles, there were improvements in staff understanding of health promotion and systems for planning and documenting health promotion activities had been introduced. Actions to improve best practice health promotion, such as community engagement and intersectoral partnerships, were inhibited by the way health centre systems were organized, predominately to support clinical and curative services. These findings suggest that CQI can improve the delivery of evidence based health promotion by engaging front line health practitioners in decision making processes about the design/redesign of health centre systems to support the delivery of best practice health promotion. However, further and sustained improvements in health promotion will require broader engagement of management, senior staff and members of the local community to address organisational and policy level barriers.

Improving Health Promotion Using Quality Improvement Techniques in Australian Indigenous Primary Health Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Percival, Nikki; O'Donoghue, Lynette; Lin, Vivian; Tsey, Komla; Bailie, Ross Stewart

2016-01-01

Although some areas of clinical health care are becoming adept at implementing continuous quality improvement (CQI) projects, there has been limited experimentation of CQI in health promotion. In this study, we examined the impact of a CQI intervention on health promotion in four Australian Indigenous primary health care centers. Our study objectives were to (a) describe the scope and quality of health promotion activities, (b) describe the status of health center system support for health promotion activities, and (c) introduce a CQI intervention and examine the impact on health promotion activities and health centers systems over 2 years. Baseline assessments showed suboptimal health center systems support for health promotion and significant evidence-practice gaps. After two annual CQI cycles, there were improvements in staff understanding of health promotion and systems for planning and documenting health promotion activities had been introduced. Actions to improve best practice health promotion, such as community engagement and intersectoral partnerships, were inhibited by the way health center systems were organized, predominately to support clinical and curative services. These findings suggest that CQI can improve the delivery of evidence-based health promotion by engaging front line health practitioners in decision-making processes about the design/redesign of health center systems to support the delivery of best practice health promotion. However, further and sustained improvements in health promotion will require broader engagement of management, senior staff, and members of the local community to address organizational and policy level barriers.

Local wisdom and health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demaio, Alessandro Rhyll

2011-01-01

The respectful, appropriate use of local wisdom (LW) in health promotion increases penetration and longevity of positive behavior change. Collaborations based on mutual respect, flexibility and trust between health program organizers, traditional and local practitioners, and the communities being...... served are the goal for public health physicians in our modern, globalized world. This meta-analysis reviewed literature from the past 18 years drawn from a wide range of sources. This investigations proposes a grassroots, material shift toward regarding health promotion interventions as partnerships...... when planning, executing, and evaluating health promotion projects. This holistic approach would be based on the premise that LW is equal to expert opinion. This article endorses the integration of LW at every stage of the health promotion process concluding that it is through empowerment...

Health promotion practices in primary care groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Heidemann, Ivonete Teresinha Schulter Buss; Alonso da Costa, Maria Fernanda Baeta Neves; Hermida, Patrícia Madalena Vieira; Marçal, Cláudia Cossentino Bruck; Antonini, Fabiano Oliveira; Cypriano, Camilla Costa

2018-04-01

This is a descriptive-exploratory study using a qualitative approach, conducted in ten municipalities in southern Brazil. Data were obtained by talking to 21 nurses from February to November 2012, through semi-structured interviews using questions to probe their health promotion practices. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis focused on health promotion concepts. We identified four themes about health promotion practices of family health nurses in Brazil: a) training of nurses for health promotion practice was weak; b) nurses formed health promotion groups around diseases and life stages; c) nurses formed groups to meet community needs; and d) nurses used health promotion techniques in group work. These family health nurses were somewhat aware of the importance of health promotion, and how to assist the population against various ailments using some health promotion strategies. The main weaknesses were the lack of understanding about health promotion concepts, and the difficulty of understanding the relevance of its practice, probably attributable to limitations in training. We conclude that primary care groups in Brazil's unified health system could do better in applying health promotion concepts in their practice.

Workplace Participatory Occupational Health/Health Promotion Program

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yuan; Flum, Marian; Kotejoshyer, Rajashree; Fleishman, Jane; Henning, Robert; Punnett, Laura

2018-01-01

Nursing home employees experience high physical and psychosocial workloads, resulting in poor health outcomes. An occupational health/health promotion program, designed to facilitate employee participation, was initiated in three nursing homes. The aim of the current study was to evaluate facilitators and barriers of the program after 3-year implementation. Focus groups with employees and in-depth interviews with top and middle managers were conducted. The Social Ecological Model was used to organize the evaluation. Facilitators and barriers were reported from both managers’ and employees’ perspectives, and were categorized as intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and corporate level. Management support, financial resources, and release time for participation were identified as the three most important factors. Supports from multiple levels including both human and environment, and managers and employees, are important for a successful participatory occupational health/health promotion program. PMID:26977705

Health Promotion and School Health: the Health Visiting Role in Greece

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Venetia Notara

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. Schools intend to help pupils acquire the knowledge and develop the skills theyneed to participate fully in adult life. School is regarded as constituting a very important arena for health education among children and young people and furthermore, it is seen as an important context for health promotion, mainly because it reaches a large proportion of the population for many years. A large body of evidence strongly support the fact that education and health are two concepts purely interdependent in many ways and children cannot make the most of educational opportunities if their health is impaired. One of the core elements of Health Visiting profession should be safeguarding children by conducting school visits and implement screening tests, health education programmes and school health programmes in general. Some of the best opportunities for positively influencing the health of young people and preventing the initiation of the health risk behaviors are found in the school setting.Conclusions: A whole school approach and community development work can be particularly effective in building the health capacity of communities.

Health promotion training in dental and oral health degrees: a scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bracksley-O'Grady, Stacey A; Dickson-Swift, Virginia A; Anderson, Karen S; Gussy, Mark G

2015-05-01

Dental diseases are a major burden on health; however, they are largely preventable. Dental treatment alone will not eradicate dental disease with a shift to prevention required. Prevention of dental diseases is a role of dental professionals, with most countries having formalized health promotion competencies for dental and oral health graduates. In spite of this, there may be minimal health promotion being undertaken in clinical practice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a scoping review to identify some published studies on health promotion training in dental and oral health degrees. Key search terms were developed and used to search selected databases, which identified 84 articles. Four articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were included in the review. Of these studies, the type of oral health promotion tasks and instructions received before the tasks varied. However, for all studies the health promotion content was focused on health education. In terms of evaluation of outcomes, only two studies evaluated the health promotion content using student reflections. More good-quality information on health promotions training is needed to inform practice.

Health promotion in connection to the health care students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Kyuchukova

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The activities of health promotion for the students in health care specialties is organized and managed by the teacher process. During the training communication skills are acquired. It is the time for preparing students for work in counseling and patient education, collecting and providing health information - promotive function in the process of care (1. We assumed that these opportunities could be used in our work with children deprived of parental care. We set a goal to explore experiences, attitudes and ideas about students’ participation in health care in health promotion in the community of children and individuals. The study found that students are aware of the social importance of the knowledge acquired during the training and are convinced of the need to support adolescents to develop a responsible attitude towards their own health.

Stimulating innovative research in health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Larouche, Annie; Potvin, Louise

2013-06-01

The Global Working Group on Health Promotion Research (GWG HPR) of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) presents a collection of four articles illustrating innovative avenues for health promotion research. This commentary synthesizes the contributions of these articles while attempting to define the contours of research in health promotion. We propose that innovation in research involves the adoption of a reflexive approach wherein consideration of context plays different roles. The reflexive process consists of questioning what is taken for granted in the conceptualization and operationalization of research. It involves linking research findings and its theoretical foundations to characteristics and goals of the field and observed realities, while orienting reflection on specific objects. The reflexive nature of the research activity is of paramount importance for innovation in health promotion. With the publication of this series, the GWG HPR wishes to strengthen health promotion research capacity at the global level and reaffirm health promotion as a specific research domain.

Social capital and health – implications for health promotion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malin Eriksson

2011-02-01

Full Text Available This article is a review of the PhD Thesis of Malin Eriksson, entitled ‘Social capital, health and community action – implications for health promotion.’ The article presents a theoretical overview of social capital and its relation to health, reviews empirical findings of the links between social capital and (self-rated health, and discusses the usefulness of social capital in health promotion interventions at individual and community levels. Social capital, conceptualized as an individual characteristic, can contribute to the field of health promotion by adding new knowledge on how social network interventions may best be designed to meet the needs of the target group. The distinction of different forms of social capital, i.e. bonding, bridging, and linking, can be useful in mapping the kinds of networks that are available and health-enhancing (or damaging and for whom. Further, social capital can advance social network interventions by acknowledging the risk for unequal distribution of investments and returns from social network involvement. Social capital, conceptualized as characterizing whole communities, provides a useful framework for what constitutes health-supporting environments and guidance on how to achieve them. Mapping and mobilization of social capital in local communities may be one way of achieving community action for health promotion. Social capital is context-bound by necessity. Thus, from a global perspective, it cannot be used as a ‘cookbook’ on how to achieve supportive environments and community action smoothly. However, social capital can provide new ideas on the processes that influence human interactions, cooperation, and community action for health promotion in various contexts.This article has been commented on by Catherine Campbell. Please follow this link http://www.globalhealthaction.net/index.php/gha/article/view/5964 – to read her Commentary.

Health promotion in context:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liveng, Anne; Andersen, Heidi Myglegård; Lehn Christiansen, Sine

2018-01-01

Health promotion constitutes a complex field of study, as it addresses multifaceted problems and involves a range of methods and theories. Students in the field of health promotion can find this challenging. To raise their level of reflexivity and support learning we have developed the “context m...

School health education and promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leahy, Deana; Simovska, Venka

2018-01-01

Purpose - This Special Issue is the second in a series that aims to place the spotlight on educational research and its contribution to the field of school-based health and wellbeing promotion. The purpose of both special issues is to bring together scholars from across the world to consider...... current developments in research on curricula, interventions, policies and practices concerning health education and promotion and related professional development of teachers. Design/methodology/approach – As in the first Special Issue published in 2017 (School health education and promotion: Health...... and wellbeing promotion. Additionally, an open call for papers was published on the Health Education website and on the EERA website. There was considerable interest from those such as researchers, scholars and practitioners, and as a result, we have been able to publish a second Special Issue. Findings...

The promotion of oral health within Health Promoting Schools in KwaZulu-Natal

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M Reddy

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Background. Oral health promotion is a cost-effective strategy that can be implemented at schools for the prevention of oral diseases. Theimportance and value of school-based interventions in children has been identified in South Africa (SA. Although oral health strategiesinclude integrated school-based interventions, there is a lack of published evidence on whether these strategies have been translated intopractice and whether these programmes have been evaluated.Objective. To assess the efficiency and sustainability of the toothbrushing programme implemented at health-promoting schools inKwaZulu-Natal Province, SA.Methods. A mixed-methods approach was used for this study, conducted at 23 health-promoting schools in KwaZulu-Natal using focusgroup discussions. Triangulation was used for evaluation.Results. The intervention implemented had created awareness of oral health for learners, educators and parents. Findings in this studyindicate that although there were benefits obtained from this school-based intervention, many challenges, such as time constraints, largeclasses and a lack of adequate resources and funding, affected the sustainability of the programme.Conclusion.The school setting has the potential to deliver integrated preventive and promotive programmes provided they are supportedby adequate funding and resources.

Teachers' Ideas about Health: Implications for Health Promotion at School

Science.gov (United States)

Miglioretti, Massimo; Velasco, Veronica; Celata, Corrado; Vecchio, Luca

2013-01-01

Objectives: The study explores the relationships among teachers' health representations, their ideas about health promotion, their working conditions and their involvement in health-promotion activities at school. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 107 teachers in 86 schools in Milan (Italy). The questionnaire was structured in four…

Health promotion in the workplace

OpenAIRE

Sultan T Al-Otaibi

2016-01-01

The objective of this review was to describe the scientific evidence for coordinating health promotion at the workplace and to discuss the required future research in this field. Literature review from March 1990 to November 2014 was performed. Using the keywords ′health, promotion, worksite and workplace′, literature was searched in the following databases: Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar; with no time limit. There is emerging evidence that workplace health promotion enhances the effectiv...

Nurses and Teachers: Partnerships for Green Health Promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Sendall, Marguerite C.; Lidstone, John; Fleming, MaryLou; Domocol, Michelle

2013-01-01

Background: The term "green health promotion" is given to health promotion underpinned by the principles of ecological health and sustainability. Green health promotion is supported philosophically by global health promotion documents such as the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and the ecological public health movement. Green…

Health promotion activities of sports clubs and coaches, and health and health behaviours in youth participating in sports clubs: the Health Promoting Sports Club study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kokko, Sami; Selänne, Harri; Alanko, Lauri; Heinonen, Olli J; Korpelainen, Raija; Savonen, Kai; Vasankari, Tommi; Kannas, Lasse; Kujala, Urho M; Aira, Tuula; Villberg, Jari; Parkkari, Jari

2015-01-01

Sports clubs form a potential setting for health promotion, but the research is limited. The aim of the Health Promoting Sports Club (HPSC) study was to elucidate the current health promotion activities of youth sports clubs and coaches, and to investigate the health behaviours and health status of youth participating in sports clubs compared to non-participants. The study design employs cross-sectional multilevel and multimethod research with aspirations to a prospective cohort study in the next phase. The setting-based variables at sports clubs and coaching levels, and health behaviour variables at the individual level, are investigated using surveys; and total levels of physical activity are assessed using objective accelerometer measurements. Health status variables will be measured by preparticipation screening. The health promotion activity of sports clubs (n=154) is evaluated by club officials (n=313) and coaches (n=281). Coaches and young athletes aged 14-16 (n=759) years evaluate the coaches' health promotion activity. The survey of the adolescents' health behaviours consist of two data sets-the first is on their health behaviours and the second is on musculoskeletal complaints and injuries. Data are collected via sports clubs (759 participants) and schools 1650 (665 participants and 983 non-participants). 591 (418 athletes and 173 non-athletes) youth, have already participated in preparticipation screening. Screening consists of detailed personal medical history, electrocardiography, flow-volume spirometry, basic laboratory analyses and health status screening, including posture, muscle balance, and static and dynamic postural control tests, conducted by sports and exercise medicine specialists. The HPSC study is carried out conforming with the declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was received from the Ethics Committee of Health Care District of Central Finland. The HPSC study is close-to-practice, which generates foundations for development work

Health promotion activities of sports clubs and coaches, and health and health behaviours in youth participating in sports clubs: the Health Promoting Sports Club study

Science.gov (United States)

Kokko, Sami; Selänne, Harri; Alanko, Lauri; Heinonen, Olli J; Korpelainen, Raija; Savonen, Kai; Vasankari, Tommi; Kannas, Lasse; Kujala, Urho M; Aira, Tuula; Villberg, Jari; Parkkari, Jari

2015-01-01

Introduction Sports clubs form a potential setting for health promotion, but the research is limited. The aim of the Health Promoting Sports Club (HPSC) study was to elucidate the current health promotion activities of youth sports clubs and coaches, and to investigate the health behaviours and health status of youth participating in sports clubs compared to non-participants. Methods and analysis The study design employs cross-sectional multilevel and multimethod research with aspirations to a prospective cohort study in the next phase. The setting-based variables at sports clubs and coaching levels, and health behaviour variables at the individual level, are investigated using surveys; and total levels of physical activity are assessed using objective accelerometer measurements. Health status variables will be measured by preparticipation screening. The health promotion activity of sports clubs (n=154) is evaluated by club officials (n=313) and coaches (n=281). Coaches and young athletes aged 14–16 (n=759) years evaluate the coaches’ health promotion activity. The survey of the adolescents’ health behaviours consist of two data sets—the first is on their health behaviours and the second is on musculoskeletal complaints and injuries. Data are collected via sports clubs (759 participants) and schools 1650 (665 participants and 983 non-participants). 591 (418 athletes and 173 non-athletes) youth, have already participated in preparticipation screening. Screening consists of detailed personal medical history, electrocardiography, flow-volume spirometry, basic laboratory analyses and health status screening, including posture, muscle balance, and static and dynamic postural control tests, conducted by sports and exercise medicine specialists. Ethics and dissemination The HPSC study is carried out conforming with the declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was received from the Ethics Committee of Health Care District of Central Finland. The HPSC study is

South Asia's health promotion kaleidoscope.

Science.gov (United States)

Mukhopadhyay, Alok

2007-01-01

South Asia has 22 percent of the world's population but only 1.3 percent of the global income. Consequently 40 percent of the population is living in absolute poverty. However the health transition in some of its countries including India and Sri Lanka is a testimony to the fact that there are proven solutions to the problems of health and development within the region. The countries of the region have much in common, including a democratic political system, four major religions, a vibrant and living tradition of voluntarism and an extensive health infrastructure which is operating well below par. Despite the underlying unity, South Asia enjoys enormous cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity. In this large, complex and vibrant region, health promotion is a challenging task, but it also holds the key to a dramatic change in the global health situation. Many of these solutions lie in wider areas of socio-political action. There are much needed shifts in the health promotion and development efforts, particularly in the area of poverty and social justice; gender inequity; population stabilisation; health and environment; control of communicable and non-communicable diseases; and urban health strategies. The principle of cooperation, partnership and intersectoral collaboration for health will be explored. Developing an appropriate, sustainable and people centred health and development strategy in the coming decades is an enormous challenge. There has been an attempt to focus on the emerging needs of the region, which call for health promotion, and involvement of civil society, private sector and the governments bestowed with the increased responsibility of ensuring health security for people. Strengthening the existing health systems, allocating adequate resources for health development and ensuring community participation are all prerequisites to the success of health promotion in the region.

People Create Health: Effective Health Promotion is a Creative Process

OpenAIRE

Cloninger, C. Robert; Cloninger, Kevin M.

2013-01-01

Effective health promotion involves the creative cultivation of physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Efforts at health promotion produce weak and inconsistent benefits when it does not engage people to express their own goals and values. Likewise, health promotion has been ineffective when it relies only on instruction about facts regarding a healthy lifestyle, or focuses on reduction of disease rather than the cultivation of well-being. Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies an...

Health promoting leadership - different views of the concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Andrea; Axelsson, Runo; Axelsson, Susanna Bihari

2011-01-01

To describe and analyse different views of health promoting leadership among actors involved in workplace health promotion in eight Swedish municipalities. Twenty individuals were interviewed and their views were analysed according to the methodology of phenomenograpic research, exploring how health promoting leadership was described, what motives were expressed, and what critical conditions were perceived for developing such leadership. The informants described health promoting leadership in three ways: organising health promoting activities, having a supportive leadership style, and developing a health promoting workplace. The motives mentioned for developing health promoting leadership were instrumental motives and improved health. The critical conditions for health promoting leadership were organisational conditions, characteristics of individual managers, and support to managers. It seems that the concept of health promoting leadership was often used to link ideas about good leadership to the health of employees. Organisational goals and management trends may also have influenced the motives as well as the conditions for development of health promoting leadership.

[Health education, patient education and health promotion: educational methods and strategies].

Science.gov (United States)

Sandrin, Brigitte

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to help public health actors with an interest in health promotion and health care professionals involved in therapeutic education to develop and implement an educational strategy consistent with their vision of health and health care. First, we show that the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and the French Charter for Popular Education share common values. Second, an examination of the career and work of Paulo Freire, of Ira Shor's pedagogical model and of the person-centered approach of Carl Rogers shows how the work of educational practitioners, researchers and theorists can help health professionals to implement a truly "health-promoting" or "therapeutic" educational strategy. The paper identifies a number of problems facing health care professionals who become involved in education without reflecting on the values underlying the pedagogical models they use.

What makes health promotion research distinct?

Science.gov (United States)

Woodall, James; Warwick-Booth, Louise; South, Jane; Cross, Ruth

2018-02-01

There have been concerns about the decline of health promotion as a practice and discipline and, alongside this, calls for a clearer articulation of health promotion research and what, if anything, makes it distinct. This discussion paper, based on a review of the literature, the authors' own experiences in the field, and a workshop delivered by two of the authors at the 8th Nordic Health Promotion Conference, seeks to state the reasons why health promotion research is distinctive. While by no means exhaustive, the paper suggests four distinctive features. The paper hopes to be a catalyst to enable health promotion researchers to be explicit in their practice and to begin the process of developing an agreed set of research principles.

Cultural aspects of ageing and health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Mariño, R J

2015-03-01

The emphasis of Australian Government policy is on the promotion of good health in later life and positive experiences with ageing. Conceptually, a new gerontology framework has replaced the study of disease, decline, loss and disability. Within this framework, health promotion offers a mechanism by which individuals can be assisted to create environments that offer better opportunities for continued participation in society and improved quality of health and self-care. Oral health is instrumental to older people's health, life satisfaction, quality of life and perception of self. Australia is culturally diverse, composed of numerous ethno-cultural groups coexisting within a larger, predominant culture, creating a multicultural and multiracial society. However, despite this cultural diversity, the well documented ageing profile of the Australian population and repeated calls for comprehensive geriatric assessment, the oral health of older adults remains a challenge for oral health providers and for society. A major challenge will be to translate existing knowledge and experience of disease prevention and health promotion into appropriate programmes for older adults. Health promotion is the key to improving oral health in later life as it encourages older adults to be proactive in regard to their health. Therefore, increased efforts should be directed towards identifying opportunities for health promotion activities and the development of community based models that encourage older people to improve and maintain their oral health. Ignoring opportunities for health promotion may increase inequalities in oral health and may lead to even greater demands for curative and oral rehabilitative services from these groups This article firstly provides a brief rationale for oral health promotion. Its second part explores the influence of culture on health beliefs, behaviours and outcomes in older adults and how oral health can relate to cultural background. The last section

In what direction should we go to promote health in mental health care?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Svedberg

2011-05-01

Full Text Available There is a growing recognition of the need for health promotion interventions in all health care today. In spite of this, health promotion interventions among patients with mental illnesses have been scarce in research, practice, and policies. There is also an ambiguous interpretation of the definition of health promotion in the literature. The emphasis in this paper is thus to (1 discuss why we should pay attention to the interpretations of the concept of health promotion and (2 present a possible model for what nurses do when they intend to promote health in mental health care. This paper was presented at the Nordic Conference of Mental Health Nursing in Helsinki, Finland in 2010.

Geographic information systems (GIS) for Health Promotion and Public Health: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Nykiforuk, Candace I J; Flaman, Laura M

2011-01-01

The purpose of this literature review is to identify how geographic information system (GIS) applications have been used in health-related research and to critically examine the issues, strengths, and challenges inherent to those approaches from the lenses of health promotion and public health. Through the review process, conducted in 2007, it is evident that health promotion and public health applications of GIS can be generally categorized into four predominant themes: disease surveillance (n = 227), risk analysis (n = 189), health access and planning (n = 138), and community health profiling (n = 115). This review explores how GIS approaches have been used to inform decision making and discusses the extent to which GIS can be applied to address health promotion and public health questions. The contribution of this literature review will be to generate a broader understanding of how GIS-related methodological techniques and tools developed in other disciplines can be meaningfully applied to applications in public health policy, promotion, and practice.

Community health workers in Lesotho: Experiences of health promotion activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thato Seutloali

2018-02-01

Conclusion: This study concludes that CHWs are beneficial to health promotion and its various activities. They had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, although they did not fully comprehend that what they were describing was, in fact, health promotion. When it came to advocacy, CHWs did not fully understand it, nor did they consider it as part of their roles, although they acknowledged its importance. Their role of increasing access to health care services by accompanying patients to the facilities has increased considerably because of changes in disease burden. This is affecting their ability to practise other health promotion activities which focus on disease prevention.

Ethics, equality and evidence in health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vallgårda, Signild

2014-01-01

Abstract Aim: The Danish National Board of Health has expressed its commitment to social equality in health, evidence-informed health promotion and public health ethics, and has issued guidelines for municipalities on health promotion, in Danish named prevention packages.The aim of this article...... is to analyse whether the Board of Health adheres to ideals of equality, evidence and ethics in these guidelines. Methods: An analysis to detect statements about equity, evidence and ethics in 10 health promotion packages directed at municipalities with the aim of guiding the municipalities towards evidence......-informed disease prevention and health promotion. Results: Despite declared intentions of prioritizing social equality in health, these intentions are largely absent from most of the packages.When health inequalities are mentioned, focus is on the disadvantaged or the marginalized. Several interventions...

Marketing health promotion: hitting or missing the target in occupational health.

Science.gov (United States)

Fontana, S A

1993-10-01

1. Occupational health nurses can use marketing strategies to plan, offer, and manage health promotion programs; and to conduct research aimed at better understanding the health needs of workers. 2. By applying a social marketing orientation to health promotion planning, occupational health nurses can tailor programs to fit employees' needs, and deliver health messages that are readily understandable to worker groups. 3. A priority in implementing any occupational health program or service is learning about the needs, desires, and health habits of employees. 4. Greater benefits to employee health may occur by targeting change in structures and systems at the workplace rather than solely focusing on lifestyle issues.

Workplace health promotion in the context of public health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuseppe M. Masanotti

2010-12-01

Full Text Available

In modern societies, work is the source of most individual, corporate and community wealth. The level of each society’s health is therefore particularly vulnerable to disruption caused by employee illness. Today healthy workplaces are one of the most important determinants of health. However, public health has tended to completely ignore health in the workplace and occupational medicine has tended to ignore it in part. This article refers to the Italian and European context and, through a review of international recommendations, research and direct field experiences, presents workplace health promotion as an important tool in the field of public health.

Through the years, several initiatives have been tested. One of the platforms that has demonstrated to be cost effective is based on the principles included in the Ottawa Charter which, when applied to the workplace, define workplace health promotion. In the last twelve years, the European Commission has recognized the workplace as a key determinant of health and has outlined a methodology of workplace health promotion as defined in the Luxemburg Declaration. The basis of this methodology is planning. Without correct strategy and policy development it will not be possible to create a sustainable society. The enforcement of Lisbon treaty seems to be a substantial step forward for Europe.

Milestones in Nordic Health Promotion research.

Science.gov (United States)

Haglund, Bo J A; Tillgren, Per

2018-02-01

Based on the storytelling tradition and analyses of conference material, this article provides an overview of the evolving Nordic Health Promotion Research Network (NHPRN) and its conferences over the last 20 years. The story goes from the planning of the first conference in Bergen, Norway, back in 1996 to the eighth conference in Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2016. There have been three phases of development. During the first phase, 1996-2007, the five first conferences were initiated and implemented by departments of public health in the Nordic countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative centres of Health Promotion in Bergen University and a group at Karolinska Institute, Department of Social Medicine, creating supportive environments for health in Stockholm played key roles in initiating and supporting NHPRN. During the second phase, 2007-2014, the network was strengthened and supported by the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV) in Gothenburg. The third phase started when NHV closed down in 2015 and networking activities were transferred to the European Office of WHO in Copenhagen. The Nordic Health Promotion Research Conference series has served several purposes and will continue to do so. They are important Nordic meeting places, stimulating Health Promotion research, as well as explicitly managing ongoing concerns in the international Health Promotion community. This is reflected in the shift of foci over time. The content of the conferences has been highly responsive to whatever challenges are particularly relevant at different points in time, while also contributing to developing Health Promotion as a discipline, given that every conference has built on the previous ones.

Cardiovascular health promotion in aging women: validating a population health approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Sawatzky, Jo-Ann V; Naimark, Barbara J

2005-01-01

Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in North American women, most cardiovascular research has focused on men. In addition, while there has been a recent trend toward population health promotion (PHP) and a consequent focus on the broad determinants of health, there is still a dearth of research evidence related to the promotion of cardiovascular health within this context. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the interrelationships between the determinants of health and individual cardiovascular health/risk behaviors in healthy women, within the context of a framework for PHP. A comprehensive inventory of factors affecting the cardiovascular health of women was operationalized in a survey questionnaire, the Cardiovascular Health Promotion Profile. Physical measures were also taken on each participant (n = 206). The multivariate analyses support significant interrelationships between the population health determinants and multiple individual cardiovascular health/risk behaviors in this cohort (p PHP framework, is central to building on the body of knowledge in this area.

Time series clustering analysis of health-promoting behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Chi-Ta; Hung, Yu-Shiang; Deng, Guang-Feng

2013-10-01

Health promotion must be emphasized to achieve the World Health Organization goal of health for all. Since the global population is aging rapidly, ComCare elder health-promoting service was developed by the Taiwan Institute for Information Industry in 2011. Based on the Pender health promotion model, ComCare service offers five categories of health-promoting functions to address the everyday needs of seniors: nutrition management, social support, exercise management, health responsibility, stress management. To assess the overall ComCare service and to improve understanding of the health-promoting behavior of elders, this study analyzed health-promoting behavioral data automatically collected by the ComCare monitoring system. In the 30638 session records collected for 249 elders from January, 2012 to March, 2013, behavior patterns were identified by fuzzy c-mean time series clustering algorithm combined with autocorrelation-based representation schemes. The analysis showed that time series data for elder health-promoting behavior can be classified into four different clusters. Each type reveals different health-promoting needs, frequencies, function numbers and behaviors. The data analysis result can assist policymakers, health-care providers, and experts in medicine, public health, nursing and psychology and has been provided to Taiwan National Health Insurance Administration to assess the elder health-promoting behavior.

Securing funds for health promotion: lessons from health promotion foundations based on experiences from Austria, Australia, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland.

Science.gov (United States)

Schang, Laura K; Czabanowska, Katarzyna M; Lin, Vivian

2012-06-01

Worldwide, countries face the challenge of securing funds for health promotion. To address this issue, some governments have established health promotion foundations, which are statutory bodies with long-term and recurrent public resources. This article draws on experiences from Austria, Australia, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland to illustrate four lessons learned from the foundation model to secure funding for health promotion. These lessons are concerned with: (i) the broad spectrum of potential revenue sources for health promotion foundations within national contexts; (ii) legislative anchoring of foundation revenues as a base for financial sustainability; (iii) co-financing as a means to increase funds and shared commitment for health promotion; (iv) complementarity of foundations to existing funding. Synthesizing the lessons, we discuss health promotion foundations in relation to wider concerns for investment in health based on the values of sustainability, solidarity and stewardship. We recommend policy-makers and researchers take notice of health promotion foundations as an alternative model for securing funds for health promotion, and appreciate their potential for integrating inter-sectoral revenue collection and inter-sectoral funding strategies. However, health promotion foundations are not a magic bullet. They also pose challenges to coordination and public sector stewardship. Therefore, health promotion foundations will need to act in concert with other governance instruments as part of a wider societal agenda for investment in health.

Health promotion in occupational health.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaijser, C F O

2005-01-01

To describe a Swedish approach to occupational health and its implications for health promotion. We start business with a new customer by creating a health policy for the whole company. Every year a follow-up is presented to top management where decisions are taken on what to do for the coming period. The result from a paper mill is presented where cost savings were five times more than expected. We have found that close follow-up and the use of personalized reminders is very useful for individuals. We have also found the importance of working more with "the softer side" i.e. looking into a person's total life situation. Management training activities are essential. This training includes for instance personality, communication and conflict handling seminars and every manager has to go through those seminars. The focus is moved from sick care to health improvement. The result is measured in long-term health for individuals. To reach that level you have to be healthy and have no absences for at least two years. The Swedish occupational health system is a unique system for creating health. With a specially trained staff including MDs, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, management consultants and engineers, and working from prevention to treatment, they can create a total view of both individual health and customer company wealth. Working closely together in teams and in close cooperation with customers, they can initiate great changes in both these dimensions.

Promotion of oral health by community nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Garry, Brendan; Boran, Sue

2017-10-02

To explore the enablers and barriers perceived by community nurses in the promotion of oral health in an adult community trust directorate. Oral health care promotion in community care settings is being neglected. England and Wales have witnessed marked improvements in periodontal disease; however, no improvements have been seen in older people. A qualitative methodology was employed, where eight nurses from Band 5 to 7 were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. The data was analysed thematically. Data analysis was organised into four themes: professional self-concept and the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary in the promotion of oral health; the impact an organisation has on the promotion of oral health and an exploration of the enablers and barriers identified by the community nurses while delivering care; the relationships between the nurse and patient and the potential impact on oral health promotion; the concept of self-regard in relation to the promotion of oral health and its overall impact. A commitment to improving oral health and requests for additional educational input were apparent. Organisational enablers and barriers were identified, alongside the crucial role a positive self-regard for oral health care may play in the promotion of oral health. Nurses need relevant education, organisational support, adequate resources and support from a multidisciplinary team to deliver optimal oral health promotion.

Inequalities in oral health and oral health promotion

OpenAIRE

Moysés, Samuel Jorge

2012-01-01

This article offers a critical review of the problem of inequalities in oral health and discusses strategies for disease prevention and oral health promotion. It shows that oral health is not merely a result of individual biological, psychological, and behavioral factors; rather, it is the sum of collective social conditions created when people interact with the social environment. Oral health status is directly related to socioeconomic position across the socioeconomic gradient in almost all...

Psychosocial factors and mental health in cancer patients: opportunities for health promotion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boer, Henk; Elving, Wim; Seydel, Erwin

1998-01-01

A first step in planning health promotion with respect to mental health is analysing the factors that influence mental health. Diagnosis of the relevant variables may contribute to the design of effective health promotion programmes. In this paper the relationship between psychosocial factors and

Nurses' perceptions, understanding and experiences of health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Casey, Dympna

2007-06-01

This paper presents an account of nurses' perceptions and understanding of health promotion in an acute setting. Health promotion is considered the remit of every nurse. To engage in health-promoting practice, however, nurses need to understand the term 'health promotion' clearly. A single qualitative embedded case study was used. Purposive sampling of eight nurses was employed. Initially, theses nurses were observed in practice and, following this, a semi-structured one-to-one interview was conducted with each observed nurse. Qualitative data analysis guided by work of Miles and Huberman was employed. The data revealed one main theme: health-promoting nursing practice and this consisted of six categories and five subcategories. The findings indicated that nurses struggled to describe their understanding of health promotion, their understanding was limited and the strategies described to conduct health promotion were narrow and focused on the individual. Their perceptions and descriptions of health promotion were more in keeping with the traditional health education approach. Overall health promotion was reported to occur infrequently, being added on if the nurse had time. Factors relating to education, organizational and management issues were identified as key barriers prohibiting health-promoting nursing practice. Nurses must recognize that health promotion is a broad concept that does not exclusively focus on the individual or lifestyle factors. Nurses must be educated to recognize health-promoting opportunities in the acute setting, as well as how to plan for and conduct health promotion so that it becomes integral to practice. A review of the methods of organizing and delivering nursing care is also advocated. Ward managers have an important role in supporting nurses, creating a culture for health promotion and sharing power in decision-making processes, so that nurses feel valued and empowered.

The Nordic Health Promotion Research Network (NHPRN).

Science.gov (United States)

Ringsberg, Karin C

2015-08-01

The Nordic Health Promotion Research Network (NHPRN) was established in 2007 at the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV). This article aims to describe the foundation of the NHPRN, the development and the present status of the work of NHPRN. The NHPRN consists of about 50 senior and junior researchers from all Nordic countries. It is a working network that aims to develop the theoretical understanding of health promotion, to create research cooperation in health promotion from a Nordic perspective and to extend the scope of health promotion through education. Network members meet biannually to discuss and further develop research within the field and are also responsible for the Nordic conference on Health Promotion, organized every 3 years. The NHV hosted the network between 2007 and 2014; and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will assume this role in 2015. © 2015 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.

Towards evidence-based, quality-controlled health promotion: the Dutch recognition system for health promotion interventions.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brug, J.; Dale, D. van; Lanting, L.; Kremers, S.; Veenhof, C.; Leurs, M.; Yperen, T. van; Kok, G.

2010-01-01

Registration or recognition systems for best-practice health promotion interventions may contribute to better quality assurance and control in health promotion practice. In the Netherlands, such a system has been developed and is being implemented aiming to provide policy makers and professionals

Health-care users, key community informants and primary health care workers' views on health, health promotion, health assets and deficits: qualitative study in seven Spanish regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Pons-Vigués, Mariona; Berenguera, Anna; Coma-Auli, Núria; Pombo-Ramos, Haizea; March, Sebastià; Asensio-Martínez, Angela; Moreno-Peral, Patricia; Mora-Simón, Sara; Martínez-Andrés, Maria; Pujol-Ribera, Enriqueta

2017-06-13

Although some articles have analysed the definitions of health and health promotion from the perspective of health-care users and health care professionals, no published studies include the simultaneous participation of health-care users, primary health care professionals and key community informants. Understanding the perception of health and health promotion amongst these different stakeholders is crucial for the design and implementation of successful, equitable and sustainable measures that improve the health and wellbeing of populations. Furthermore, the identification of different health assets and deficits by the different informants will generate new evidence to promote healthy behaviours, improve community health and wellbeing and reduce preventable inequalities. The objective of this study is to explore the concept of health and health promotion and to compare health assets and deficits as identified by health-care users, key community informants and primary health care workers with the ultimate purpose to collect the necessary data for the design and implementation of a successful health promotion intervention. A descriptive-interpretive qualitative research was conducted with 276 participants from 14 primary care centres of 7 Spanish regions. Theoretical sampling was used for selection. We organized 11 discussion groups and 2 triangular groups with health-care users; 30 semi-structured interviews with key community informants; and 14 discussion groups with primary health care workers. A thematic content analysis was carried out. Health-care users and key community informants agree that health is a complex, broad, multifactorial concept that encompasses several interrelated dimensions (physical, psychological-emotional, social, occupational, intellectual, spiritual and environmental). The three participants' profiles consider health promotion indispensable despite defining it as complex and vague. In fact, most health-care users admit to having

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Science.gov (United States)

... Health Literacy Health Care Quality Healthy People healthfinder Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Spotlight: This ... 16/2017 This site is coordinated by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of ...

Going for gold: the health promoting general practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Michael

2008-01-01

The World Health Organization's Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion has been influential in guiding the development of 'settings' based health promotion. Over the past decade, settings such as schools have flourished and there has been a considerable amount of academic literature produced, including theoretical papers, descriptive studies and evaluations. However, despite its central importance, the health-promoting general practice has received little attention. This paper discusses: the significance of this setting for health promotion; how a health promoting general practice can be created; effective health promotion approaches; the nursing contribution; and some challenges that need to be resolved. In order to become a health promoting general practice, the staff must undertake a commitment to fulfil the following conditions: create a healthy working environment; integrate health promotion into practice activities; and establish alliances with other relevant institutions and groups within the community. The health promoting general practice is the gold standard for health promotion. Settings that have developed have had the support of local, national and European networks. Similar assistance and advocacy will be needed in general practice. This paper recommends that a series of rigorously evaluated, high-quality pilot sites need to be established to identify and address potential difficulties, and to ensure that this innovative approach yields tangible health benefits for local communities. It also suggests that government support is critical to the future development of health promoting general practices. This will be needed both directly and in relation to the capacity and resourcing of public health in general.

A multilevel model of organizational health culture and the effectiveness of health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yea-Wen; Lin, Yueh-Ysen

2014-01-01

Organizational health culture is a health-oriented core characteristic of the organization that is shared by all members. It is effective in regulating health-related behavior for employees and could therefore influence the effectiveness of health promotion efforts among organizations and employees. This study applied a multilevel analysis to verify the effects of organizational health culture on the organizational and individual effectiveness of health promotion. At the organizational level, we investigated the effect of organizational health culture on the organizational effectiveness of health promotion. At the individual level, we adopted a cross-level analysis to determine if organizational health culture affects employee effectiveness through the mediating effect of employee health behavior. The study setting consisted of the workplaces of various enterprises. We selected 54 enterprises in Taiwan and surveyed 20 full-time employees from each organization, for a total sample of 1011 employees. We developed the Organizational Health Culture Scale to measure employee perceptions and aggregated the individual data to formulate organization-level data. Organizational effectiveness of health promotion included four dimensions: planning effectiveness, production, outcome, and quality, which were measured by scale or objective indicators. The Health Promotion Lifestyle Scale was adopted for the measurement of health behavior. Employee effectiveness was measured subjectively in three dimensions: self-evaluated performance, altruism, and happiness. Following the calculation of descriptive statistics, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to test the multilevel hypotheses. Organizational health culture had a significant effect on the planning effectiveness (β = .356, p production (β = .359, p promotion. In addition, results of cross-level moderating effect analysis by HLM demonstrated that the effects of organizational health culture on three dimensions of

Proactive health consumerism: an important new tool for worksite health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Sara S; Cummins, Carol O; Evers, Kerry E; Prochaska, Janice M; Prochaska, James O

2009-01-01

Consumerism in health care has taken on the form of a major innovation among employers and health plans. Yet many of our efforts to enhance the skills and attitudes that enable consumerism have met with limited success. Proactive Health Consumerism is proposed as an approach that utilizes many of the hard-won lessons from health promotion research. Along with prerequisites that create the motivation and framework for increased health consumerism, this article provides a theory-driven example of a new tool for health promotion professionals to employ when enhancing the health consumer skills of working populations. Strategies for maximization of effectiveness and integration with supporting resources are also described.

Prevalence of health promotion programs in primary health care units in Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Luiz Roberto; Malta, Deborah Carvalho; Gomes, Grace Angélica de Oliveira; Bracco, Mário M; Florindo, Alex Antonio; Mielke, Gregore Iven; Parra, Diana C; Lobelo, Felipe; Simoes, Eduardo J; Hallal, Pedro Curi

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE Assessment of prevalence of health promotion programs in primary health care units within Brazil’s health system. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study based on telephone interviews with managers of primary care units. Of a total 42,486 primary health care units listed in the Brazilian Unified Health System directory, 1,600 were randomly selected. Care units from all five Brazilian macroregions were selected proportionally to the number of units in each region. We examined whether any of the following five different types of health promotion programs was available: physical activity; smoking cessation; cessation of alcohol and illicit drug use; healthy eating; and healthy environment. Information was collected on the kinds of activities offered and the status of implementation of the Family Health Strategy at the units. RESULTS Most units (62.0%) reported having in place three health promotion programs or more and only 3.0% reported having none. Healthy environment (77.0%) and healthy eating (72.0%) programs were the most widely available; smoking and alcohol use cessation were reported in 54.0% and 42.0% of the units. Physical activity programs were offered in less than 40.0% of the units and their availability varied greatly nationwide, from 51.0% in the Southeast to as low as 21.0% in the North. The Family Health Strategy was implemented in most units (61.0%); however, they did not offer more health promotion programs than others did. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that most primary care units have in place health promotion programs. Public policies are needed to strengthen primary care services and improve training of health providers to meet the goals of the agenda for health promotion in Brazil. PMID:25372175

Health promotion and young prisoners: a European perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald, Morag; Rabiee, Fatemeh; Weilandt, Caren

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to assess the health promotion needs of vulnerable young prisoners and the existing health promotion activities in custodial settings in seven European Union (EU) Member States. The research comprised two components: the first involved identifying existing health promotion practices. The second involved mapping out young offenders' health promotion needs by carrying out a needs assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. The quantitative element comprised surveys among young prisoners and prison staff and focused on the availability and perceived importance of health promotion activities in prison. The qualitative element comprised focus groups with young offenders and individual interviews with prison staff, field experts and NGO members. The findings from the research have identified a number of similar, but also some diverse areas of unmet need for health promotion activities in prison settings across these diverse seven EU countries. There is no consistency of approach within and between countries regarding health promotion policy, guidance, resources and programmes for young prisoners. In order to improve the health of young prisoners and to establish and increase sustainability of existing health promotion programmes, there is a need for the establishment of National and EU standards. Providing health promotion activities for young prisoners while in custodial settings is key to addressing their unmet health and well-being needs and to facilitate their reintegration back into the community. Despite the barriers identified by this research, health promotion is to some extent being delivered in the partner countries and provides a foundation upon which further implementation of health promotion activities can be built especially when the benefits of health promotion activities, like dealing with the common problems of alcohol and drug addiction, mental health and communicable diseases are linked to successful

Health Value, Perceived Social Support, and Health Self-Efficacy as Factors in a Health-Promoting Lifestyle

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Erin S.; Tucker, Carolyn M.; Herman, Keith C.

2007-01-01

During their college years, students may adopt health-promoting lifestyles that bring about long-term benefits. Objective and Participants: The purpose of this study was to explore the roles of health value, family/friend social support, and health self-efficacy in the health-promoting lifestyles of a diverse sample of 162 college students.…

Workforce insights on how health promotion is practised in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service.

Science.gov (United States)

McFarlane, Kathryn; Devine, Sue; Judd, Jenni; Nichols, Nina; Watt, Kerrianne

2017-07-01

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services deliver holistic and culturally appropriate primary health care to over 150 communities in Australia. Health promotion is a core function of comprehensive primary health care; however, little has been published on what enables or challenges health promotion practice in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service. Apunipima Cape York Health Council (Apunipima) delivers primary health care to 11 remote north Queensland communities. The workforce includes medical, allied health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners and corporate support staff. This study aimed to identify current health promotion practices at Apunipima, and the enablers and challenges identified by the workforce, which support or hinder health promotion practice. Sixty-three staff from across this workforce completed an online survey in February 2015 (42% response rate). Key findings were: (1) health promotion is delivered across a continuum of one-on-one approaches through to population advocacy and policy change efforts; (2) the attitude towards health promotion was very positive; and (3) health promotion capacity can be enhanced at both individual and organisational levels. Workforce insights have identified areas for continued support and areas that, now identified, can be targeted to strengthen the health promotion capacity of Apunipima.

Health literacy and health-promoting behaviors among multiethnic groups of women in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Hsiu-Min; Cheng, Ching-Yu; Chang, Shu-Chen; Yang, Yung-Mei; Wang, Hsiu-Hung

2014-01-01

To understand the current status of health literacy and the relationship between health literacy and health-promoting behaviors among multiethnic groups of women in Taiwan. Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit study participants. Data were collected using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. We recruited community female adults who lived in greater Taipei or Taoyuan areas (northern Taiwan) from January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. A total of 378 female participants were contacted, of which 351 consented to participate and 347 completed valid questionnaires for analysis. Health literacy was measured with the Taiwan Health Literacy Scale, and health-promoting behaviors were measured by the Chinese version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile. Participants had a moderate level of health literacy, and one third of them had inadequate health literacy. Participants with inadequate health literacy were more likely to be younger, not a high school graduate, and Vietnamese; to have a low monthly family income and no diagnosed diseases; to use a second language; and to regard TV/radio as the most useful source of health information. Health literacy alone could significantly predict health-promoting behaviors among the participants. Our findings confirmed that low health literacy is prevalent among underprivileged women in Taiwan. Health-related programs that are literacy sensitive and culturally appropriate are needed to teach and encourage health-promoting behaviors. © 2013 AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

Understanding of Factors that Enable Health Promoters in Implementing Health-Promoting Schools: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Tommy Tsz Man; Chiang, Vico Chung Lim; Dawson, Angela; Lee, Regina Lai Tong

2014-01-01

Health-promoting schools have been regarded as an important initiative in promoting child and adolescent health in school settings using the whole-school approach. Quantitative research has proved its effectiveness in various school-based programmes. However, few qualitative studies have been conducted to investigate the strategies used by health promoters to implement such initiatives. In this study, the researchers conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the qualitative literature to identify important enablers assisting the implementation of health-promoting schools from the perspectives of health promoters. Five enablers have been identified from the review: (a) Following a framework/guideline to implement health-promoting schools; (b) Obtaining committed support and contributions from the school staff, school board management, government authorities, health agencies and other stakeholders; (c) Adopting a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to implementing HPS; (d) Establishing professional networks and relationships; and (e) Continuing training and education in school health promotion. This highlights the importance of developing school health policies that meet local health needs, and socio-cultural characteristics that can foster mutual understanding between the health and education sectors so as to foster health promotion in children and adolescents. PMID:25264789

Health promotion and health systems: some unfinished business.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziglio, Erio; Simpson, Sarah; Tsouros, Agis

2011-12-01

One of the five action domains in the Ottawa Charter was Reorienting Health Services. In this paper, we reflect on why progress in this domain has been somewhat lethargic, particularly compared with some of the other action domains, and why now it is important to renew our commitment to this domain. Reorienting health services has been largely overlooked and opportunities missed, although good exceptions do exist. The occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa Charter represents an important opportunity for health promotion to: (i) renew its active voice in current policy debate and action and (ii) enhance achievements made to date by improving our efforts to advocate, enable and mediate for the reorientation of health services and systems. We outline six steps to reactivate and invest more in this action domain so as to be in a better position to promote health equitably and sustainably in today's fast changing world. Though our experience is mainly based in the European context, we hope that our reflections will be of some value to countries outside of this region.

Does workplace health promotion reach shift workers?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nabe-Nielsen, Kirsten; Garde, Anne Helene; Clausen, Thomas

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES: One reason for health disparities between shift and day workers may be that workplace health promotion does not reach shift workers to the same extent as it reaches day workers. This study aimed to investigate the association between shift work and the availability of and participation...... in workplace health promotion. METHODS: We used cross-sectional questionnaire data from a large representative sample of all employed people in Denmark. We obtained information on the availability of and participation in six types of workplace health promotion. We also obtained information on working hours, ie......). RESULTS: In the general working population, fixed evening and fixed night workers, and employees working variable shifts including night work reported a higher availability of health promotion, while employees working variable shifts without night work reported a lower availability of health promotion...

Effect of school eye health promotion on children's eye health literacy in Vietnam.

Science.gov (United States)

Paudel, Prakash; Yen, Phung Thi; Kovai, Vilas; Naduvilath, Thomas; Ho, Suit May; Giap, Nguyen Viet; Holden, Brien A

2017-10-06

Health promotion intervention in schools is a useful strategy to improve students' health awareness. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of eye health promotion interventions on eye health literacy in school children in Vietnam. A piloted questionnaire was administered to 300 children from five secondary schools in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam at baseline and re-administered after the eye health promotion interventions. McNemar chi-square and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis. A total of 300 children aged 12-15 years (mean, 13.3 ± 1.3 years; 60% female) participated in the baseline survey. The participation rate in the post-health promotion survey was 94.7%. After the health promotion interventions, number of children who had correct eye health knowledge increased by 10-20% (60-75% to 70-95%), more children reported having had an eye examination (63.3% to 84.7%; p promotion interventions significantly improve eye health knowledge, attitudes and practices of school children. Additionally, participation of parents and teachers as change agents may further improve children's health literacy. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The promotion of oral health in health-promoting schools in KwaZulu ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background. Oral health promotion is a cost-effective strategy that can be implemented at schools for the prevention of oral diseases. The importance and value of school-based interventions in children has been identified in South Africa (SA). Although oral health strategies include integrated school-based interventions, ...

History in health: health promotion's underexplored tool for change.

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Wendy

2018-01-01

This paper outlined an argument as to why history and historians should be included in a healthy settings approach. Qualitative descriptive study. A narrative review of the literature across a broad cross-section of history, health promotion and public health disciplines was undertaken. Three reasons for including history were identified relating to the social role of history as a means of analysing social memory, of changing social narratives and by raising social consciousness. This allowed for a distinction between history in health and history of health. Precedents of this social role can be found in the fields of feminist and postcolonial histories, oral history and museums in health. Reasons for why historians and health promotion practitioners and researchers have not previously had working relationships were explored, as were some of the factors that would need to be considered for such relationships to work well, including the need to recognise different languages, different understandings of the role of history, and a potential lack of awareness of the health implications of historical work. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stress Managment and Health Promotion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asghar Dadkhah

2004-09-01

Full Text Available Health promotion approach is utilized to address the prevention, management and early intervention for stress management and also to promote positive mental and psychological health. Stress affects everyone and must be managed effectively to reduce its chronic and deleterious effects this study consists of two sections: in first section the principals of health promotion in different human existence levels, prevention of disease related to stress, the effect of stress on human well-being, and stress management were discussed. In second section the role of rehabilitation specialists (Medical technologist, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, respiratory therapists, and social workers in stress management were counted.

Best practices for online Canadian prenatal health promotion: A public health approach.

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Chedid, Rebecca A; Terrell, Rowan M; Phillips, Karen P

2017-11-04

Prenatal health promotion provides information regarding pregnancy risks, protective behaviours and clinical and community resources. Typically, women obtain prenatal health information from health care providers, prenatal classes, peers/family, media and increasingly, Internet sites and mobile apps. Barriers to prenatal health promotion and related services include language, rural/remote location, citizenship and disability. Online public health platforms represent the capacity to reach underserved women and can be customised to address the needs of a heterogeneous population of pregnant women. Canadian government-hosted websites and online prenatal e-classes were evaluated to determine if accessible, inclusive, comprehensive and evidence-based prenatal health promotion was provided. Using a multijurisdictional approach, federal, provincial/territorial, municipal and public health region-hosted websites, along with affiliated prenatal e-classes, were evaluated based on four criteria: comprehensiveness, evidence-based information, accessibility and inclusivity. Online prenatal e-classes, federal, provincial/territorial and public health-hosted websites generally provided comprehensive and evidence-based promotion of essential prenatal topics, in contrast to municipal-hosted websites which provided very limited prenatal health information. Gaps in online prenatal health promotion were identified as lack of French and multilingual content, targeted information and representations of Indigenous peoples, immigrants and women with disabilities. Canadian online prenatal health promotion is broadly comprehensive and evidence-based, but fails to address the needs of non-Anglophones and represent the diverse population of Canadian pregnant women. It is recommended that agencies enhance the organisation of website pregnancy portals/pages and collaborate with other jurisdictions and community groups to ensure linguistically accessible, culturally-competent and inclusive

Education Improves Public Health and Promotes Health Equity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hahn, Robert A; Truman, Benedict I

2015-01-01

This article describes a framework and empirical evidence to support the argument that educational programs and policies are crucial public health interventions. Concepts of education and health are developed and linked, and we review a wide range of empirical studies to clarify pathways of linkage and explore implications. Basic educational expertise and skills, including fundamental knowledge, reasoning ability, emotional self-regulation, and interactional abilities, are critical components of health. Moreover, education is a fundamental social determinant of health - an upstream cause of health. Programs that close gaps in educational outcomes between low-income or racial and ethnic minority populations and higher-income or majority populations are needed to promote health equity. Public health policy makers, health practitioners and educators, and departments of health and education can collaborate to implement educational programs and policies for which systematic evidence indicates clear public health benefits. © The Author(s) 2015.

[Health promotion effectiveness: developing and testing a system for routine evaluation in health education, workplace health promotion and setting approach supplied by the German statutory health insurance agencies].

Science.gov (United States)

Kliche, T; Riemann, K; Bockermann, C; Niederbühl, K; Wanek, V; Koch, U

2011-04-01

The aim of the study was to develop and test a routine evaluation system for all health promotion and education activities funded by the German statutory health insurance companies. The system aims at measuring both individual health effects and the complex organisational effects of setting projects. Measurement instruments were developed synoptically and tested in three field tests (2003-2008). In order to assess the impact of individual health training, 212 courses of the health insurance companies were evaluated. To assess the setting approach, 56 schools participating in a health-promotion project were included, and for workplace health-promotion 6 projects of different health insurance companies were included. The research design was an observational study. Instead of control groups, individual data were compared to reference values for gender- and age-matched groups from national health surveys. The studies consisted of baseline and final assessment (T1/T2), complemented by a follow-up (T3), all adapted to the time of intervention (i. e., 3-24 months for T1/T2 and 3-18 months for T2/T3). The evaluation system provides multilevel-measurement based upon validated questionnaires for health-related structures and processes in institutions, and for the participating individual's subjective health, health problems, health-related quality of life, workplace and institutional satisfaction. Controlling for central confounders is also possible (input and dosage, age, gender, educational background). Thus, short but valid measurement instruments of high usability are available to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention, health promotion and education. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

[Health-Promoting Schools Regional Initiative of the Americas].

Science.gov (United States)

Ippolito-Shepherd, Josefa; Cerqueira, Maria Teresa; Ortega, Diana Patricia

2005-01-01

In Latin America, comprehensive health promotion programmes and activities are being implemented in the school setting, which take into account the conceptual framework of the Health-Promoting Schools Regional Initiative of the Pan American Health Organization, Regional office of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). These programmes help to strengthen the working relationships between the health and education sectors. The Health-Promoting Schools Regional Initiative, officially launched by PAHO/WHO in 1995, aims to form future generations to have the knowledge, abilities, and skills necessary for promoting and caring for their health and that of their family and community, as well as to create and maintain healthy environments and communities. The Initiative focuses on three main components: comprehensive health education, the creation and maintenance of healthy physical and psychosocial environments, and the access to health and nutrition services, mental health, and active life. In 2001, PAHO conducted a survey in 19 Latin American countries to assess the status and trends of Health-Promoting Schools in the Region, for the appropriate regional, subregional, and national planning of pertinent health promotion and health education programmes and activities. The results of this survey provided information about policies and national plans, multisectoral coordination mechanisms for the support of health promotion in the school settings, the formation and participation in national and international networks of Health-Promoting Schools and about the level of dissemination of the strategy. For the successful development of Health-Promoting Schools is essential to involve the society as a whole, in order to mobilise human resources and materials necessary for implementing health promotion in the school settings. Thus, the constitution and consolidation of networks has been a facilitating mechanism for the exchange of ideas, resources and experiences to strengthen

Mental health promotion in comprehensive schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Onnela, A M; Vuokila-Oikkonen, P; Hurtig, T; Ebeling, H

2014-09-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe a participatory action research process on the development of a professional practice model of mental health nurses in mental health promotion in a comprehensive school environment in the city of Oulu, Finland. The developed model is a new method of mental health promotion for mental health nurses working in comprehensive schools. The professional practice model has been developed in workshops together with school staff, interest groups, parents and students. Information gathered from the workshops was analysed using action research methods. Mental health promotion interventions are delivered at three levels: universal, which is an intervention that affects the whole school or community; selective, which is an intervention focusing on a certain group of students; and indicated, which is an individually focused intervention. All interventions are delivered within the school setting, which is a universal setting for all school-aged children. The interventions share the goal of promoting mental health. The purposes of the interventions are enhancing protective factors, reducing risk factors relating to mental health problems and early identification of mental health problems as well as rapid delivery of support or referral to specialized services. The common effect of the interventions on all levels is the increase in the experience of positive mental health. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

20 Years Health Promotion Research in and on settings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heiko Waller

2007-12-01

Full Text Available In 2006 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Ottawa Charta for Health Promotion. During these 20 years health promotion became a very influential public health strategy. Let us - with reference to the WHO Health Promotion Glossary - recall some of the core elements of health promotion: “Health promotion represents a comprehensive social and political process, it not only embraces actions directed at strengthening skills and capabilities of individuals, but also actions directed towards changing social, environmental and economic conditions so as to alleviate their impact on public and individual health.Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health. Participation is essential to sustain health promotion action.” The Ottawa Charter identifies three basic strategies for health promotion. These are (1 advocacy for health to create the essential conditions for health indicated above; (2 enabling all people to achieve their full health potential; and (3 mediating between different interests in society in the pursuit of health. The Ottawa Charter identifies three basic strategies for health promotion. These are (1 advocacy for health to create the essential conditions for health indicated above; (2 enabling all people to achieve their full health potential; and (3 mediating between different interests in society in the pursuit of health.

Meanings of care in health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Falcón, Gladys Carmela Santos; Erdmann, Alacoque Lorenzini; Backes, Dirce Stein

2008-01-01

The objective of the study is to understand the meaning built by students and professors on health promotion in the teaching and learning process of health care in Nursing. It is a qualitative study using ground theory as a methodological reference. Data was collected through interviews, with three samples groups, 13 students and four professors, by classroom observation, and through meetings with nursing professors. The central subject resulting from this analysis was: constructing teaching and learning in order, disorder and self organization for a new way of caring promoting health. The teaching/learning process directed at health promotion develops in a stage of crisis, going from a state of order to a state of disorder that is uncertain and contradictory regarding what society understands about health.

Emerging health issues: the widening challenge for population health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

McMichael, Anthony J; Butler, Colin D

2006-12-01

The spectrum of tasks for health promotion has widened since the Ottawa Charter was signed. In 1986, infectious diseases still seemed in retreat, the potential extent of HIV/AIDS was unrecognized, the Green Revolution was at its height and global poverty appeared less intractable. Global climate change had not yet emerged as a major threat to development and health. Most economists forecast continuous improvement, and chronic diseases were broadly anticipated as the next major health issue. Today, although many broadly averaged measures of population health have improved, many of the determinants of global health have faltered. Many infectious diseases have emerged; others have unexpectedly reappeared. Reasons include urban crowding, environmental changes, altered sexual relations, intensified food production and increased mobility and trade. Foremost, however, is the persistence of poverty and the exacerbation of regional and global inequality. Life expectancy has unexpectedly declined in several countries. Rather than being a faint echo from an earlier time of hardship, these declines could signify the future. Relatedly, the demographic and epidemiological transitions have faltered. In some regions, declining fertility has overshot that needed for optimal age structure, whereas elsewhere mortality increases have reduced population growth rates, despite continuing high fertility. Few, if any, Millennium Development Goals (MDG), including those for health and sustainability, seem achievable. Policy-makers generally misunderstand the link between environmental sustainability (MDG #7) and health. Many health workers also fail to realize that social cohesion and sustainability--maintenance of the Earth's ecological and geophysical systems--is a necessary basis for health. In sum, these issues present an enormous challenge to health. Health promotion must address population health influences that transcend national boundaries and generations and engage with the

Health promotion and the freedom of the individual.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Gary; Hawley, Helen

2006-03-01

This article considers the extent to which health promotion strategies pose a threat to individual freedom. It begins by taking a look at health promotion strategies and at the historical development of health promotion in Britain. A theoretical context is then developed in which Berlin's distinction between negative and positive liberty is used alongside the ideas of John Stuart Mill, Charles Taylor and T.H. Green to discuss the politics of health promotion and to identify the implications of conflicting perspectives on freedom. The final section looks at current health promotion policy in Britain and beyond and argues that, if freedom is seen in terms of empowerment, health promotion can enhance individual freedom.

Early 20th century conceptualization of health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Wendy

2017-12-01

This historical analysis of the term 'health promotion' during the early 20th century in North American journal articles revealed concepts that strongly resonate with those of the 21st century. However, the lineage between these two time periods is not clear, and indeed, this paper supports contentions health promotion has a disrupted history. This paper traces the conceptualizations of health promotion during the 1920s, attempts to operationalize health promotion in the 1930s resulting in a narrowing of the concept to one of health education, and the disappearance of the term from the 1940s. In doing so, it argues a number of factors influenced the changing conceptualization and utilization of health promotion during the first half of the 20th century, many of which continue to present times, including issues around what health promotion is and what it means, ongoing tensions between individual and collective actions, tensions between specific and general causes of health and ill health, and between expert and societal contributions. The paper concludes the lack of clarity around these issues contributed to health promotion disappearing in the mid-20th century and thus resolution of these would be worthwhile for the continuation and development of health promotion as a discipline into the 21st century. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Professional competences in school health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carlsson, Monica Susanne

2015-01-01

shows that ‘a production logic’ and economic values are emphasized in the motivation of the project and in the knowledge base underpinning the competency-framework. The discussion of the responsiveness of the formulations in relation to school health promotion points out that there are matches between......The purpose of the study is to critically explore the formulations of competencies and standards in the European project “Developing Competencies and Professional Standards for Health Promotion Capacity Building in Europe”, and to discuss them in relation to school health promotion. The analysis...... these formulations, and essential values and approaches in school health promotion. However, by underemphasizing the potential of education and learning, and reducing changes at individual and group level to behavioral change, the formulations of competencies and standards are not in concert with essential values...

The Associations Among Individual Factors, eHealth Literacy, and Health-Promoting Lifestyles Among College Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Shu-Ching; Luo, Yi-Fang; Chiang, Chia-Hsun

2017-01-10

eHealth literacy is gaining importance for maintaining and promoting health. Studies have found that individuals with high eHealth literacy are more likely to adopt healthy eating, exercise, and sleep behaviors. In addition, previous studies have shown that various individual factors (eg, frequency of seeking information on health issues, degree of health concern, frequency of eating organic food, and students' college major) are associated with eHealth literacy and health-promoting lifestyles. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the associations among individual factors, eHealth literacy, and health-promoting lifestyles among college students. Moreover, there is a lack of studies that focus on eHealth literacy as a predictor of psychological health behaviors. To examine the associations among various individual factors, eHealth literacy, and health-promoting lifestyles. The eHealth Literacy Scale is a 12-item instrument designed to measure college students' functional, interactive, and critical eHealth literacy. The Health-promoting Lifestyle Scale is a 23-item instrument developed to measure college students' self-actualization, health responsibility, interpersonal support, exercise, nutrition, and stress management. A nationally representative sample of 556 valid college students in Taiwan was surveyed. A questionnaire was administered to gather the respondents' background information, including the frequency of seeking information on health issues, the frequency of eating organic food, the degree of health concern, and the students' major. We then conducted a multiple regression analysis to examine the associations among individual factors, eHealth literacy, and health-promoting lifestyles. The study found that factors such as medical majors (t 550 =2.47-7.55, PeHealth literacy. Moreover, critical eHealth literacy positively predicted all 6 health-promoting lifestyle dimensions (t 547 =2.66-7.28, PeHealth literacy, and had a positive health-promoting

Processes and outcomes in school health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simovska, Venka

2012-01-01

This is the second special issue of Health Education which features research, theory and practice based perspectives on what counts as desirable outcomes of health promotion in schools in terms of health as well as education, and the effective processes in schools which lead to these outcomes....... The focus in the first special issue was on highlighting the argument that the question about the outcomes of the health-promoting schools should not be limited to narrowly defined health outcomes but needs to be closely linked with the core tasks and values of the school. Building further on this argument......, the papers in this issue feature a number of research issues of relevance for the effectiveness of the health-promoting schools approach, as well as a variety of research and evaluation methodologies contributing to the debate about what counts as reliable evidence within the health-promoting schools...

[Agroecology and health promotion in Brazil].

Science.gov (United States)

Azevedo, Elaine de; Pelicioni, Maria Cecília Focesi

2012-04-01

Research how specialists in health promotion and agroecology understand the concepts in those areas of common guidelines and how the relationship between such concepts is conceived. METHODS. Qualitative research. Fourteen specialists in the two areas were interviewed about the relationship between the agrofood system and health, concepts of agroecology and health promotion, and the relevance of including agroecology in public health training courses and vice-versa. There is little dialogue between the fields of study that were considered similar, food quality being the main interface between the areas. agroecology appeared to be a system of healthy food production, but the study showed other connections: agroecology and empowerment, a spur to autonomy and quality of life, and better socioeconomic conditions for the farmer; agroecology and environmental health; agroecology and community involvement; agroecology, territoriality, and cultural rescue [translator's note: this is a term for measures taken to revitalize or preserve imperiled indigenous cultures]; and agroecology, local foods, and low costs of production. Health promotion already was linked in effect to practices oriented to healthy lifestyles. The specialists appeared favorable toward including knowledge about public health in agroecology and vice-versa. Agroecology and health promotion contribute to one another and are complementary, and bringing them closer together can lead to an enriched discussion about rural health and the concept of public policies that focus on this theme, thereby stimulating actions for improvement and intersectoral practices.

Changes in health indicators related to health promotion and microcredit programs in the Dominican Republic.

Science.gov (United States)

Dohn, Anita L; Chávez, Andrea; Dohn, Michael N; Saturria, Luis; Pimentel, Carlos

2004-03-01

To assess the impact of health promotion programs and microcredit programs on three communities in the Dominican Republic. One community had only the health promotion program, one community had only the microcredit program, and one community had both a health promotion program and a microcredit program. This pilot project examined the hypothesis that the largest changes in 11 health indicators that were studied would be in the community with both a health promotion program and a microcredit program, that there would be intermediate changes in the community with only a health promotion program, and that the smallest changes would be in the community with only a microcredit program. The health promotion programs used community volunteers to address two major concerns: (1) the prevalent causes of mortality among children under 5 years of age and (2) women's health (specifically breast and cervical cancer screening). The microcredit program made small loans to individuals to start or expand small businesses. Outcome measures were based on comparisons for 11 health indicators from baseline community surveys (27 households surveyed in each of the three communities, done in December 2000 and January 2001) and from follow-up surveys (also 27 households surveyed in each of the three communities, in June and July 2002, after the health promotion program had been operating for about 13 months). Households were randomly chosen during both the baseline and follow-up surveys, without regard to their involvement in the microcredit or health promotion programs. The health indicators improved in all three communities. However, the degree of change was different among the communities (P microcredit and health promotion programs had the largest changes for 10 of the 11 health indicators. Multisector development is known to be important on a macroeconomic scale. The results of this pilot project support the view that multisector development is also important on a microeconomic level

Do nurses' personal health behaviours impact on their health promotion practice? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Muireann; Wills, Jane; Sykes, Susie

2017-11-01

There is a growing expectation in national and international policy and from professional bodies that nurses be role models for healthy behaviours, the rationale being that there is a relationship between nurses' personal health and the adoption of healthier behaviours by patients. This may be from patients being motivated by, and modelling, the visible healthy lifestyle of the nurse or that nurses are more willing to promote the health of their patients by offering public health or health promotion advice and referring the patient to support services. An integrated systematic review was conducted to determine if nurses' personal health behaviour impacted on (1) their health promotion practices, and (2) patient responses to a health promotion message. Medline, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and PsycINFO databases were searched. A narrative synthesis was conducted. 31 studies were included in the review. No consistent associations were noted between nurses' weight, alcohol use, or physical activity level and their health promotion practice, although smoking appeared to negatively impact on the likelihood of discussing and engaging in cessation counselling. Nurses who reported confidence and skills around health promotion practice were more likely to raise lifestyle issues with patients, irrespective of their own personal health behaviours. The two studies included in the review that examined patient responses noted that the perceived credibility of a public health message was not enhanced by being delivered by a nurse who reported adopting healthy behaviours. Although it is assumed that nurses' personal health behaviour influences their health promotion practice, there is little evidence to support this. The assertion in health care policy that nurses should be role models for healthy behaviours assumes a causal relationship between their health behaviours and the patient response and adoption of public health messages that is not borne out by the research evidence. Copyright �

Health promotion in supplementary health care: outsourcing, microregulation and implications for care.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Kênia Lara; Sena, Roseni Rosângela; Rodrigues, Andreza Trevenzoli; Araújo, Fernanda Lopes; Belga, Stephanie Marques Moura Franco; Duarte, Elysângela Dittz

2015-01-01

to analyze health promotion programs in the supplementary health care. This was a multiple case study with a qualitative approach whose data were obtained from interviews with coordinators of providers contracted by the corporations of health insurance plans in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The data were submitted to Critical Discourse Analysis. Home care has been described as the main action in the field of health promotion transferred to the providers, followed by management of patients and cases, and the health education.groups. The existence of health promotion principles is questionable in all programs. Outsourcing is marked by a process with a division between cost and care management. Implications of this process occur within admission and interventions on the needs of the beneficiaries. Statements revealed rationalization of cost, restructuring of work, and reproduction of the dominant logic of capital accumulation by the health insurance companies.

An unlikely suitor: Industrial Engineering in health promotion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hattingh, T. S.

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Primary healthcare forms the foundation for transforming healthcare in South Africa. The primary healthcare system is based on five pillars, one of them being health promotion. The principles of health promotion advocate that promoting health and wellness within communities will reduce the burden of disease at both primary and higher levels of the healthcare system. The challenge in South Africa, is that the factors affecting communities often inhibit their ability to control their health. In addition, the health promotion function within clinics is underresourced: each health promoter serves impoverished communities of up to 50,000 people. This study aims to identify how industrial engineering principles can be applied to assess and improve the impact of health promotion on communities, and ultimately on the health care system as a whole. An industrial engineering approach has analysed five clinics within the Ekurhuleni Municipality in Gauteng. The results show a distinct lack of consistency between clinics. Common issues include a lack of standard processes, structures, measures, resources, and training to support health promotion. The problems identified are commonly analysed and addressed by industrial engineering in organisations, and industrial engineering could be a useful method for evaluating and improving the impact of health promotion on communities. Recommendations for improvement and further work were made based on the findings.

Health Promotion: A developing focus area over the years.

Science.gov (United States)

Povlsen, Lene; Borup, Ina

2015-08-01

In 1953 when the Nordic School of Public Health was founded, the aim of public health programmes was disease prevention more than health promotion. This was not unusual, since at this time health usually was seen as the opposite of disease and illness. However, with the Ottawa Charter of 1986, the World Health Organization made a crucial change to view health not as a goal in itself but as the means to a full life. In this way, health promotion became a first priority and fundamental action for the modern society. This insight eventually reached NHV and in 2002 - 50 years after the foundation - an associate professorship was established with a focus on health promotion. Nevertheless, the concept of health promotion had been integrated with or mentioned in courses run prior to the new post. Subsequently, a wide spectrum of courses in health promotion was introduced, such as 'Empowerment for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion', 'Salutogenesis--from theory to practice' and 'Health, Stress and Coping'. More than half of all doctoral theses undertaken at NHV during these years had health promotion as their theme. As a derivative, the Nordic Health Promotion Research Network (NHPRN) was established in 2007 with bi-annual meetings at NHV. © 2015 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.

Health promotion and schools: how to move forward

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Gardano Bucharles Mont’Alverne

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The health promotion action means, described by the 1986 Ottawa Charter, highlights the creation of supportive environments for health(1. Following this line of reasoning, several strategies have been adopted for implementing health promotion policies, including the Health Promoting School. In 1995, the Pan American Health Organization / Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO officially launched the Regional Health Promoting School Initiative. Since then, all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have strengthened school health promotion actions, rethinking school health activities(2. To become a Health Promoting School, the institution must take a comprehensive view of human beings – especially children and adolescents – in their familiar, community and social environment. It must provide a healthy environment, building constructive and harmonious relationships and hence being able to awaken skills and attitudes within participants, fostering autonomy, creativity and participation of students and also the whole school community(3. Never before has so much been said about health and health promotion as today, i.e., there is a need for promoting health at school as an element for changing reality. The school plays an important political role within this context for being a place where ideology can be constructed, destroyed or perpetuated through the transmission of values and beliefs, besides being an environment that favors the development of health education actions. Childhood is the defining moment for the construction and solidification of habits and attitudes, hence the importance of school as an environment that enhances the development of a targeted, systematized and permanent work. “Through the Health Promoting School Initiative, school health has a chance to move forward and expand its conception and practices with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of the human being within a

Health promotion and schools: how to move forward

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Gardano Bucharles Mont'Alverne

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The health promotion action means, described by the 1986 Ottawa Charter, highlights the creation of supportive environments for health(1. Following this line of reasoning, several strategies have been adopted for implementing health promotion policies, including the Health Promoting School. In 1995, the Pan American Health Organization / Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO officially launched the Regional Health Promoting School Initiative. Since then, all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have strengthened school health promotion actions, rethinking school health activities(2. To become a Health Promoting School, the institution must take a comprehensive view of human beings – especially children and adolescents – in their familiar, community and social environment. It must provide a healthy environment, building constructive and harmonious relationships and hence being able to awaken skills and attitudes within participants, fostering autonomy, creativity and participation of students and also the whole school community(3. Never before has so much been said about health and health promotion as today, i.e., there is a need for promoting health at school as an element for changing reality. The school plays an important political role within this context for being a place where ideology can be constructed, destroyed or perpetuated through the transmission of values and beliefs, besides being an environment that favors the development of health education actions. Childhood is the defining moment for the construction and solidification of habits and attitudes, hence the importance of school as an environment that enhances the development of a targeted, systematized and permanent work. “Through the Health Promoting School Initiative, school health has a chance to move forward and expand its conception and practices with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of the human being within a

The Stellenbosch consensus statement on health promoting schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Macnab, Andrew

2013-03-01

Health promotion uses a range of complementary approaches to provide individuals and communities with knowledge that will enable them to improve their own health and wellbeing. Encouraging children to adopt healthy lifestyle habits is a central objective, and health promotion at a community level, particularly through health promoting schools, may be an effective strategy. Health promoting schools are well within the capacity of even poor countries, as they focus on the school and its culture, and establishing health promoting schools requires a change in mindset and refinement of educational investment rather than the provision of major new resources, engagement of non-government organizations or obtaining international funding. A consensus of current evidence and essential concepts underlying health promotion in schools, principles that contribute to success or failure, and opportunities for implementation and engagement is presented, based on shared experience and dialogue at a 2011 international colloquium held at Stellenbosch University.

Promoting Health, Producing Moralisms?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brogaard Kristensen, Dorthe; Askegaard, Søren; Hauge Jeppesen, Lene

2010-01-01

Based on an ethnographic study of 25 Danish consumers, the aim of this paper is threefold. Firstly, based on a critique of traditional approaches to consumer health campaigning, it argues for a more socially diversified approach for understanding consumer construction and pursuit of healthy...... behaviour. Secondly, it presents a typology of discourses that are employed by consumers in constructing their (health oriented) food consumption. Thirdly, it addresses certain social and moral dilemmas inherent in consumer health promotional campaigns....

Self concepts, health locus of control and cognitive functioning associated with health-promoting lifestyles in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Chuang, Shu Ping; Wu, Jo Yung Wei; Wang, Chien Shu; Liu, Chia Hsuan; Pan, Li Hsiang

2016-10-01

The study aimed to investigate the relationship among self concepts, health locus of control, cognitive functioning and health-promoting lifestyles in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. We examined health-promoting lifestyles through self-efficacy, self-esteem, health locus of control and neurocognitive factors. Fifty-six people with schizophrenia were enrolled in the study group. All subjects participated in the self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale), health locus of control (The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales), health-promoting lifestyles (Health Promotion Life-style Profile-II) and a series of neurocognitive measures. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that self-efficacy, internal health locus of control and attentional set-shifting accounted for 42% of the variance in total health-promoting lifestyles scores. Self-efficacy, self-esteem, internal and powerful others health locus of control and attentional set-shifting were significant predictors for domains of health-promoting lifestyles, respectively. Study findings can help mental health professionals maintain and improve health-promoting behaviors through a better understanding of self-esteem, self-efficacy, health locus of control and neurocognitive functioning among people with schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health care practices influencing health promotion in urban black women in Tshwane

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SCD Wright

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Health promotion is a multifaceted activity. Women and children are particularly vulnerable regarding access to quality health care, with young African women reportedly the poorest and most economically marginalised and least educated sector in South Africa. Understanding the context within which a person lives is an essential component in the health educator’s teaching strategy. Understanding urban black women’s health care practices will enable health promoters to develop interventions that are successful. The problem investigated was to gain an understanding of the health care practices of urban black women that could influence health promotion activities. The design was qualitative exploratory. The respondents were women living in an urban township in Tshwane, South Africa. The sampling method was convenient and purposive and the sample size was determined by saturation of the data. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews using six specific themes and the analysed using open coding. The results indicated that the social environment created by the registered nurses in the primary health influenced the health care practices of the women negatively. Practices regarding the seriousness of a health problem suggest a possible reason for late admission of a person with a serious health problem.

Practicing health promotion in primary care -a reflective enquiry.

Science.gov (United States)

Pati, S; Chauhan, A S; Mahapatra, S; Sinha, R; Pati, S

2017-12-01

Health promotion is an integral part of routine clinical practice. The physicians' role in improving the health status of the general population, through effective understanding and delivery of health promotion practice, is evident throughout the international literature. Data from India suggest that physicians have limited skills in delivering specific health promotion services. However, the data available on this is scarce. This study was planned to document the current health promotion knowledge, perception and practices of local primary care physicians in Odisha. An exploratory study was planned between the months of January - February 2013 in Odisha among primary care physicians working in government set up. This exploratory study was conducted, using a two-step self-administered questionnaire, thirty physicians practicing under government health system were asked to map their ideal and current health promotion practice, and potential health promotion elements to be worked upon to enhance the practice. The study recorded a significant difference between the mean of current and ideal health promotion practices. The study reported that physicians want to increase their practice on health education. We concluded that inclusion of health promotion practices in routine care is imperative for a strong healthcare system. It should be incorporated as a structured health promotion module in medical curriculum as well.

Health promotion and intellectual disability: listening to men.

Science.gov (United States)

Bollard, Martin

2017-01-01

Taking responsibility for your own health has been a central tenet of public health policy internationally for a number of decades. Governments in the UK and internationally continue to promote a plethora of health promotion strategies, encouraging individuals and communities to adopt healthy lifestyle choices. Although it is widely recognised that men are not as proactive in seeking out medical help or taking on health promotion advice as women, limited gender-sensitive research exists in the field of intellectual disability. Despite many health promotion policy and practice strategies targeted at this population, little research exists exploring whether men with intellectual disability acknowledge health promotion advice. The study aimed to explore how men with mild-to-moderate intellectual disability understood and perceived their health and what health promotion messages they acted upon. The study was based on a participatory approach which enabled 11 men with intellectual disability to contribute as steering group members and as participants through one-to-one interviews. Data were collected between September 2011 and July 2012. Thematic analysis was undertaken. The participants demonstrated a capacity to understand their own health. This was inclusive of a concern about associating being obese with being unhealthy. The participants reported good relationships with their general practitioners (GPs) and felt valued, in particular when the GP was prepared to offer specific intellectual disability and health promotion advice. More gendered research inclusive of the views of this male population is required and the study reiterates the importance of promoting the health of men and women with intellectual disability. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Health promotion in Swedish schools: school managers' views.

Science.gov (United States)

Persson, Louise; Haraldsson, Katarina

2017-04-01

Schools are recognized worldwide as settings for health promotion, and leadership has a bearing on schools' ability to be health promoting. School managers have a great influence on what is prioritized in school, which in turn affects students' school performance and health. There is lack of research into school managers' views on health promotion, and what they consider to be central to health promotion. The aim was therefore to examine school managers' views about what health promotion in schools include. An explorative design, qualitative content analysis, was performed. In-depth interviews were conducted with all 13 school managers of a middle-sized municipality in central Sweden. The analysis had both manifest and latent content and three categories: 'Organization and Collaboration', 'Optimize the arena' and 'Strengthen the individual', and 10 subcategories emerged. The theme, 'Opportunities for learning and a good life', describes the latent content of these categories. Taking into account the views of school managers are important because these views help form a more complete picture of how school managers work with health promotion and what is needed to enhance health promotion to improve students' opportunities for learning and a good life. The Ottawa Charter for Health promotion is thereby transformed into practice. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Evaluation of health promotion training for the Western Australian Aboriginal maternal and child health sector.

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Wilkins, Alexa; Lobo, Roanna C; Griffin, Denese M; Woods, Heather A

2015-04-01

The evaluation of health promotion training for the Western Australian (WA) Aboriginal maternal and child health (MCH) sector. Fifty-one MCH professionals from five regions in WA who attended one of three health promotion short courses in 2012-2013 were invited to complete an online survey or a telephone interview, between 4 to 17 months post-course. Respondents were asked how they had utilised the information and resources from the training and to identify the enabling factors or barriers to integrating health promotion into their work practices subsequently. Overall response rate was 33% (n=17); 94% of respondents reported they had utilised the information and resources from the course and 76% had undertaken health promotion activities since attending the course. Building contacts with other MCH providers and access to planning tools were identified as valuable components of the course. Barriers to translating knowledge into practice included financial constraints and lack of organisational support for health promotion activity. Health promotion training provides participants with the skills and confidence to deliver health promotion strategies in their communities. The training presents an opportunity to build health professionals' capacity to address some determinants of poor health outcomes among pregnant Aboriginal women and their babies. SO WHAT?: Training would be enhanced if accompanied by ongoing support for participants to integrate health promotion into their work practice, organisational development including health promotion training for senior management, establishing stronger referral pathways among partner organisations to support continuity of care and embedding training into MCH workforce curricula.

Finding a balance: health promotion challenges of military women.

Science.gov (United States)

Agazio, Janice Griffin; Buckley, Kathleen M

2010-09-01

In this study, we explored what may determine, or predict, United States military women's health promotion behaviors. Using a descriptive correlational design grounded in Pender's Health Promotion model, 491 military women completed instruments measuring their demographic variables, perception of health, definition of health, self-efficacy, and interpersonal influences to determine the significant factors affecting participation in health promotion activities. The outcome indicated that self-efficacy and interpersonal influences were the most influential in determining health promotion. This research illuminates some of the challenges working women face in meeting health promotion activities and how best to support their ability to participate in healthy behaviors.

Television and the promotion of mental health

OpenAIRE

Milošević Ljiljana

2011-01-01

Current media campaigns, realized within national campaigns and actions on mental health prevention and promotion, are considered in this paper, in the context of expert public relation, as well as the whole society, towards mental health. Mental health promotion is determined as a range of activities by which individuals, community and society are being enabled to take control over mental health determinants and to improve it, but also as an action for improvement of mental health posi...

Integrating physical and mental health promotion strategies

OpenAIRE

Palma, Jessica Anne

2010-01-01

While health is defined as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’, physical and mental health have traditionally been separated. This paper explores the question: How can physical and mental health promotion strategies be integrated and addressed simultaneously? A literature review on why physical and mental health are separated and why these two areas need to be integrated was conducted. A conceptual framework for how to integrate physical and mental health promotion st...

Entrepreneurship in health education and health promotion: five cardinal rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Eddy, James M; Stellefson, Michael L

2009-07-01

The nature of health education and health promotion (HE/HP) offers a fertile ground for entrepreneurial activity. As primary prevention of chronic diseases becomes a more central component of the health and/ or medical care continuum, entrepreneurial opportunities for health educators will continue to expand. The process used to design, implement, and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention has clear articulation with entrepreneurial, marketing management, and other business processes. Thus, entrepreneurs in HE/HP must be able to utilize business process to facilitate creative, new HE/HP business ideas. The purpose of this article is to weave theory and practical application into a primer on entrepreneurial applications in HE/HP. More specifically, the authors meld their prospective experiences and expertise to provide background thoughts on entrepreneurship in HE/HP and develop a framework for establishing an entrepreneurial venture in HE/HP. Five Cardinal Rules for Entrepreneurs in HE/HP are proposed.

Open science initiatives: challenges for public health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Holzmeyer, Cheryl

2018-03-07

While academic open access, open data and open science initiatives have proliferated in recent years, facilitating new research resources for health promotion, open initiatives are not one-size-fits-all. Health research particularly illustrates how open initiatives may serve various interests and ends. Open initiatives not only foster new pathways of research access; they also discipline research in new ways, especially when associated with new regimes of research use and peer review, while participating in innovation ecosystems that often perpetuate existing systemic biases toward commercial biomedicine. Currently, many open initiatives are more oriented toward biomedical research paradigms than paradigms associated with public health promotion, such as social determinants of health research. Moreover, open initiatives too often dovetail with, rather than challenge, neoliberal policy paradigms. Such initiatives are unlikely to transform existing health research landscapes and redress health inequities. In this context, attunement to social determinants of health research and community-based local knowledge is vital to orient open initiatives toward public health promotion and health equity. Such an approach calls for discourses, norms and innovation ecosystems that contest neoliberal policy frameworks and foster upstream interventions to promote health, beyond biomedical paradigms. This analysis highlights challenges and possibilities for leveraging open initiatives on behalf of a wider range of health research stakeholders, while emphasizing public health promotion, health equity and social justice as benchmarks of transformation.

Toward a post-Charter health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Labonté, Ronald

2011-12-01

The past 25 years have seen enormous shifts in the environmental, political, economic and social landscapes that condition people's abilities to be healthy. Climate change is now a reality. China, India, Brazil and other 'developing' countries are emerging as new axes of political and economic power. Global capitalism has become increasingly predatory and crisis ridden, a result of unregulated and irresponsible greed of unimaginable scale. The elite response has been the increased erosion of the health and other social protection policies of redistribution that characterized the first-world run-up to the Ottawa Charter. These new realities challenge health promoters in ways unforeseen a quarter century ago. It is imperative that local determinants of health, to which health promoters give their attention, be traced to broader, even global levels of determinants. Support for groups acting at these levels should become a fundamental practice tenet. So, too, should advocacy for the social state, in which progressive taxation and hefty social investment blunt the health inequalities created by unfettered markets. As environmental and economic insecurities and inequalities increase in many of the world's countries, so does the risk of xenophobia and conflict. The roots of racism are complex; but weeding them out becomes another health promotion practice of the new millennium. There are some hopeful signs of health promoting political change, much of it emanating now from countries in the global South; but the threat of a return to health behaviourism in the face of the new global pandemic of chronic disease is real and must be confronted.

[The association between the presence of occupational health nurses at Japanese worksites and health promotion activities].

Science.gov (United States)

Kanamori, Satoru; Kai, Yuko; Kawamata, Kayo; Kusumoto, Mari; Takamiya, Tomoko; Ohya, Yumiko; Odagiri, Yuko; Fukushima, Noritoshi; Inoue, Shigeru

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the presence of occupational health nurses and health promotion activities, relative to the number of employees, and the health promotion policies of the companies. We investigated 3,266 companies with at least 50 employees listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Questionnaires were sent by mail, and employees in charge of health management or promotion were asked about health promotion activities at their own worksites. Logistic regression analysis was performed with each type of health promotion activity (nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental health, smoking cessation, alcohol consumption reduction, and oral health) as dependent variables, and the presence of an occupational health nurse as the independent variable. The results were adjusted for the type of industry, total number of company employees, presence of company health promotion policies, and the presence of an occupational health physician. Responses were received from 415 companies (response rate: 12.7%). Occupational health nurses were present at 172 companies (41.4%). Health promotion activities such as (in order of frequency) mental health (295 companies, 71.1%), smoking cessation (133, 32.0%), exercise (99, 23.9%), nutrition (75, 18.1%), oral health (49, 11.8%), sleep (39, 9.4%), and alcohol consumption reduction (26, 6.3%) were being conducted. Setting worksites with no occupational health nurse as a reference, the odds ratios of each health promotion activity of a worksite with one or more occupational health nurses were calculated. The odds ratios of mental health (2.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.32-4.48), smoking cessation (3.70, 2.14-6.38), exercise (4.98, 2.65-9.35), nutrition (8.34, 3.86-18.03), oral health (4.25, 1.87-9.62), and alcohol consumption reduction (8.96, 2.24-35.92) were significant. Stratified analysis using the number of worksite employees, 499 or fewer and 500 or more, also showed significantly higher odds ratios of

Understanding and Measuring LGBTQ Pathways to Health: A Scoping Review of Strengths-Based Health Promotion Approaches in LGBTQ Health Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Gahagan, Jacqueline; Colpitts, Emily

2017-01-01

Health research traditionally has focused on the health risks and deficits of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations, obscuring the determinants that can promote health across the life course. Recognizing, appropriately measuring, and rendering visible these determinants of health is paramount to informing appropriate and engaging health policies, services, and systems for LGBTQ populations. The overarching purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the findings of a scoping review aimed at exploring strengths-based health promotion approaches to understanding and measuring LGBTQ health. Specifically, this scoping review examined peer-reviewed, published academic literature to determine (a) existing methodological frameworks for studying LGBTQ health from a strengths-based health promotion approach, and (b) suggestions for future methodological approaches for studying LGBTQ health from a strengths-based health promotion approach. The findings of this scoping review will be used to inform the development of a study aimed at assessing the health of and improving pathways to health services among LGBTQ populations in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Entrepreneurial Modes of Teaching in Health Promoting Interventions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Marie Ernst; Thorø, Karsten

2014-01-01

, Department of Physiotherapy, Department of Nutrition and Health, VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark. Background Previous studies have shown that the workplace is an ideal arena for health promotion interventions. Most studies focus on the ways in which health promoting interventions influence the health...

Promoting LGBT health and wellbeing through inclusive policy development.

Science.gov (United States)

Mulé, Nick J; Ross, Lori E; Deeprose, Barry; Jackson, Beth E; Daley, Andrea; Travers, Anna; Moore, Dick

2009-05-15

In this paper we argue the importance of including gender and sexually diverse populations in policy development towards a more inclusive form of health promotion. We emphasize the need to address the broad health and wellbeing issues and needs of LGBT people, rather than exclusively using an illness-based focus such as HIV/AIDS. We critically examine the limitations of population health, the social determinants of health (SDOH), and public health goals, in light of the lack of recognition of gender and sexually diverse individuals and communities. By first acknowledging the unique health and social care needs of LGBT people, then employing anti-oppressive, critical and intersectional analyses we offer recommendations for how to make population health perspectives, public health goals, and the design of public health promotion policy more inclusive of gender and sexual diversity. In health promotion research and practice, representation matters. It matters which populations are being targeted for health promotion interventions and for what purposes, and it matters which populations are being overlooked. In Canada, current health promotion policy is informed by population health and social determinants of health (SDOH) perspectives, as demonstrated by Public Health Goals for Canada. With Canada's multicultural makeup comes the challenge of ensuring that diverse populations are equitably and effectively recognized in public health and health promotion policy.

Researching health promotion

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Platt, Stephen David; Watson, Jonathan

2000-01-01

... the progress towards developing and implementing health promotion interventions that: * * * * are theoretically grounded, socio-culturally appropriate and sustainable involve the redistribution of resources towards those most in need reflect the principles of equity, participation and empowerment incorporate rigorous, methodologically ...

Oral health promotion at worksites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, L

1989-01-01

Many workplace-based health promotion programmes have been reported but only a few include or focus specifically on oral health. Although certain obstacles to oral health promotion in the workplace exist from the management side, from the dental profession and from the employees, these seem...... to be of a scale that can easily be overcome: moreover, numerous potential benefits exist. From the employer's point of view, the main arguments in favour are reduced health care costs, increased productivity and reduced absenteeism. The benefits to the dental profession are possible increases in utilization...... of services and less restraint from fee payment structures and physical environments. The immediate benefit to the employees is easy access to dental services. In addition, work-related dental hazards can be compensated for or prevented and screening activities can be more easily organized. The literature...

Nurse competencies for health promotion in the mental health context

OpenAIRE

Aguiar,Maria Isis Freire de; Lima,Hélder de Pádua; Braga,Violante Augusta Batista; Aquino,Priscila de Souza; Pinheiro,Ana Karina Bezerra; Ximenes,Lorena Barbosa

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To identify the competencies of nurses to health promotion in psychiatric and mental health context. METHODS: Integrative review of literature performed through search using the keywords: "mental health" and "professional competence", in the databases SciELO, LILACS, CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane, in the period of 2003 to 2011. 215 studies were identified, of these, six followed the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Based on the National Panel for Psychiatric Mental Health NP Comp...

Investigation of health promotion status in specialized hospitals associated with Hamadan University of Medical Sciences: health-promoting hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamidi, Yadollah; Hazavehei, Seyed Mohammad Mahdi; Karimi-Shahanjarini, Akram; SeifRabiei, Mohamad Ali; Farhadian, Maryam; Alimohamadi, Shohreh; Kharghani Moghadam, Seyedeh Melika

2017-12-01

The prophecy of health promoting hospitals (HPH) is bringing about a change and transition from treatment-oriented to health-oriented attitudes. In Iran, hospitals usually play the traditional roles. The present study was aimed at the evaluation of the health promotion status in specialized hospitals associated with Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS). This applied study was conducted in two Hamadan specialized hospitals in the Hamadan city. The health promotion status was evaluated using a self-assessment checklist designed by the World Health Organization's HPH. The evaluation was done in five standards including management policy, patient assessment, patient information and intervention, promotion of a healthy workplace and continuity and cooperation. The results showed that both the hospitals studied had a poor status in terms of promoting a healthy workplace (average = 31.24%) and management policy standards (average = 35.29%) in comparison with the other relevant standards: patient assessment (53.12%), patient information and intervention (62.5%), continuity and cooperation (65.78%)). The results of the standards and sub-standards status displayed better performance in the cardiovascular hospital (53.67%) compared to the women and parturition hospital (42.64%). The findings indicated that HPH standards are very low in the studied hospitals. The reason behind this wide gap might be due to the fact that hospitals in Iran are more treatment-oriented and patient-oriented and they do not play an active part in health promoting. It was found that management policy and promoting healthy workplace standards had the worst status and must be improved.

Virtual worlds: taking health promotion to new levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Annang, Lucy; Muilenburg, Jessica L; Strasser, Sheryl M

2010-01-01

Health promotion strategies continue to evolve, with interventions using e-mail, text messaging, and Web sites becoming commonplace. The use of online virtual worlds is a less familiar venue for health promotion but offers numerous possibilities for wired citizens with health issues. The authors discuss three examples of virtual worlds--the River City Project, Whyville, and Second Life--and how health promotion strategies can be implemented in virtual worlds. They also address several challenges associated with implementing health interventions in virtual worlds, including questions of ethics, diffusion of health knowledge and logistics of intervening outside of the real world.

The integration of health promotion and social marketing.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Jenny; Blair-Stevens, Clive; Parish, Richard

2009-11-01

The urgency and scale of contemporary health challenges are enormous. The review It's Our Health! published in 2006 found that social marketing had considerable potential to increase the effectiveness of health improvement work, with the intention that it should build on core health promotion principles and not replace them. Health promotion has, however, lost its focus and identity in recent years in some parts of the country, partly due to repeated organizational change, and it has suffered from a lack of proactive workforce development. Over the last year, the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) and the Shaping the Future of Health Promotion Collaboration (StFofHP), hosted by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), have explored the relationship between social marketing and health promotion and led a debate with stakeholders. A Delphi consultation with an expert panel drawn from specialists and strategic leaders in several settings, and the academic community, is currently under way and will report in the autumn. Findings so far emphasize the wide variation in understanding and interpretation of the two skill sets, much confusion about definitions and what added value both health promotion and social marketing bring to health improvement. Some of the distinctive contributions of both are described in this paper.

Worksite health promotion programs in college settings

Science.gov (United States)

Hill-Mey, Patricia E.; Kumpfer, Karol L.; Merrill, Ray M.; Reel, Justine; Hyatt-Neville, Beverly; Richardson, Glenn E.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the multifaceted nature and benefits of worksite health promotion programs (WHPPs), with emphasis on the college setting. An assessment of the peer-reviewed literature was conducted of articles published since 2000. Several search engines were accessed and selected key words were used. Most studies examining WHPPs have focused on return on investment and productivity. Research that targets the softer side-benefits of health promotion programs in the workplace is less available. Although the college setting offers some advantages for implementing health promotion programs. They may also have unique challenges due to their large and diverse employee population. There is little research to show the effectiveness and unique challenges of college-based health promotion programs. PMID:25861657

Workplace Health Promotion and Mental Health: Three-Year Findings from Partnering Healthy@Work

OpenAIRE

Jarman, Lisa; Martin, Angela; Venn, Alison; Otahal, Petr; Blizzard, Leigh; Teale, Brook; Sanderson, Kristy

2016-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the association between mental health and comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) delivered to an entire state public service workforce (~28,000 employees) over a three-year period. Government departments in a state public service were supported to design and deliver a comprehensive, multi-component health promotion program, Healthy@Work, which targeted modifiable health risks including unhealthy lifestyles and stress. Repeated cross-sectional surveys co...

The Delivery of Health Promotion and Environmental Health Services; Public Health or Primary Care Settings?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lene Bjørn Jensen

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The WHO Regional Office for Europe developed a set of public health functions resulting in the ten Essential Public Health Operations (EPHO. Public health or primary care settings seem to be favorable to embrace all actions included into EPHOs. The presented paper aims to guide readers on how to assign individual health promotion and environmental health services to public health or primary care settings. Survey tools were developed based on EPHO 2, 3 and 4; there were six key informant surveys out of 18 contacted completed via e-mails by informants working in Denmark on health promotion and five face-to-face interviews were conducted in Australia (Melbourne and Victoria state with experts from environmental health, public health and a physician. Based on interviews, we developed a set of indicators to support the assignment process. Population or individual focus, a system approach or one-to-one approach, dealing with hazards or dealing with effects, being proactive or reactive were identified as main element of the decision tool. Assignment of public health services to one of two settings proved to be possible in some cases, whereas in many there is no clear distinction between the two settings. National context might be the one which guides delivery of public health services.

The Delivery of Health Promotion and Environmental Health Services; Public Health or Primary Care Settings?

Science.gov (United States)

Bjørn Jensen, Lene; Lukic, Irena; Gulis, Gabriel

2018-05-07

The WHO Regional Office for Europe developed a set of public health functions resulting in the ten Essential Public Health Operations (EPHO). Public health or primary care settings seem to be favorable to embrace all actions included into EPHOs. The presented paper aims to guide readers on how to assign individual health promotion and environmental health services to public health or primary care settings. Survey tools were developed based on EPHO 2, 3 and 4; there were six key informant surveys out of 18 contacted completed via e-mails by informants working in Denmark on health promotion and five face-to-face interviews were conducted in Australia (Melbourne and Victoria state) with experts from environmental health, public health and a physician. Based on interviews, we developed a set of indicators to support the assignment process. Population or individual focus, a system approach or one-to-one approach, dealing with hazards or dealing with effects, being proactive or reactive were identified as main element of the decision tool. Assignment of public health services to one of two settings proved to be possible in some cases, whereas in many there is no clear distinction between the two settings. National context might be the one which guides delivery of public health services.

Whole-school mental health promotion in Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phillip T. Slee

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Although there is increasing recognition internationally of the significance of social and emotional health and wellbeing for the healthy development of young people, the levels of support that governments provide for mental health policy and programme initiatives vary widely. In this paper, consideration is given to Australia's approach to mental health promotion from early years to secondary school, including specific reference to the KidsMatter Primary mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative. Although it is now well established that schools provide important settings for the promotion of mental health initiatives, there are significant challenges faced in effectively implementing and maintaining the delivery of evidence-based practice in school settings, including concerns about quality assurance in processes of implementation, translation, dissemination and evaluation.

Social deprivation and exposure to health promotion. A study of the distribution of health promotion resources to schools in England.

Science.gov (United States)

Chivu, Corina M; Reidpath, Daniel D

2010-08-10

Area deprivation is a known determinant of health. It is also known that area deprivation is associated with lower impact health promotion. It is less well known, however, whether deprived areas are less responsive to health promotion, or whether they are less exposed. Using data from a national, school-based campaign to promote vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV), the relationship between area deprivation and exposure was examined. Taking advantage of a health promotion campaign to provide information to schools about HPV vaccination, a cross sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship between area level, social deprivation, and take-up of (i.e., exposure to) available health promotion material. The sample was 4,750 schools across England, including government maintained and independent schools. The relationship between area deprivation and exposure was examined using bi- and multivariate logistic regression. It was found that schools in the least deprived quintile had 1.32 times the odds of requesting health promotion materials than schools in the most deprived areas (p = .01). This effect was independent of the school size, the type of school, and the geographic region. The relationship between area deprivation and the impact of health promotion may be due, at least in part, to differential levels of exposure. The study was limited in scope, pointing to the need for more research, but also points to potentially important policy implications.

The Health Equity Promotion Model: Reconceptualization of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Health Disparities

Science.gov (United States)

Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I.; Simoni, Jane M.; Kim, Hyun-Jun; Lehavot, Keren; Walters, Karina L.; Yang, Joyce; Hoy-Ellis, Charles P.

2015-01-01

National health initiatives emphasize the importance of eliminating health disparities among historically disadvantaged populations. Yet, few studies have examined the range of health outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. To stimulate more inclusive research in the area, we present the Health Equity Promotion Model—a framework oriented toward LGBT people reaching their full mental and physical health potential that considers both positive and adverse health-related circumstances. The model highlights (a) heterogeneity and intersectionality within LGBT communities; (b) the influence of structural and environmental context; and (c) both health-promoting and adverse pathways that encompass behavioral, social, psychological, and biological processes. It also expands upon earlier conceptualizations of sexual minority health by integrating a life course development perspective within the health-promotion model. By explicating the important role of agency and resilience as well as the deleterious effect of social structures on health outcomes, it supports policy and social justice to advance health and well-being in these communities. Important directions for future research as well as implications for health-promotion interventions and policies are offered. PMID:25545433

Health Promotion Education in India: Present Landscape and Future Vistas

Science.gov (United States)

Pati, Sanghamitra; Sharma, Kavya; Zodpey, Sanjay; Chauhan, Kavita; Dobe, Madhumita

2012-01-01

‘Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health’. This stream of public health is emerging as a critical domain within the realm of disease prevention. Over the last two decades, the curative model of health care has begun a subtle shift towards a participatory model of health promotion emphasizing upon practice of healthy lifestyles and creating healthy communities. Health promotion encompasses five key strategies with health communication and education as its cornerstones. Present study is an attempt to explore the current situation of health promotion education in India with an aim to provide a background for capacity building in health promotion. A systematic predefined method was adopted to collect and compile information on existing academic programs pertaining to health promotion and health education/communication. Results of the study reveal that currently health promotion education in India is fragmented and not uniform across institutes. It is yet to be recognized as a critical domain of public health education. Mostly teaching of health promotion is limited to health education and communication. There is a need for designing programmes for short-term and long-term capacity building, with focus on innovative methods and approaches. Public health institutes and associations could play a proactive role in designing and imparting academic programs on health promotion. Enhancing alliances with various institutes involved in health promotion activities and networking among public health and medical institutes as well as health services delivery systems would be more productive. PMID:22980352

Reliability assessments in qualitative health promotion research.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Kay E

2012-03-01

This article contributes to the debate about the use of reliability assessments in qualitative research in general, and health promotion research in particular. In this article, I examine the use of reliability assessments in qualitative health promotion research in response to health promotion researchers' commonly held misconception that reliability assessments improve the rigor of qualitative research. All qualitative articles published in the journal Health Promotion International from 2003 to 2009 employing reliability assessments were examined. In total, 31.3% (20/64) articles employed some form of reliability assessment. The use of reliability assessments increased over the study period, ranging from qualitative articles decreased. The articles were then classified into four types of reliability assessments, including the verification of thematic codes, the use of inter-rater reliability statistics, congruence in team coding and congruence in coding across sites. The merits of each type were discussed, with the subsequent discussion focusing on the deductive nature of reliable thematic coding, the limited depth of immediately verifiable data and the usefulness of such studies to health promotion and the advancement of the qualitative paradigm.

Health promotion funding, workforce recruitment and turnover in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Lovell, Sarah A; Egan, Richard; Robertson, Lindsay; Hicks, Karen

2015-06-01

Almost a decade on from the New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy and amidst concerns about funding of health promotion, we undertook a nationwide survey of health promotion providers. To identify trends in recruitment and turnover in New Zealand's health promotion workforce. Surveys were sent to 160 organisations identified as having a health focus and employing one or more health promoter. Respondents, primarily health promotion managers, were asked to report budget, retention and hiring data for 1 July 2009 through 1 July 2010. Responses were received from 53% of organisations. Among respondents, government funding for health promotion declined by 6.3% in the year ended July 2010 and health promoter positions decreased by 7.5% (equalling 36.6 full-time equivalent positions). Among staff who left their roles, 79% also left the field of health promotion. Forty-two organisations (52%) reported employing health promoters on time-limited contracts of three years or less; this employment arrangement was particularly common in public health units (80%) and primary health organisations (57%). Among new hires, 46% (n=55) were identified as Maori. Low retention of health promoters may reflect the common use of limited-term employment contracts, which allow employers to alter staffing levels as funding changes. More than half the surveyed primary health organisations reported using fixed-term employment contracts. This may compromise health promotion understanding, culture and institutional memory in these organisations. New Zealand's commitment to addressing ethnic inequalities in health outcomes was evident in the high proportion of Maori who made up new hires.

Review of mental health promotion interventions in schools.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Reilly, Michelle; Svirydzenka, Nadzeya; Adams, Sarah; Dogra, Nisha

2018-05-11

The prevalence of mental disorders amongst children and adolescents is an increasing global problem. Schools have been positioned at the forefront of promoting positive mental health and well-being through implementing evidence-based interventions. The aim of this paper is to review current evidence-based research of mental health promotion interventions in schools and examine the reported effectiveness to identify those interventions that can support current policy and ensure that limited resources are appropriately used. The authors reviewed the current state of knowledge on school mental health promotion interventions globally. Two major databases, SCOPUS and ERIC were utilised to capture the social science, health, arts and humanities, and education literature. Initial searches identified 25 articles reporting on mental health promotion interventions in schools. When mapped against the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 studies were included and explored. Three of these were qualitative and seven were quantitative. A range of interventions have been tested for mental health promotion in schools in the last decade with variable degrees of success. Our review demonstrates that there is still a need for a stronger and broader evidence base in the field of mental health promotion, which should focus on both universal work and targeted approaches to fully address mental health in our young populations.

Health Promotion Education Politics and Schooling: The Greek Case

Science.gov (United States)

Ifanti, Amalia A.; Argyriou, Andreas A.; Kalofonos, Haralabos P.

2011-01-01

This paper seeks to explore the politics of health promotion as a continual process of public health globally and locally. Our main objective in this study is to present the health promotion education initiatives taken by the World Health Organization (WHO) at an international level and also to examine the politics of health promotion in Greece,…

Home-based carers’ perceptions of health promotion on sexual health communication in Vhembe District

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorah U. Ramathuba

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background: The introduction of home-based care in rural communities in the 1980s contributed immensely toward the upliftment of the personal and environmental health of communities. Women’s groups provided health promotion skills and health education to communities and made a difference in health-related behaviour change. Objective: The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the home-based carers’ perception regarding health promotion concerning sexual health communication in Vhembe district, in the context of HIV, amongst communities still rooted in their culture. Method: A qualitative, explorative and descriptive design was used in order to understand home-based carers’ perceptions regarding health promotion on sexual health communication amongst rural communities which may adversely impact on health promotion practices. The population were home-based organisations in Vhembe. The sample was purposive and randomly selected and data were gathered through semi-structured face-to-face interviews and focus groups which determined data saturation. Open coding was used for analysis of data. Results: The results indicated that sexual communication was absent in most relationships and was not seen as necessary amongst married couples. Socioeconomic conditions, power inequity and emotional dependence had a negative impact on decision making and sexual communication. Conclusion: This study, therefore, recommends that educational and outreach efforts should focus on motivating change by improving the knowledge base of home-based carers. Since they are health promoters, they should be able to change the perceptions of the communities toward sexually-transmitted infections and HIV by promoting sexual health communication.

Midwives' perceptions and experiences of health promotion practice in Ghana.

Science.gov (United States)

Owusu-Addo, Ebenezer

2015-09-01

This research explores midwives' perceptions and experiences of health promotion practice in Ghana. A qualitative descriptive exploratory design was used in order to gain better insight into midwives' perceptions and experiences of health promotion practice. A total of 21 midwives took part in the study. Data were collected by individual in-depth semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcript. Five dominant themes emerged from the interview transcripts, namely: health promotion as education, health promotion activities, the value of health promotion, client participation, and midwives' barriers to promoting health. Although midwives underscored the importance of health promotion to their work, their reports indicated that, in practice, midwives mostly delivered health education and behaviour change communication rather than health promotion. The midwives expressed the view that by way of their close association with women, they were in a better position to influence women's health. Health promotion activities engaged by the midwives included weight management, healthy eating, infection prevention, personal hygiene, counselling on family planning, and screening for hazardous and harmful substance use such as alcohol and smoking. All the midwives mentioned that clients participated in their health promotion activities. Factors that were identified by the midwives to enhance client participation were trust, attitude of the midwife, building rapport, creating enabling environment, listening and paying attention to clients and using simple language. The barriers to health promotion identified by the midwives included time, stress, culture, lack of training and inadequate health educational materials. Midwives in this study had limited knowledge about health promotion, yet could play a significant role in influencing health; thus there is a need for on-going in-service training for midwives to focus on health promotion. © The Author

[Economic analysis of health promotion conducted in an enterprise].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhi-chun; Yang, Xue-ying; Kang, Wen-long; Wang, Wen-jing

2013-12-01

To take intervention measures for health promotion after investigation of occupational health needs among employees, to analyze the economic input and output of the intervention measures, and to analyze the feasibility of health promotion through cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis. A survey was conducted in an enterprise using a self-designed questionnaire to investigate the general information on enterprise, occupational history of each employee, awareness of occupational health knowledge, awareness of general health knowledge, awareness of hypertension, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, etc., lifestyle, and needs for health knowledge. Intervention measures were taken in the enterprise according to the investigation results, and then investigation and economic analysis of investment in health promotion, economic benefit, and absence of employees were performed using the questionnaire. After intervention, the awareness rate of the Code of Occupational Disease Prevention increased from 4.5% to 15.3%, the awareness rate of the definition of occupational diseases increased from 4.5% to 73.5%, and the awareness rate of the prevention and control measures for occupational diseases increased from 38.4% to 85.8%. Before intervention, 25.4%of all employees thought salt intake needed to be reduced, and this proportion increased to 92.5% after intervention. After the control strategy for health promotion, the benefit of health promotion that results from avoiding absence of employees and preventing occupational diseases was more than ten times the investment in health promotion, suggesting a significant benefit of health promotion conducted in the enterprise. The return on health promotion's investment for enterprise is worth. Health promotion really not just contribute to improve hygienic knowledge but increase the economic benefit.

Health technology assessment demonstrates efficient health promotion bu Transcendental Meditation (TM)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Torben

2002-01-01

-actualisation; (3) Independence of stimulantia including tobacco and alcohol; (4) Cardiologic health. RESULTS: This health promotion is explained by a cybernetic model based on 'The Limbic System'. A sample of records collected by the Internet shows significant compliance between the self-reports of TM......-practitioners and controls without specific health promotion. The TM-group has a relative high level of education. TM is organized as a private, standardised dissemination of the original, Indoeuropean mantrameditation. This standardisation creates economies-of-scale 1) using local instructors with a short education, 2...

Health promoting leadership practices in four Norwegian industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Skarholt, Kari; Blix, Elisabeth H; Sandsund, Mariann; Andersen, Thale K

2016-12-01

The aim of this article is to address health promoting leadership; what do leaders actually do to promote health at work? Leadership practice plays a crucial role in the workplace and greatly affects the working environment and working conditions. Through a theoretical and empirical approach, we seek to find characteristics/patterns of health promoting leadership. The definition of health promoting leadership is a democratic and supportive leadership style, where leaders seek to motivate and inspire their employees. The study in this article is based on qualitative research methods. We have investigated and compared leadership practice in four different organizations/industries in Norway: construction, oil and gas, health care and cleaning. These organizations and professions are quite different, and thus leadership must be understood and developed within its context. However, we found some generic characteristics of health promoting leadership: hands-on, accessible, supportive, inclusive and democratic. Current literature only rarely addresses how leadership affects health promotion at work. Consequently, more knowledge is needed about how leaders really succeed in creating healthy workplaces and healthy employees. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Health Promotion and Health Behaviors of Diverse Ethnic/Racial Women Cosmetologists: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naomi Thelusma

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Women from diverse ethnic/racial backgrounds have higher chronic disease mortality rates when compared to White non-Hispanic women. Community-based programs, such as beauty salons, have been used to reach diverse ethnic/racial women, yet little is known about diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists' involvement in health promotion and their health behaviors, which is the purpose of this review. The growing beauty salon health promotion literature indicates that their roles in these studies have been varied, not only as health promoters but also as recruiters, facilitators, and in general major catalysts for investigator-initiated studies. However, the review also identified a major void in the literature in that there were few studies on health behaviors of diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists, especially African American women cosmetologists. Recommendations include increasing the capacity of diverse ethnic/racial women cosmetologists as community health leaders and investigating their health status, knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Breast cancer and breast health awareness as an evolving health promotion concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plesnicar, A.; Kralj, B.; Kovac, V.

2004-01-01

Background. Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant disease in the majority of developed countries. In the last few years the introduction of mammography screening programmes has resulted in an improved survival of breast cancer patients. However, the incidence of the disease in these countries is still on the increase. Present focus on secondary breast cancer prevention activities, consisting of early detection and treatment, cannot ensure a decrease of breast cancer incidence. Improved breast health awareness could therefore represent a part of specific health promotion activities aimed at decreasing the incidence of breast cancer. Conclusions. In developed countries breast cancer is a significant health care issue. Secondary breast cancer prevention activities should therefore be complemented by specific health promotion activities in order to reduce its incidence in the future. Primary breast cancer prevention would include health promotion activities aimed at enhancement of the individual as well as collective breast health awareness. Properly enlightened members of the influential population groups could attain appropriate changes in the fields of legislation, taxation, customs and commercial regulations that would enable women to control their own breast health. (author)

Social capital and health: implication for health promotion by lay citizens in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Keiko; Iwakuma, Miho; Nakayama, Takeo

2015-12-01

A non-profit organization was formed in 2009 by lay citizens of Nagahama, Japan in response to a community-based genome-epidemiologic study, the 'Nagahama Zero(0)-ji Prevention Cohort Project (N0PCP)'. This organization aims to promote health by taking advantage of citizens' social networks. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion affirms the importance of creating supportive environments and coordinating social relationships. Supportive environments (infrastructure) and social relationships (resources) work together as aspects of social capital. This study sought to examine the association between self-rated health and social capital, at both individual and neighborhood levels, and to discuss suitable health promotion strategies for local circumstances.A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2011, using a self-administered postal questionnaire. Social capital indicators included aspects of support in the environment (social support, neighborhood connectedness, informal social controls, neighborhood trust, general trust, and attachment to place) and social relationships (number of activities; participation in neighborhood activities; participation in recreational activities; and social leverage regarding physical health, mental health, and acquisition of health information). Neighborhood-level social capital was calculated as the percentage of individuals in a neighborhood in the 'high social capital' category. At the individual level, participation in recreational activities, high general trust, and discussion regarding mental health problems with family members were associated with self-rated health positively, whereas discussion of mental health problems with acquaintances had a negative correlation. At the neighborhood level, a highly supportive environment did not contribute to good health, whereas aggregated attachment to place had a positive correlation. There were no significant inter-regional health differences.The results of this study suggest that

Health promotion capacity building in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Wills, Jane; Rudolph, Michael

2010-09-01

Health promotion in South Africa is in its early stages and while there is some institutional development and capacity building for managers, there has been relative disregard and lack of attention of the wider health promotion workforce who carry out community-based health promotion activities. This article describes one regional education and training programme for health promoters as well as the limited available evidence on the impact of the project on learners and organizations. Marked differences before and after the implementation of the training activities were reported in relation to behaviour change communication and project planning, in addition to self-reported positive change in knowledge, confidence and a high level of participant satisfaction. Investment in individual skills development needs to be accompanied by wider workforce development with organizational/institutional development and recognised competencies frameworks.

Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseinpoor, Ahmad Reza; Bergen, Nicole; Schlotheuber, Anne

2015-01-01

Background Health equity is a priority in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and other major health initiatives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a history of promoting actions to achieve equity in health, including efforts to encourage the practice of health inequality monitoring. Health inequality monitoring systems use disaggregated data to identify disadvantaged subgroups within populations and inform equity-oriented health policies, programs, and practices. Objective This paper provides an overview of a number of recent and current WHO initiatives related to health inequality monitoring at the global and/or national level. Design We outline the scope, content, and intended uses/application of the following: Health Equity Monitor database and theme page; State of inequality: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health report; Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a focus on low- and middle-income countries; Health inequality monitoring eLearning module; Monitoring health inequality: an essential step for achieving health equity advocacy booklet and accompanying video series; and capacity building workshops conducted in WHO Member States and Regions. Conclusions The paper concludes by considering how the work of the WHO can be expanded upon to promote the establishment of sustainable and robust inequality monitoring systems across a variety of health topics among Member States and at the global level. PMID:26387506

Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseinpoor, Ahmad Reza; Bergen, Nicole; Schlotheuber, Anne

2015-01-01

Health equity is a priority in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and other major health initiatives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a history of promoting actions to achieve equity in health, including efforts to encourage the practice of health inequality monitoring. Health inequality monitoring systems use disaggregated data to identify disadvantaged subgroups within populations and inform equity-oriented health policies, programs, and practices. This paper provides an overview of a number of recent and current WHO initiatives related to health inequality monitoring at the global and/or national level. We outline the scope, content, and intended uses/application of the following: Health Equity Monitor database and theme page; State of inequality: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health report; Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a focus on low- and middle-income countries; Health inequality monitoring eLearning module; Monitoring health inequality: an essential step for achieving health equity advocacy booklet and accompanying video series; and capacity building workshops conducted in WHO Member States and Regions. The paper concludes by considering how the work of the WHO can be expanded upon to promote the establishment of sustainable and robust inequality monitoring systems across a variety of health topics among Member States and at the global level.

Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Health equity is a priority in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and other major health initiatives. The World Health Organization (WHO has a history of promoting actions to achieve equity in health, including efforts to encourage the practice of health inequality monitoring. Health inequality monitoring systems use disaggregated data to identify disadvantaged subgroups within populations and inform equity-oriented health policies, programs, and practices. Objective: This paper provides an overview of a number of recent and current WHO initiatives related to health inequality monitoring at the global and/or national level. Design: We outline the scope, content, and intended uses/application of the following: Health Equity Monitor database and theme page; State of inequality: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health report; Handbook on health inequality monitoring: with a focus on low- and middle-income countries; Health inequality monitoring eLearning module; Monitoring health inequality: an essential step for achieving health equity advocacy booklet and accompanying video series; and capacity building workshops conducted in WHO Member States and Regions. Conclusions: The paper concludes by considering how the work of the WHO can be expanded upon to promote the establishment of sustainable and robust inequality monitoring systems across a variety of health topics among Member States and at the global level.

Health Promotion and Wellness Staffing Methods

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Thomsen, Kim

1999-01-01

.... Health promotion and wellness programs positively influence the military mission readiness and force protection, increase productivity, reduce health care costs, minimize illness and non-battle...

Health for all children: a programme for health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Elliman, D A

'The health of its children is the wealth of a nation.' For this reason a lot of time and energy is expended on preventive child health services, but with little evidence of effectiveness and great variation in programmes. Recently much has been done to rectify this. At the forefront of this work has been the multidisciplinary committee chaired by Professor Hall. Its third report, with its concentration on health promotion rather than 'defect detection', will form the basis for all future programmes.

Social deprivation and exposure to health promotion. A study of the distribution of health promotion resources to schools in England

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reidpath Daniel D

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Area deprivation is a known determinant of health. It is also known that area deprivation is associated with lower impact health promotion. It is less well known, however, whether deprived areas are less responsive to health promotion, or whether they are less exposed. Using data from a national, school-based campaign to promote vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV, the relationship between area deprivation and exposure was examined. Methods Taking advantage of a health promotion campaign to provide information to schools about HPV vaccination, a cross sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship between area level, social deprivation, and take-up of (i.e., exposure to available health promotion material. The sample was 4,750 schools across England, including government maintained and independent schools. The relationship between area deprivation and exposure was examined using bi- and multivariate logistic regression. Results It was found that schools in the least deprived quintile had 1.32 times the odds of requesting health promotion materials than schools in the most deprived areas (p = .01. This effect was independent of the school size, the type of school, and the geographic region. Conclusion The relationship between area deprivation and the impact of health promotion may be due, at least in part, to differential levels of exposure. The study was limited in scope, pointing to the need for more research, but also points to potentially important policy implications.

76 FR 16776 - Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health; Notice of Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-25

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and... a meeting is scheduled to be held for the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and... advice to the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health (the ``Council''). The Advisory...

A Guide for Understanding Health Education and Promotion Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Richard W; Nahar, Vinayak K

2018-03-01

Planning, Implementing & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs: A Primer is a versatile and comprehensive resource on the theoretical and practical underpinnings of successful health promotion programs. The requirements for effective health promotion program development are presented with frequent use of practical planning examples, pedagogical devices, and expert rationale. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in health education, promotion, and planning courses, this 15-chapter textbook is organized in a manner that specifically addresses the responsibilities and competencies required of health education specialists as published in the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis of 2015. The authors of this textbook are leaders in the field and provide readers with the skills necessary to carry out the full process of health promotion program execution, while also offering direct preparation for CHES and MCHES licensing exams.

Health-promoting educational settings in Taiwan: development and evaluation of the Health-Promoting School Accreditation System.

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Chen, Fu-Li; Lee, Albert

2016-03-01

The Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of Education launched the Health-Promoting School (HPS) program in 2002. One of the most significant barriers to evaluating HPS is the absence of adequate instruments. The main aim of this study is to develop the Taiwan Health-Promoting School Accreditation System (HPSAS) framework and then evaluate its accreditation effectiveness. The HPSAS accreditation standards were derived mainly from the World Health Organization (WHO) publication, WHO Health Promoting Schools: A Framework for Action in 2008 and the Taiwan School Health Act. Delphi technique and pilot test were used to confirm the availability and acceptability of the standards and procedures for HPSAS in 2011. After that, two rounds of school evaluations were completed in 2012 (214 participant schools) and 2014 (182 participant schools). The accreditation operation process included documentary reviews, national and international accredited commissioners conducted on-site visits. Descriptive analyses were used to indicate HPS award level distribution. The study established six key HPSAS standards. Each standard had at least two components; overall, there were 21 components and 47 scoring elements. Of the participating schools evaluated in 2012, four were at the gold, 14 silver, and 120 bronze levels, compared with five, 20, and 31, respectively, of schools evaluated in 2014. The study showed that schools at different award levels had different full-score rates in six standards. The schools at the gold level performed exceptionally well. The worst performance among the six standards at each award level was in the skill-based health curriculum. The HPSAS is an objective instrument used to evaluate the process and outcomes of the HPS program. In the future, combinations of different types of data (e.g. students' health behaviors, school climate, or teachers' health-teaching innovations) will enable further validation of the HPS effectiveness. © The Author

75 FR 33983 - Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-16

... integrative health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the... smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health, behavioral health, substance-use... 13544 of June 10, 2010 Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council...

[Work as a promoter of health].

Science.gov (United States)

da Silva, Claudia Osorio; Ramminger, Tatiana

2014-12-01

Studies on the relation between health and work tend to highlight the negative and pathological aspects, as if work produces only sickness and alienation. On the contrary, our proposal is to stress how work can also produce health. Based on Canguillem's concept of health, and from the contributions of the so-called "work clinics", we intend to analyze the purpose of work as a promoter of health. Canguilhem affirms that health is not adaptive, as such it does not involve adapting well to the world, but to the creation of tenets of life. For their part, the work clinics provide tools to approximate us to the know-how-to-do produced by workers in their daily work, namely not only how workers adapt to work, but how they create and recreate it permanently Thus, we can think work as a promoter of health where there is room for collective and personal creation, as well as recognition of workers in their activity.

Health promoting Behaviors Among Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study.

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Musavian, Azra Sadat; Pasha, Afsaneh; Rahebi, Seyyedeh-Marzeyeh; Atrkar Roushan, Zahra; Ghanbari, Atefeh

2014-04-01

Health maintenance and promotion are the fundamental prerequisites to community development. The best time for establishing healthy lifestyle habits is during adolescence. Due to importance of health promotion behaviors in adolescents, this study was conducted to investigate health-promoting behaviors and its associated factors among high school students in Rasht, Iran. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 424 students during the first semester of the year 2012. We employed the multistage sampling design to recruit from private and public high schools in Rasht, Iran. The data collection instrument was a self-report questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first part of instrument was consisted of demographic questionnaire and the second part was adolescent health promotion scale (AHPS) questionnaire. AHPS questionnaire was consisted of six dimensions (nutrition, social support, health responsibility, life appreciation, physical activity, and stress management) to measure health promoting lifestyles. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 16 software employing ANOVA (analysis of variance) test, t-test, Mann-Whitney, and the Kruskal-Wallis. The score of total Adolescent Health Promotion Scale were 3.58 ± 0.52 (possible range was 1-5). The highest score was in life appreciation dimension (3.99 ± 0.068) and the lowest score was in health responsibility dimension. Moreover, Significant associations were found between the adolescent health promotion Scale with age (P school grade (P health instructors, schoolteachers, and families must pay more attention to these students. Moreover, as most of lifelong healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits are established during adolescence, developing effective health promotion and disease prevention strategies for adolescents seems crucial.

Impact of a health promotion program on employee health risks and work productivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Peter R; Kessler, Ronald C; Cooper, John; Sullivan, Sean

2007-01-01

Evaluate the impact of a multicomponent workplace health promotion program on employee health risks and work productivity. Quasi-experimental 12-month before-after intervention-control study. A multinational corporation headquartered in the United Kingdom. Of 618 employees offered the program, 266 (43%) completed questionnaires before and after the program. A total of 1242 of 2500 (49.7%) of a control population also completed questionnaires 12 months apart. A multicomponent health promotion program incorporating a health risk appraisal questionnaire, access to a tailored health improvement web portal, wellness literature, and seminars and workshops focused upon identified wellness issues. Outcomes were (1) cumulative count of health risk factors and the World Health Organization health and work performance questionnaire measures of (2) workplace absenteeism and (3) work performance. After adjusting for baseline differences, improvements in all three outcomes were significantly greater in the intervention group compared with the control group. Mean excess reductions of 0.45 health risk factors and 0.36 monthly absenteeism days and a mean increase of 0.79 on the work performance scale were observed in the intervention group compared with the control group. The intervention yielded a positive return on investment, even using conservative assumptions about effect size estimation. The results suggest that a well-implemented multicomponent workplace health promotion program can produce sizeable changes in health risks and productivity.

[Attitudes of occupational medicine nurses towards workers' health promotion].

Science.gov (United States)

Puchalski, Krzysztof; Korzeniowska, Elzbieta; Iwanowicz, Eliza

2007-01-01

The paper outlines the outcomes of a survey aimed at identifying the attitudes of occupational medicine nurses towards health promotion. The survey was carried out on a random sample of 277 nurses. Almost all respondents think that their occupational group should undertake health promotion activities. However, half of them is convinced that health promotion is only a new name for health education and medical prophylaxis. The vast majority of nurses think that under health promotion programs they should mostly deal with individual health education of patients and encourage them to adopt healthy lifestyles, and they usually undertake this kind of activities. A large number of respondents are not willing to be involved in the organization, marketing, and evaluation of health promotion projects. There is a great need to intensify measures to motivate nurses to play the roles that are neglected by them, such as looking for new professional groups to undertake activities stimulating health promotion in companies, and developing new institutional and systemic support conducive to making progress in such processes.

Health promotion in primary and secondary schools in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nabe-Nielsen, Kirsten; Krølner, Rikke; Mortensen, Laust Hvas

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Schools are important arenas for interventions among children as health promoting initiatives in childhood is expected to have substantial influence on health and well-being in adulthood. In countries with compulsory school attention, all children could potentially benefit from health...... promotion at the school level regardless of socioeconomic status or other background factors. The first aim was to elucidate time trends in the number and types of school health promoting activities by describing the number and type of health promoting activities in primary and secondary schools in Denmark....... The second aim was to investigate which characteristics of schools and students that are associated with participation in many (≥3) versus few (0-2) health promoting activities during the preceding 2-3 years. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data from the 2006- and 2010-survey of the Health Behaviour...

Evaluations of health promoting schools: a review of nine studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Mũkoma, Wanjirũ; Flisher, Alan J

2004-09-01

The concept of 'health promoting schools' has been embraced internationally as an effective way of promoting the health of children, adolescents, and the wider school community. It is only recently that attempts have been made to evaluate health promoting schools. This paper reviews evaluations of health promoting schools and draws useful evaluation methodology lessons. The review is confined to school-based interventions that are founded explicitly on the concept of the health promoting school and employ the concept beyond one school domain. We included nine evaluations in this review. Seven of these were published in the peer reviewed scientific literature. Two were unpublished reports. One study was a randomized controlled trial, while a quasi-experimental research design with comparison schools was used in three studies. With three exceptions, combinations of quantitative and qualitative data were collected. There was evidence that the health promoting school has some influence on various domains of health for the school community. It is also possible to integrate health promotion into the school curriculum and policies successfully. However, the evaluation of health promoting schools is complex. We discuss some of the methodological challenges of evaluating health promoting schools and make suggestions for improving future evaluations.

World Health Organization approaches for surveys of health behaviour among schoolchildren and for health-promoting schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Honkala, Sisko

2014-01-01

Adolescents make up about one-sixth of the world's population. Most of the healthy and detrimental habits are adopted during childhood and adolescence. In the mid 1980s, a cross-national Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey was created to increase information about the well-being, health behaviours and social context of young people by using standard school-based questionnaires adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) European office. The European Network of Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) was commenced in 1992, followed by the establishment of the WHO Global School Health Initiative in 1995. The initiative aims to improve the health of students, school personnel, families and other members of the community through schools by mobilizing and strengthening health promotion and educational activities at local, national, regional and global levels. The HBSC and HPS programmes have been accepted as activity areas for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Primary Oral Health Care in Kuwait. This article describes the HBSC and the HPS programmes and discusses the importance of establishing these programmes in Kuwait. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Evidence, ethics, and values: a framework for health promotion.

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Carter, Stacy M; Rychetnik, Lucie; Lloyd, Beverley; Kerridge, Ian H; Baur, Louise; Bauman, Adrian; Hooker, Claire; Zask, Avigdor

2011-03-01

We propose a new approach to guide health promotion practice. Health promotion should draw on 2 related systems of reasoning: an evidential system and an ethical system. Further, there are concepts, values, and procedures inherent in both health promotion evidence and ethics, and these should be made explicit. We illustrate our approach with the exemplar of intervention in weight, and use a specific mass-media campaign to show the real-world dangers of intervening with insufficient attention to ethics and evidence. Both researchers and health promotion practitioners should work to build the capacities required for evidential and ethical deliberation in the health promotion profession.

Concepts in health promotion: the notion of relativism.

Science.gov (United States)

de Leeuw, E

1989-01-01

'Health promotion' is a new and powerful concept. By some professionals in the field as well as by actors in the policy making spheres, though, the notion may be received with considerable scepticism. We have attributed this scepticism, as well as barriers to include notions of health promotion in day-to-day work, to a lack of knowledge of essential concepts in the health promotion context. In this article we first explore the quintessential nature of 'health' (a capacity of people, rather than an end product of medical care) before we set out to analyze some crucial components of health promotion: integral-ness, intersectorality, holism, and ecology. Integral intervention mixes appear to have synergetic, and therefore cost-effective, results. An intersectoral approach will be necessary to address all determinants of health in an adequate way. Alas, neither integral, nor intersectoral health programs have been documented in depth. The notions of holism and ecology seem to suffer from obscurantism and esoteric elitism, though commendable in their scope. Here, we introduce 'relativism' to combine various valuable approaches into one more comprehensive scheme. Moreover, a 'relativist' approach to health promotion might induce better and more fruitful cooperation among professions. Finally, some research gaps have been identified. Policy development studies remain to have top priority in development of health promotion. Better documentation of efforts in this field will be of crucial importance. Further development of, and research on how to apply relativist approaches may be recommended. Cooperation, and opening up a dialogue between different professions and actors is of great importance in this field.

Gender-transformative health promotion for women: a framework for action.

Science.gov (United States)

Pederson, Ann; Greaves, Lorraine; Poole, Nancy

2015-03-01

Gender inequity is a pervasive global challenge to health equity. Health promotion, as a field, has paid only limited attention to gender inequity to date, but could be an active agent of change if gender equity became an explicit goal of health promotion research, policy and programmes. As an aspect of gendered health systems, health promotion interventions may maintain, exacerbate or reduce gender-related health inequities, depending upon the degree and quality of gender-responsiveness within the programme or policy. This article introduces a framework for gender-transformative health promotion that builds on understanding gender as a determinant of health and outlines a continuum of actions to address gender and health. Gender-transformative health promotion interventions could play a significant role in improving the lives of millions of girls and women worldwide. Gender-related principles of action are identified that extend the core principles of health promotion but reflect the significance of attending to gender in the development and use of evidence, engagement of stakeholders and selection of interventions. We illustrate the framework with examples from a range of women's health promotion activities, including cardiovascular disease prevention, tobacco control, and alcohol use. The literature suggests that gender-responsiveness will enhance the acceptance, relevance and effectiveness of health promotion interventions. By moving beyond responsiveness to transformation, gender-transformative health promotion could enhance both health and social outcomes for large numbers of women and men, girls and boys. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Understanding health food messages on Twitter for health literacy promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, J; Liu, F; Zhou, H

2018-05-01

With the popularity of social media, Twitter has become an important tool to promote health literacy. However, many health-related messages on Twitter are dead-ended and cannot reach many people. This is unhelpful for health literacy promotion. This article aims to examine the features of online health food messages that people like to retweet. We adopted rumour theory as our theoretical foundation and extracted seven characteristics (i.e. emotional valence, attractiveness, sender's authoritativeness, external evidence, argument length, hashtags, and direct messages). A total of 10,025 health-related messages on Twitter were collected, and 1496 messages were randomly selected for further analysis. Each message was treated as one unit and then coded. All the hypotheses were tested with logistic regression. Emotional valence, attractiveness, sender's authoritativeness, argument length, and direct messages in a Twitter message had positive effects on people's retweet behaviour. The effect of external evidence was negative. Hashtags had no significant effect after consideration of other variables. Online health food messages containing positive emotions, including pictures, containing direct messages, having an authoritative sender, having longer arguments, or not containing external URLs are more likely to be retweeted. However, a message only containing positive or negative emotions or including direct messages without any support information will not be retweeted.

An international Delphi study examining health promotion and health education in nursing practice, education and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehead, Dean

2008-04-01

To arrive at an expert consensus in relation to health promotion and health education constructs as they apply to nursing practice, education and policy. Nursing has often been maligned and criticized, both inside and outside of the profession, for its ability to understand and conduct effective health promotion and health education-related activities. In the absence of an expert-based consensus, nurses may find it difficult to progress beyond the current situation. In the absence of any previously published nursing-related consensus research, this study seeks to fill that knowledge-gap. A two-round Delphi technique via email correspondence. A first-round qualitative questionnaire used open-ended questions for defining health promotion and health education. This was both in general terms and as participants believed these concepts related to the clinical, theoretical (academic/educational) and the policy (political) setting in nursing. Line-by-line qualitative content and thematic analysis of the first-round data generated 13 specific categories. These categories contained 134 statement items. The second-round questionnaire comprised the identified 134 statements. Using a five-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) participants scored and rated their level of agreement/disagreement against the listed items. Data from the second-round was descriptively analysed according to distribution and central tendency measures. An expert consensus was reached on 65 of the original 134 statements. While some minor contradiction was demonstrated, strong consensus emerged around the issues of defining health promotion and health education and the emergence of a wider health promotion and health education role for nursing. No consensus was reached on only one of the 13 identified topic categories - that of 'nurses working with other disciplines and agencies in a health education and health promotion role.' This study provides a hitherto

Undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards smoking health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

McCann, Terence V; Clark, Eileen; Rowe, Kathy

2005-09-01

Despite the fact that nurses have a key role in health promotion, many continue to smoke at much the same rate as the general population. This paper investigates the influence of smoking status, gender, age, stage of education, and smoking duration on undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards smoking health promotion. The study took place in one university's School of Nursing in Victoria, Australia. Respondents completed the Smoking and Health Promotion instrument. Researchers obtained ethics approval prior to commencing the study. Smoking status was the main factor that affected respondents' attitudes towards smoking health promotion, with age and education stage having a minor effect, and gender and smoking duration not significant. Nurses have an important role in modeling non-smoking behaviors for patients. There needs to be consistency between personal and professional beliefs for nurses to properly engage in smoking health promotion. The findings have implications for undergraduate nursing education curricula, nursing practice and research, and these are discussed.

Worksite Health Program Promoting Changes in Eating Behavior and Health Attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Mache, Stefanie; Jensen, Sarah; Jahn, Reimo; Steudtner, Mirko; Ochsmann, Elke; Preuß, Geraldine

2015-11-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a worksite multicomponent health promotion intervention on eating behavior and attitudes, changes in body weight, and readiness to make eating behavior changes among workers over a 12-month intervention period. A total of 3,095 workers of a logistic company participated in a quasi-experimental comparison group study design. The intervention group received a multicomponent health training. Two of the main elements of the multicomponent intervention were physical exercise training and nutrition counseling/training. During the pilot year, participants completed a survey at baseline and again after 12 months to assess physical activity-, health-, and diet-related factors. Results showed that participants' body weight did not significantly decrease in the intervention group. Mean weight loss in the intervention groups was 0.5 kg (body mass index = 0.1 kg/m(2)). Eating behaviors in the intervention group improved more than in the comparison group. Some positive intervention effects were observed for the cognitive factors (e.g., changes in eating attitudes). Baseline readiness to change eating behavior was significantly improved over time. We demonstrated initial results of a long-term multicomponent worksite health promotion program with regard to changes in body weight, eating behavior, and attitudes. This evaluation of a 12-month pilot study suggests that a worksite health promotion program may lead to improvements in nutritional health behaviors for a number of workers. An investigation of long-term effects of this multicomponent intervention is strongly recommended. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

The promotion of oral health within Health Promoting Schools in KwaZulu-Natal

OpenAIRE

M Reddy; S Singh

2017-01-01

Background. Oral health promotion is a cost-effective strategy that can be implemented at schools for the prevention of oral diseases. Theimportance and value of school-based interventions in children has been identified in South Africa (SA). Although oral health strategiesinclude integrated school-based interventions, there is a lack of published evidence on whether these strategies have been translated intopractice and whether these programmes have been evaluated.Objective. To assess the ef...

Health promotion for people with intellectual disabilities - A concept analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Roll, Anne E

2018-03-01

Whereas 'health promotion' is a well-known concept for healthcare professionals, the concept of 'health promotion for people with intellectual disabilities' and its unique associated challenges are not well understood. This article provides a systematic analysis of how health promotion is being conceptualised for people with intellectual disabilities and how health promotion can work best in the light of this group's specific needs and limitations. Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and SocINDEX were searched using the search terms 'health promotion', 'people with intellectual disabilities' and 'developmental disabilities'. This review includes studies published between 1992 and 2014. A total of 52 articles were included. Health promotion for people intellectual disabilities, as discussed in the literature, focuses on four aspects, namely supporting a healthy lifestyle, providing health education, involving supporters and being person-centred. Antecedents of the concept 'health promotion for people with intellectual disabilities' were healthcare access and sensitised healthcare providers. The outcomes were improved health, being empowered, enhanced quality of life and reduced health disparities. This analysis provides a solid foundation for healthcare stakeholders' planning, implementing and evaluating health-promotion activities for people with intellectual disabilities at the policy level and in the community. © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science.

The salutogenic model of health in health promotion research.

Science.gov (United States)

Mittelmark, Maurice B; Bull, Torill

2013-06-01

Despite health promotion's enthusiasm for the salutogenic model of health, researchers have paid little attention to Antonovsky's central ideas about the ease/dis-ease continuum, defined in terms of 'breakdown' (the severity of pain and functional limitations, and the degree medical care is called for, irrespective of specific diseases). Rather, salutogenesis research has a strong focus on how sense of coherence relates to a wide range of specific diseases and illness endpoints. We address two questions: Why has Antonovsky's health concept failed to stimulate research on breakdown, and how can the present emphasis on disease be complemented by an emphasis on positive well-being in the salutogenic model? We show that (i) the breakdown concept of health as specified by Antonovsky is circular in definition, (ii) it is not measured on the 'required' ease/dis-ease continuum, (iii) it is not measureable by any validated or reliability-tested assessment tool, and (iv) it has not so much been rejected by health promotion, as it has not been considered at all. We show that Antonovsky came to view breakdown as but one aspect of well-being. He was open to the idea of well-being as something more positive than the absence of pain, suffering and need for medical care. We suggest ways to move salutogenesis research in the direction of well-being in its positive sense.

Improving delivery of a health-promoting-environments program: experiences from Queensland Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Dwyer, S

1997-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to outline the key components of a statewide multisite health-promoting-environments program. Contemporary health-promotion programs in settings such as schools, workplaces and hospitals use organisational development theory to address the health issues of the setting, including the physical environment, the organisational environment, and the specific health needs of the employees and consumers of the service. Program principles include management of each project by the participant organisation or site (for example, a school or workplace), using resources available within the organisation and the local community, voluntary participation, social justice and participant-based priority setting, and evaluation and monitoring. Adoption of these principles implies a shift in the role of the health worker from implementer to facilitator. Based on the experience of Queensland Health, it is proposed that the essential building blocks of the health-promoting-environments program are an intersectoral policy base, a model for action, training and resources, local facilitators, support from local organisations, a supportive network of sites, marketing of the program, and a state-based evaluation and monitoring system. The program in Queensland was able to develop a significant number of these components over the 1990-1996 period. In regard to evaluation, process measures can be built around the program components; however, further research is required for development of impact indicators and benchmarks on quality.

Duality of Health Promotion and Sustainable Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Kirsten Bransholm; Land, Birgit; Kjærgård, Bente

2015-01-01

reduction and how these strategies affect the prospects for promoting health and sustainable food production and consumption. Danish food waste reduction strategies are used as examples with references to selected policy documents on food waste reduction strategies launched by international organisations...... sustainability and, vice versa, sustainability conditions health. Thus, to avoid unintended, negative effects the strategies directed towards sustainable development must be correlated with strategies for health promotion. The conceptual model is used to take a closer look at the complexities of food waste...... of food as food waste is reduced. The lack of attention given to reducing the oversupply of food calls for governance initiatives directed towards reducing the overproduction of primary food produce in order to reap the environmental benefits and the health promotion benefits of reducing food waste...

Enhancing Resources at the Workplace with Health-Promoting Leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez, Paul; Bregenzer, Anita; Kallus, K Wolfgang; Fruhwirth, Bianca; Wagner-Hartl, Verena

2017-10-20

Leaders engaging in health-promoting leadership can influence their employees' health directly by showing health awareness or indirectly by changing working conditions. With health-promoting leadership, leaders are able to support a healthy working environment by providing resource-oriented working conditions for their employees to support their health. Changing working conditions in a health-supportive way can prevent possible negative consequences from critical working conditions (e.g., burnout risk). The present study examined the relationship between health-promoting leadership and the employees' resources, stress and burnout. To analyze our proposed model, structural equation modelling was conducted in two samples. The resulting model from the first sample of 228 Austrian workers was cross-validated and could be verified with the second sample (N = 263 Austrian workers). The results supported a model in which health-promoting leadership has a strong direct effect on the employees' resources and an indirect effect on stress and burnout, which was mediated by resources. The results indicate that health-promoting leadership describes the leaders' capability and dedication creating the right working conditions for their employees by increasing the employees' resources at the workplace. This in turn minimizes the risk of experiencing burnout.

Enhancing Resources at the Workplace with Health-Promoting Leadership

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Jiménez

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Leaders engaging in health-promoting leadership can influence their employees’ health directly by showing health awareness or indirectly by changing working conditions. With health-promoting leadership, leaders are able to support a healthy working environment by providing resource-oriented working conditions for their employees to support their health. Changing working conditions in a health-supportive way can prevent possible negative consequences from critical working conditions (e.g., burnout risk. The present study examined the relationship between health-promoting leadership and the employees’ resources, stress and burnout. To analyze our proposed model, structural equation modelling was conducted in two samples. The resulting model from the first sample of 228 Austrian workers was cross-validated and could be verified with the second sample (N = 263 Austrian workers. The results supported a model in which health-promoting leadership has a strong direct effect on the employees’ resources and an indirect effect on stress and burnout, which was mediated by resources. The results indicate that health-promoting leadership describes the leaders’ capability and dedication creating the right working conditions for their employees by increasing the employees’ resources at the workplace. This in turn minimizes the risk of experiencing burnout.

Health Promoting Hospitals – Assessing developments in the network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jürgen M. Pelikan

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Hospitals are specific organizational settings for health promotion efforts. As health care institutions they are already oriented at health, or better at ill health, but with a rather limited focus on health outcomes for patients. Therefore, the Ottawa Charter explicitly asks for the reorientation of health services. And, hospitals also have considerable health effects for other stakeholder populations. This specific potential and challenge has been taken up by the WHO network of Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH, in the last two decades. Based on available literature the article relates the HPH concept to a more general paradigm of health promoting organizational settings; reconstructs the developmental phases of the international WHO HPH Network; elaborates on its concept development and implementation experiences, and discusses its rather limited investments in evaluation studies and the few assessments from outside. HPH has developed a convincing comprehensive concept by demonstration projects, using systematically action and evaluation research. To a lesser degree, the same holds true for its developments of health promotion policies for selected vulnerable groups and linking HPH to quality methodology. But there is no systematic evaluation of health promotion in and by hospitals, especially for the networks and member hospitals of HPH. Even if much of the relevant evidence for HPH comes and will have to come from more general clinical epidemiological, health promotion, quality, organizational and management research, there is need for specific HPH evaluation research, to better utilize, what can be learned from the social experiment of HPH.

Opportunities and challenges to promoting oral health in primary schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, P; Chestnutt, I G; Channing, D

2009-09-01

Inequalities in oral health in areas of socio-economic disadvantage are well recognised. As children spend a considerable proportion of their lives in education, schools can play a significant role in promoting children's health and oral health. However, to what extent schools are able to do this is unclear. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate opportunities and challenges to promoting oral health in primary schools. A purposive sample of 20 primary schools from socially and economically disadvantaged areas of Cardiff, UK were selected to participate in this qualitative study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with head teachers or their nominated deputies. General awareness of health and oral health was good, with all schools promoting the consumption of fruit, water and milk and discouraging products such as carbonated drinks and confectionaries. Health promotion schemes wereimplemented primarily to improve the health of the children, although schools felt they also offered the potential to improve classroom behaviour and attendance. However, oral health was viewed as a separate entity to general health and perceived to be inadequately promoted. Successful health promotion schemes were also influenced by the attitudes of headteachers. Most schools had no or limited links with local dental services and, or oral health educators, although such input, when it occurred, was welcomed and highly valued. Knowledge of how to handle dental emergencies was limited and only two schools operated toothbrushing schemes, although all expressed an interest in such programmes. This study identified a positive predisposition to promoting health in primary schools. The challenge for the dental team, however, is to promote and integrate oral health into mainstream health promotion activities in schools. The paper also makes recommendations for further research.

Activities for Engaging Schools in Health Promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Bardi, Mohammad; Burbank, Andrea; Choi, Wayne; Chow, Lawrence; Jang, Wesley; Roccamatisi, Dawn; Timberley-Berg, Tonia; Sanghera, Mandeep; Zhang, Margaret; Macnab, Andrew J.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe activities used to initiate health promotion in the school setting. Design/Methodology/Approach: Description of successful pilot Health Promoting School (HPS) initiatives in Canada and Uganda and the validated measures central to each program. Evaluation methodologies: quantitative data from the…

Bioactive foods in promoting health: probiotics and prebiotics

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Watson, Ronald R; Preedy, Victor R

2010-01-01

"Bioactive Foods in Health Promotion: Probiotics and Prebiotics brings together experts working on the different aspects of supplementation, foods, and bacterial preparations, in health promotion and disease prevention, to provide...

The health-promoting nurse as a health policy career expert and entrepreneur.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehead, Dean

2003-11-01

A plethora of literature suggests that many nurses struggle in their attempts to develop a political role that allows them to directly influence and implement health policy activity. Nursing curricula are an integral part of ensuring that nurses are capable of taking on a more active role in initiating and developing health policy processes, through a broadening of the health promotion curriculum that focuses on socio-political approaches to health care provision. Despite this, the available literature suggests that the majority of nursing curricula are yet to fulfil this role. Such a role could be supported by attempts to define and promote a specific career route that develops nurses as health policy experts and entrepreneurs early on in their careers. This article aims to put forward a rationale for developing such a position in nursing education.

Imagining roles for epigenetics in health promotion research.

Science.gov (United States)

McBride, Colleen M; Koehly, Laura M

2017-04-01

Discoveries from the Human Genome Project have invigorated discussions of epigenetic effects-modifiable chemical processes that influence DNA's ability to give instructions to turn gene expression on or off-on health outcomes. We suggest three domains in which new understandings of epigenetics could inform innovations in health promotion research: (1) increase the motivational potency of health communications (e.g., explaining individual differences in health outcomes to interrupt optimistic biases about health exposures); (2) illuminate new approaches to targeted and tailored health promotion interventions (e.g., relapse prevention targeted to epigenetic responses to intervention participation); and (3) inform more sensitive measures of intervention impact, (e.g., replace or augment self-reported adherence). We suggest a three-step process for using epigenetics in health promotion research that emphasizes integrating epigenetic mechanisms into conceptual model development that then informs selection of intervention approaches and outcomes. Lastly, we pose examples of relevant scientific questions worth exploring.

Health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyake, S; Lucas-Miyake, M

1989-01-01

This article will describe a marketing model for the development of a role for occupational therapy in the industrial market. Health promotion activities are used as a means to diversify existing revenue bases by establishing new referral sources in industry. The technique of need satisfaction -selling or marketing one's services to a customer based on needs expressed by the customer - is reviewed, and implementation of this approach is described from two settings, one in psychiatry and the other in rehabilitation.

Health promotion practices as perceived by primary healthcare professionals at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Saudi Arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Altamimi, Samar; Alshoshan, Feda; Al Shaman, Ghada; Tawfeeq, Nasser; Alasmary, May; Ahmed, Anwar E

2016-01-01

In recent years, several research studies have investigated health promotion practices in Saudi healthcare organizations, yet no published literature exists on health promotion practices of primary healthcare professionals working for the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNG-HA). A cross-sectional study was conducted in a convenience sample of 206 primary healthcare professionals at the MNG-HA. A self-reporting questionnaire was used to investigate the attitudes, awareness, satisfaction, and methods regarding health promotion practices of primary healthcare professionals. Of the 206 primary healthcare professionals surveyed, 58.1% reported awareness of health promotion programs conducted in the hospitals and 64.6% reported that the health promotion system in the hospitals needs to be improved. Language barriers and cultural beliefs were viewed as obstacles to carrying out effective health promotion by 65% and 64.6% of primary healthcare professionals, respectively. The majority (79.9%) of the primary healthcare professionals perceived themselves as having the necessary skills to promote health and 80.6% believed that printed educational materials are the most prevalent method of health promotion/education, whereas 55.8% reported that counseling was the most preferred method of health promotion. The awareness level of health promotion policies, strategies, and programs conducted in the hospitals was not found to be satisfactory. Therefore, widespread training programs are recommended to improve the health promotion system in the hospitals. These programs include facilitating behavioral change, introducing health promotion policies and strategies in hospitals, mandatory workshops, and systematic reminders.

Social networks, health promoting-behavior, and health-related quality of life in older Korean adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Minjoo; De Gagne, Jennie C; Shin, Hyewon

2018-03-01

In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, we compared the sociodemographic characteristics, social networks, health-promoting behavior, and the health-related quality of life of older Korean adults living in South Korea to those of older Korean adult immigrants living in the USA. A total of 354 older adults, aged 65 years or older, participated. Data were collected through self-directed questionnaires, and analyzed using a two way analysis of variance, t-tests, χ 2 -tests, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The association between four sociodemographic characteristics and health-related quality of life was significantly different between the two groups. For the older Korean adults living in South Korea, positive correlations existed between a measure of their social networks and both health-promoting behavior and health-related quality of life. For the older Korean immigrants, the findings revealed a positive correlation only between social networks and health-promoting behavior. The study findings support the important association social networks can have with health-related quality of life, and their possible relationship to health-promoting behaviors of older Korean adults. We suggest that health policy-makers and healthcare providers develop comprehensive programs that are designed to improve older adults' social networks. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

77 FR 42313 - Recharter of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-18

... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Corinne Graffunder... Integrative and Public Health (the ``Advisory Group'') within the Department of Health and Human Services. To...

Influencing organizations to promote health: applying stakeholder theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kok, Gerjo; Gurabardhi, Zamira; Gottlieb, Nell H; Zijlstra, Fred R H

2015-04-01

Stakeholder theory may help health promoters to make changes at the organizational and policy level to promote health. A stakeholder is any individual, group, or organization that can influence an organization. The organization that is the focus for influence attempts is called the focal organization. The more salient a stakeholder is and the more central in the network, the stronger the influence. As stakeholders, health promoters may use communicative, compromise, deinstitutionalization, or coercive methods through an ally or a coalition. A hypothetical case study, involving adolescent use of harmful legal products, illustrates the process of applying stakeholder theory to strategic decision making. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

Marketing strategies nurses can employ to promote health.

Science.gov (United States)

McCormack, D

1994-01-01

Marketing strategies are employed to ensure the success of new products, services or programs. Both profit and non-profit organizations have used social marketing strategies to inform, to motivate interest, and to engage the involvement of the consumer. A client-dependent health care system did not find it necessary to market services, but a health care system that encourages clients to choose the most appropriate health promotion service available must market services. Nurses are in the business of promoting the health of clients. Therefore, it is essential that nurses become familiar with, and involved in, the development of marketing plans and strategies. The connection between the four variables of the marketing mix (product, promotion, place, and price) and promoting the health of clients is described. A case example recapitulating the marketing strategies employed to raise public awareness of a self-help group for family caregivers is related, the marketing response is evaluated, and future recommendations are proposed.

Opinions of Polish occupational medicine physicians on workplace health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Puchalski, Krzysztof; Korzeniowska, Elzbieta; Pyzalski, Jacek; Wojtaszczyk, Patrycja

2005-01-01

According to the current Polish legislation on occupational health services, occupational medicine physicians should perform workplace health promotion (WHP) activities as a part of their professional work. The concept of workplace health promotion or health promotion programs, however, has not been defined in this legislation in any way. Therefore, two essential questions arise. First, what is the physicians' attitude towards workplace health issues and second, what is actually carried out under the label of health promotion? The main objective of the research described in this paper was to answer these questions. The survey was carried out by the National Center for Workplace Health Promotion in 2002. A questionnaire prepared by the Center for the purpose of this survey was sent to a random sample of occupational medicine physicians. The results of the survey showed that 53% of occupational medicine physicians consider WHP just as a new name for prophylactics. On the other hand almost all of the respondents (94%) agree that occupational medicine physicians should perform WHP activities and find them useful in improving patients' health (78%). The main obstacle for the development of this activity in the perception of physicians is the lack of interest in workplace health promotion among employers (86%). In the modern understanding of workplace health promotion concept this type of intervention includes not only safety measures and health education, but also a profound organizational change that allows employers, employees and social partners to improve wellbeing of people at work. Each of such projects should facilitate changes necessary to create a health promoting workplace. It also needs a skilled leader--well trained and aware of a multidisciplinary dimension of WHP interventions. Occupational medicine specialists should become natural partners of employers and employees. The majority of the occupational medicine physicians, however, are not sufficiently

Reorienting health services with capacity building: a case study of the Core Skills in Health Promotion Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Yeatman, H R; Nove, T

2002-12-01

This paper presents a case study of the application of a framework for capacity building [Hawe, P., King, L., Noort, M., Jordens, C. and Lloyd, B. (2000) Indicators to Help with Capacity Building in Health Promotion. NSW Health, Sydney] to describe actions aimed at building organizational support for health promotion within an area health service in New South Wales, Australia. The Core Skills in Health Promotion Project (CSHPP) arose from an investigation which reported that participants of a health promotion training course had increased health promotion skills but that they lacked the support to apply their skills in the workplace. The project was action-research based. It investigated and facilitated the implementation of a range of initiatives to support community health staff to apply a more preventive approach in their practice and it contributed to the establishment of new organizational structures for health promotion. An evaluation was undertaken 4 years after the CSHPP was established, and 2 years after it had submitted its final report. Interviews with senior managers, document analysis of written reports, and focus groups with middle managers and service delivery staff were undertaken. Change was achieved in the three dimensions of health infrastructure, program maintenance and problem solving capacity of the organization. It was identified that the critically important elements in achieving the aims of the project-partnership, leadership and commitment-were also key elements of the capacity building framework. This case study provides a practical example of the usefulness of the capacity building framework in orienting health services to be supportive of health promotion.

Ethical issues in public health promotion

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2014-05-02

May 2, 2014 ... Health promotion has three main ethical issues: (i) what are the ultimate goals for public .... construction of new norms, the shaping of existing norms, the .... despite the fact that we know they are bad for people's health. There.

Promoting mental health in Swedish preschool-teacher views.

Science.gov (United States)

Isaksson, Pernilla; Marklund, Bertil; Haraldsson, Katarina

2017-02-01

The promotion of childhood mental health is an important investment for the future. Many young children spend a large amount of time in preschool, which have unique opportunities to promote mental health at an early stage. The aim of this study was to illuminate teachers’ views of what they do in ordinary work to promote mental health among preschool children. This qualitative study had a descriptive and exploratory design and qualitative content analysis was utilized. Six focus group interviews with preschool teachers, concerning families from different cultural, geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds, were conducted in a county in the southwest of Sweden. Both manifest and latent content appeared. Three categories, ‘structured world’, ‘pleasant climate’ and ‘affirming the child’ and 10 subcategories emerged. The latent content of these categories is described under the theme ‘creating an atmosphere where each child can flourish in harmony with their environment’. The results show teachers different working approaches with mental health in preschool and together with previous research these results can provide a basis of knowledge for preschool teachers and inspire them to develop and maintain their health-promoting work. In future studies it should be particularly interesting to investigate how the promotive way to work can be transferred to strengthen mental health throughout the school years.

The use of e-health and m-health tools in health promotion and primary prevention among older adults: a systematic literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kampmeijer, Ramon; Pavlova, Milena; Tambor, Marzena; Golinowska, Stanisława; Groot, Wim

2016-09-05

The use of e-health and m-health technologies in health promotion and primary prevention among older people is largely unexplored. This study provides a systematic review of the evidence on the scope of the use of e-health and m-health tools in health promotion and primary prevention among older adults (age 50+). A systematic literature review was conducted in October 2015. The search for relevant publications was done in the search engine PubMed. The key inclusion criteria were: e-health and m-health tools used, participants' age 50+ years, focus on health promotion and primary prevention, published in the past 10 years, in English, and full-paper can be obtained. The text of the publications was analyzed based on two themes: the characteristics of e-health and m-health tools and the determinants of the use of these tools by older adults. The quality of the studies reviewed was also assessed. The initial search resulted in 656 publications. After we applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 45 publications were selected for the review. In the publications reviewed, various types of e-health/m-health tools were described, namely apps, websites, devices, video consults and webinars. Most of the publications (60 %) reported studies in the US. In 37 % of the publications, the study population was older adults in general, while the rest of the publications studied a specific group of older adults (e.g. women or those with overweight). The publications indicated various facilitators and barriers. The most commonly mentioned facilitator was the support for the use of the e-health/m-health tools that the older adults received. E-health and m-health tools are used by older adults in diverse health promotion programs, but also outside formal programs to monitor and improve their health. The latter is hardly studied. The successful use of e-health/m-health tools in health promotion programs for older adults greatly depends on the older adults' motivation and support

Australian blue-collar men's health and well-being: contextual issues for workplace health promotion interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Du Plessis, Karin; Cronin, David; Corney, Tim; Green, Emma

2013-09-01

In Australia, blue-collar workers are predominantly male and form a unique and large (approximately 30%) subset of the Australian workforce. They exhibit particular health-related issues and, in comparison to other groups, often a lack of health promoting behavior. This article briefly discusses the Australian context and some of the key health issues blue-collar men face, in particular as it relates to construction workers. It reviews the impact of gender and socioeconomic factors in designing workplace health promotion interventions. This article considers practice strategies for health promoters in a specific workplace setting: it looks at meta-factors and industry-based contextual factors, including barriers to implementation and participation, while addressing common misconceptions about Australian blue-collar workers.

Governmentality in health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jelsøe, Erling; Land, Birgit; Pedersen, Kirsten Bransholm

Objectives: Issues of governance in health promotion during the last 3-4 decades has increasingly been seen as characterized by health interventions and campaigns aimed at influencing the citizens to exhibit a certain desired behavior, that is an orientation towards generating self...... is not sufficient to ensure healthy behaviour. Such measures are used in the public as well as the private sector. In this paper we will give a number of examples of this development and a preliminary analysis of the social framework for its emergence. Methods: The paper will present a theoretical discussion...... was conducted as a case oriented search in relevant media and available documents illustrating the tendency towards using coercive measures to promote healthy behaviour. This was followed up through semi-structured interviews with actors from public authorities, organizations and companies with experience...

Community health promotion approaches within institutions for disabled

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Jesper

From a two years study of 3 special educational institutions for disabled in Zealand, Denmark, we have done qualitative studies of the focus-areas that the institutions have pointed out as their Best Practices of Health Promotion in everyday life. We have in general followed research questions......: What practices do special institutions for people with developmental disabilities believe to be health promoting, and will a research based reconstruction of these practices with health promotion concepts have anything to offer for professionals in this area? How will the involved parties experience...... each other practices and is possible to establish a mutual institutional learning process, as a surplus to normal quality control (NPM)? What understandings of psyche, individual, mind-body-spirit, health promotion etc. are involved in these practices, and how do they relate to the institutional...

Complexity: a potential paradigm for a health promotion discipline.

Science.gov (United States)

Tremblay, Marie-Claude; Richard, Lucie

2014-06-01

Health promotion underpins a distancing from narrow, simplifying health approaches associated with the biomedical model. However, it has not yet succeeded in formally establishing its theoretical, epistemological and methodological foundations on a single paradigm. The complexity paradigm, which it has yet to broach head-on, might provide it with a disciplinary matrix in line with its implicit stances and basic values. This article seeks to establish complexity's relevance as a paradigm that can contribute to the development of a health promotion discipline. The relevance of complexity is justified primarily by its matching with several implicit epistemological and methodological/theoretical stances found in the cardinal concepts and principles of health promotion. The transcendence of ontological realism and determinism as well as receptiveness in respect of the reflexivity that complexity encompasses are congruent with the values of social justice, participation, empowerment and the concept of positive health that the field promotes. Moreover, from a methodological and theoretical standpoint, complexity assumes a holistic, contextual and transdisciplinary approach, toward which health promotion is tending through its emphasis on ecology and interdisciplinary action. In a quest to illustrate our position, developmental evaluation is presented as an example of practice stemming from a complexity paradigm that can be useful in the evaluation of health promotion initiatives. In short, we argue that it would be advantageous for health promotion to integrate this paradigm, which would provide it with a formal framework appropriate to its purposes and concerns.

Health promotion and education activities of community pharmacists in Kuwait.

Science.gov (United States)

Awad, Abdelmoneim; Abahussain, Eman

2010-04-01

To investigate self-reported practice of pharmacists regarding health promotion and education activities, explore the barriers that may limit their involvement in health promotion and education, and identify their willingness to participate in continuing education programs related to health education. Community pharmacies in Kuwait. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed using a pre-tested questionnaire on a sample of 223 community pharmacists. The extent of the pharmacists' involvement in counselling patients about health promotion and education topics, their preparation to counsel patients in health promotion and education topics, and their perceived success in changing the patients' health behaviour. The response rate was 92%. Information on medication use was the most frequent reason for consumers seeking community pharmacists' advice. The majority of respondents believed that behaviour related to the proper use of drugs was very important. There was less agreement on the importance of other health behaviours. Respondents indicated they were involved in counselling patients on health behaviours related to use of drugs as prescribed/directed, weight management, medicine contents and side effects, diet modification and stress reduction, but were less involved in counselling on other health behaviours. Respondents' perception of themselves as "most prepared" to counsel patients closely reflected their involvement. Pharmacists reported high levels of success in helping patients to achieve improvements in using their drugs properly compared to low levels in changing patients' personal health behaviours. The majority of respondents believed that pharmacists had a responsibility for counselling consumers on health behaviours (97%, 95% CI 95-99%), and indicated their willingness to learn more about health promotion (84%, 78-88%). Lack of pharmacists' time was reported by about 58% of respondents as the major barrier limiting pharmacists' provision of health

Promotion of health and human functionality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Cristhina de Oliveira Brasil

2013-08-01

Full Text Available For the development of public health policies in Brazil, two aspects should be taken into consideration, namely, the demographic transition and the epidemiological transition. More and more, it is perceivable an increase in the number of elderly people living with numerous disabilities and also an epidemiological profile. National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios - PNAD 1998-2003 indicates a distribution of chronic diseases that, consequently, has generated an expressive number of disabilities. These people with disabilities need health services, and use them when they manage to access them. However, the current models of healthcare for the elderly or people with disabilities are expensive and, in some aspects, are not efficient, requiring preventive strategies and health equipment for the maintenance or recovery of health of an aged population. Thus, the public policy agenda of Brazil should give priority to the maintenance of the functionality of the aged, with monitoring of health status, specific preventive actions on health and education, and care seeking an integral and multidimensional attention, not necessarily focused on disease(1. The need to develop policies and strategies, particularly on health promotion, with a look detached from the disease is justified because health problems come not only from the disease, but from any other circumstance or health condition, such as, pregnancy , aging, stress, genetic predisposition – all classified by D-10, nevertheless, not being able to measure the status alterations related to health, and much less to sort and describe the context in which these problems occur, which complicates and jeopardizes the planning and solvability of actions and services in health, unlike the data by means of qualifiers that the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF has the potential to generate(2. Brazil is a member country of the World Health

Promotion of Health and Human Functionality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Cristhina de Oliveira Brasil

2013-03-01

Full Text Available For the development of public health policies in Brazil, two aspects should be taken into consideration, namely, the demographic transition and the epidemiological transition. More and more, it is perceivable an increase in the number of elderly people living with numerous disabilities and also an epidemiological profile. National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios - PNAD 1998-2003 indicates a distribution of chronic diseases that, consequently, has generated an expressive number of disabilities. These people with disabilities need health services, and use them when they manage to access them. However, the current models of healthcare for the elderly or people with disabilities are expensive and, in some aspects, are not efficient, requiring preventive strategies and health equipment for the maintenance or recovery of health of an aged population. Thus, the public policy agenda of Brazil should give priority to the maintenance of the functionality of the aged, with monitoring of health status, specific preventive actions on health and education, and care seeking an integral and multidimensional attention, not necessarily focused on disease(1.The need to develop policies and strategies, particularly on health promotion, with a look detached from the disease is justified because health problems come not only from the disease, but from any other circumstance or health condition, such as, pregnancy , aging, stress, genetic predisposition – all classified by D-10, nevertheless, not being able to measure the status alterations related to health, and much less to sort and describe the context in which these problems occur, which complicates and jeopardizes the planning and solvability of actions and services in health, unlike the data by means of qualifiers that the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF has the potential to generate(2.Brazil is a member country of the World Health

Health Promotion and Related Factors Among Korean Goose Mothers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiyoung Cha, PhD, RN

2010-12-01

Conclusions: The findings of this study contributed to the body of knowledge of health promotion among international migrant populations by identifying the differential effects of social support, acculturation attitudes, and perceived family health for six areas of health promotion.

Association between Municipal Health Promotion Volunteers' Health Literacy and Their Level of Outreach Activities in Japan.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Atsuko Taguchi

Full Text Available To explore the association between health literacy and levels of three types of core activities among health promotion volunteers (developing a healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community members.A cross-sectional, anonymous, self-administered postal survey of registered health promotion volunteers in the Konan area in Shiga Prefecture in Japan, conducted in January 2010. The study sample was 575 registered health promotion volunteers.The survey collected data on health literacy, gender, age, education, self-rated health, perceptions about the volunteer organization, and perceptions of recognition in the community. The level of engagement in health promotion activities was measured by the extent to which the participants engaged in seven healthy behaviors and promoted them to family members and the community. The authors compared the health literacy level and other characteristics of the participants by core health promotion activities, using a chi-squared test, to examine the associations between demographic and other variables and the three core activities (healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community.Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between the degree to which the volunteers engaged in core activities ("healthy lifestyle," "outreach to family," "outreach to community" and the levels of health literacy (low, medium, high among health promotion volunteers, controlling for the effects of age, gender, health condition, education which may also have an impact on volunteers' outreach activities.Four hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were returned, a 79.0% response rate. Excluding 16 cases with missing values on health literacy or the degree of health promotion activities, 438 research subjects were included in the analysis (valid response rate: 76.2%. Health literacy and a few demographic and other characteristics of the volunteers were associated with the three core

Promoting Individual Health Using Information Technology: Trends in the US Health System

Science.gov (United States)

Nimkar, Swateja

2016-01-01

Objectives: Advances in electronics, the Internet and telecommunication have pushed the field of health care to embrace information technology (IT). However, the purposeful use of technology is relatively new to the field of health promotion. The primary objective of this paper is to review various applications of health IT, with a focus on its…

PENGEMBANGAN MODEL SEKOLAH SEHAT (HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOL DI DAERAH MISKIN PERKOTAAN

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Andryansyah Arifin

2012-11-01

Full Text Available It is known that there was strong relation between health status of primary school students and school records. A health­ promoting school was, whether all members of school community work together to provide students with an integrated positive experiences and structures which promote and protect their health.These include both formal and informal curriculum in health, creation of a safe and healthy school environment, provision of appropriate health services and involvement of family and wider commmunities was in efforts to promote health. The objectives of, this study is to develop a model of health promoting school at poor urban areas which included to measure student knowledge and attitude, nutrition intake, and role of school teacher in health promotion. A stratified mulitistage randomized pre-post test control groups design was used in this study. Duration of this study was 3 years (2001-2003 and the location at 9 primary schools (6 intervention schools and 3 control schools in Semarang, Surakarta, Denpasar municipalities and Kendal district. Results of this study showed that students knowledge and atitude toward health were improved significantly as well as nutrition intake at intervention groups. This improvement was caused by the role of school teachers in health promotion which was integrated in daily learning process. Based on this results a model of health promoting school has been developed. It recommends to implement this health promoting school model at wider areas and to provide school teachers completed with health promotion manuals.   Keywords: model, health promoting school

International collaboration in health promotion and disease management: implications of U.S. health promotion efforts on Japan's health care system.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelletier, Kenneth R

2005-01-01

For more than 25 years, health promotion and disease management interventions have been conducted by large employers in the United States. Today there are more than 100 studies of such multifactorial, comprehensive interventions that all demonstrate positive clinical outcomes. For those interventions that have also been evaluated for return on investment, all but one have demonstrated cost-effectiveness. This article is an evidence-based overview of the clinical and cost outcomes research to elaborate on the insights gained from this research in the areas of implementation and evaluation of such programs; integration of health promotion and disease management programs into conventional, occupational medicine; accessing difficult to reach populations, such as mobile workers, retirees, and/or dependents; areas of potential conflict of interest and privacy/confidentiality issues; health consequences of downsizing and job strain; and, finally, recommendations for improved integration and evaluation of such programs for both clinical and cost outcomes. With medical costs rapidly escalating again on a global scale, these interventions with evidence of both clinical and cost outcomes can provide the foundation to improve the health, performance, and productivity of both individuals and their corporations.

The Productivity Dilemma in Workplace Health Promotion

OpenAIRE

Cherniack, Martin

2015-01-01

Background. Worksite-based programs to improve workforce health and well-being (Workplace Health Promotion (WHP)) have been advanced as conduits for improved worker productivity and decreased health care costs. There has been a countervailing health economics contention that return on investment (ROI) does not merit preventive health investment. Methods/Procedures. Pertinent studies were reviewed and results reconsidered. A simple economic model is presented based on conventional and alternat...

Community-based health and schools of nursing: supporting health promotion and research.

Science.gov (United States)

Shannon, Crystal

2014-01-01

This article examines the role of community-based schools of nursing in the promotion of public health and research in poverty-stricken areas. This was a three-phase study (questionnaire and key-informants' interviews) that surveyed representatives of prelicensure associate and baccalaureate nursing schools (n=17), nursing-school key informants (n=6) and community leaders (n=10). A 13-question web-based survey and semi-structured interview of key informants elicited data on demographics, nursing program design, exposure of faculty and students to various research and health promotion methods, and beliefs about student involvement. Nursing schools participated minimally in community-based health promotion (CBHP) and community-based participatory research saw reduced need for student involvement in such activities, cited multiple barriers to active community collaboration, and reported restricted community partnerships. CBHP was recognized to be a valuable element of health care and student education, but is obstructed by many barriers. This study suggests that nursing schools are not taking full advantage of relationships with community leaders. Recommendations for action are given. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Health promotion activities in annual reports of local governments: 'Health for All' targets as a tool for content analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersson, Camilla M; Bjärås, Gunilla E M; Tillgren, Per; Ostenson, Claes-Göran

2003-09-01

This article presents an instrument to study the annual reporting of health promotion activities in local governments within the three intervention municipalities of the Stockholm Diabetes Prevention Program (SDPP). The content of health promotion activities are described and the strengths, weaknesses and relevance of the method to health promotion discussed. A content analysis of local governmental reports from 1995-2000 in three Swedish municipalities. A matrix with WHO's 38 'Health for All' (HFA) targets from 1991 was used when coding the local health promotion activities. There are many public health initiatives within the local governmental structure even if they are not always addressed as health promotion. The main focuses in the local governmental reports were environmental issues, unemployment, social care and welfare. Local governmental reports were found to be a useful source of information that could provide knowledge about the priorities and organizational capacities for health promotion within local authorities. Additionally the HFA targets were an effective tool to identify and categorize systematically local health promotion activities in the annual reports of local governments. Identifying local health promotion initiatives by local authorities may ease the development of a health perspective and joint actions within the existing political and administrative structure. This paper provides a complementary method of attaining and structuring information about the local community for developments in health promotion.

HEALTH PROMOTING BEHAVIOR AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS IN CHANDIGARH, INDIA

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Suraj Senjam

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Background: India faces multiple threats of diseases. The increasing trend of lifestyle related health problems is becoming a serious issue in India. The best strategy to tackle this changing health concern is adoption of healthy lifestyle and health promotion activities. Objectives: To determine the level of involvement in health promoting behaviors of college students in Chandigarh. Material & Methods: This college based cross sectional study was conducted in four randomly selected colleges of Chandigarh during September 2007 to June 2008. Results: Two hundred students (F=100, M=100 were studied by using self administered health promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP questionnaires. Mean HPLP score was 138.69 (M=137.98, F=139.39. Female students were more likely to have better health promoting practices than their counterpart male students, but difference was not significant. Female students showed more sense of health responsibility than male students (p=0.00, whereas male students were significantly more involved in physical activities than female students (p=0.02. Overall, only few students (18.5% searched health related article from the internet; 26% went for normal health check up in the last year; 13.5% students practiced yoga regularly; 24.5% of them tried to choose diet with low fat content; 30% of them skipped meals regularly, and 25.5% of them ate processed food regularly. Conclusion: The study results showed that college students in Chandigarh had reasonably good orientation towards health promoting practices.

Moral issues in workplace health promotion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.J.W. Robroek (Suzan); S. van de Vathorst (Suzanne); M.T. Hilhorst (Medard); A. Burdorf (Alex)

2012-01-01

textabstractPurpose: There is debate to what extent employers are entitled to interfere with the lifestyle and health of their workers. In this context, little information is available on the opinion of employees. Within the framework of a workplace health promotion (WHP) program, moral

Employer and Promoter Perspectives on the Quality of Health Promotion Within the Healthy Workplace Accreditation.

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Tung, Chen-Yin; Yin, Yun-Wen; Liu, Chia-Yun; Chang, Chia-Chen; Zhou, Yi-Ping

2017-07-01

To explore the employers' and promoters' perspective of health promotion quality according to the healthy workplace accreditation. We assessed the perspectives of 85 employers and 81 health promoters regarding the quality of health promotion at their workplaces. The method of measurement referenced the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP) quality criteria. In the large workplaces, the accredited corporation employers had a higher impression (P health promoters from different sized workplaces with or without accreditation (P > 0.05). It seems that employers' perspectives of healthy workplace accreditation surpassed employers from non-accredited workplaces. Specifically, large accredited corporations could share their successful experiences to encourage a more involved workplace in small-medium workplaces.

[Creating a "Health Promotion Checklist for Residents" Attempt to promote healthy activities].

Science.gov (United States)

Abe, Akemi; Masaki, Naoko; Fukuizumi, Maiko; Hashimoto, Shuji

2015-01-01

To create a "Health Promotion Checklist for Residents" to help promote healthy habits among local residents. First, we investigated items for a health promotion checklist in the Health Japan 21 (2(nd) edition) and other references. Next, we conducted a questionnaire survey including these checklist items in August 2012. The study subjects were randomly selected Hatsukaichi city residents aged ≥20 years. Anonymous survey forms explaining this study were mailed to the investigated subjects and recovered in return envelopes. Data were compared by sex and age group. We created a checklist comprising a 23-item health promotion evaluation index with established scoring. There were 33 questions regarding health checkups; cancer screenings; dental checkups, blood pressure; glycated hemoglobin or blood glucose; dyslipidemia; body mass index; number of remaining teeth; breakfast, vegetable, fruit, and salt intake; nutrient balance; exercise; smoking; drinking; sleep; stress; and mental state. There were also questions on outings, community involvement, activities to improve health, and community connections. The questions were classified into six categories: health management, physical health, dietary and exercise habits, indulgences, mental health, and social activities. Of the 4,002 distributed survey forms, 1,719 valid responses were returned (recovery rate, 43.0%). The mean score by category was 1.69 (N=1,343) for health management, 6.52 (N=1,444) for physical health, 12.97 (N=1,511) for dietary and exercise habits, and 2.29 (N=1,518) for indulgences, all of which were higher for women, and 5.81 (N=1,469) for mental health, which was higher for men. The health management scores were higher among subjects in their 40s and 50s. The physical health score increased gradually with age from the 70 s and older to the 20 s, whereas the dietary and exercise habits increased gradually from the 20 s to the 70 s and older. The 20 s had high scores for indulgences, while mental

Establishing schools that promote health: Is it worth doing?

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Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava

2013-12-01

Full Text Available School is a setting that plays a significant role in the physical, emotional, social and mental development of a child. Schools provide an exceptional opportunity for assisting millions of young children to acquire health supportive knowledge, values, attitudes and behaviors. The World Health Organization has launched a global school health initiative in order to establish and strengthen health promotional and educational activities at the local, national, and international levels for ensuring an improvement in the health of students, school personnel, families and other members of the community. The ultimate aim of this initiative is to enhance the number of "Health-Promoting Schools". A health promoting school is the one that continually strengthens its capacities as a healthy institute in living, learning and working. Various types of barrier, such as the unavailability of all components of school health services within the school premises, a lack of clear instructions and overlapping roles of different agencies involved,logistic concerns, parents’ and teachers’ reservations about the competence of healthcare personnel and the quality of services; lack of effective communication between nurses and physician have been recognized as relevant to  the global effort for increasing the number of health promoting schools worldwide. In view of the wide range of benefits associated with school health services, different strategies have been suggested to ensure a maximum coverage. The first and foremost priority is to develop national guidelines establishing the scope and range of services offered under the umbrella of school health services. Subsequently other measures that can be implemented in a time-bound phased manner to cover the entire country  include the following: ensuring the  availability of physicians and nurses, establishing  alliances with different national and international agencies, addressing identified barriers

Workplace Health Promotion in Small Enterprises in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasle, Peter; Peter, Wissing

An analysis of the Danish experience with workplace health promotion including preventive activities aiming at a safe and healthy workplace.......An analysis of the Danish experience with workplace health promotion including preventive activities aiming at a safe and healthy workplace....

Health promotion, occupational therapy and multiculturalism: lessons from research.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyck, I

1993-08-01

Principles of occupational therapy practice make the profession an important potential partner in health promotion initiatives for immigrant groups. Health promotion embodies the principles of self-definition of health needs by target groups, and working with a community in initiating and supporting programmes. This paper discusses the implications of an exploratory study of the daily activities of immigrant Indo-Canadian mothers for translating health promotion principles into practice. The research process and an analysis of interviews conducted with the women suggest factors to consider in using a health promotion framework with immigrants who have experienced social and economic dislocation through the immigration process. Discussion of household structure, divisions of labour, childcare strategies, and parenting concerns raises issues requiring particular attention in sharing occupational therapy skills and knowledge with ethnocultural communities.

Association between Municipal Health Promotion Volunteers' Health Literacy and Their Level of Outreach Activities in Japan.

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Taguchi, Atsuko; Murayama, Hiroshi; Murashima, Sachiyo

2016-01-01

To explore the association between health literacy and levels of three types of core activities among health promotion volunteers (developing a healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community members). A cross-sectional, anonymous, self-administered postal survey of registered health promotion volunteers in the Konan area in Shiga Prefecture in Japan, conducted in January 2010. The study sample was 575 registered health promotion volunteers. The survey collected data on health literacy, gender, age, education, self-rated health, perceptions about the volunteer organization, and perceptions of recognition in the community. The level of engagement in health promotion activities was measured by the extent to which the participants engaged in seven healthy behaviors and promoted them to family members and the community. The authors compared the health literacy level and other characteristics of the participants by core health promotion activities, using a chi-squared test, to examine the associations between demographic and other variables and the three core activities (healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community).Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between the degree to which the volunteers engaged in core activities ("healthy lifestyle," "outreach to family," "outreach to community") and the levels of health literacy (low, medium, high) among health promotion volunteers, controlling for the effects of age, gender, health condition, education which may also have an impact on volunteers' outreach activities. Four hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were returned, a 79.0% response rate. Excluding 16 cases with missing values on health literacy or the degree of health promotion activities, 438 research subjects were included in the analysis (valid response rate: 76.2%). Health literacy and a few demographic and other characteristics of the volunteers were associated with the three core health

Association between Municipal Health Promotion Volunteers’ Health Literacy and Their Level of Outreach Activities in Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Taguchi, Atsuko; Murayama, Hiroshi; Murashima, Sachiyo

2016-01-01

Objectives To explore the association between health literacy and levels of three types of core activities among health promotion volunteers (developing a healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community members). Study Design A cross-sectional, anonymous, self-administered postal survey of registered health promotion volunteers in the Konan area in Shiga Prefecture in Japan, conducted in January 2010. The study sample was 575 registered health promotion volunteers. Methods The survey collected data on health literacy, gender, age, education, self-rated health, perceptions about the volunteer organization, and perceptions of recognition in the community. The level of engagement in health promotion activities was measured by the extent to which the participants engaged in seven healthy behaviors and promoted them to family members and the community. The authors compared the health literacy level and other characteristics of the participants by core health promotion activities, using a chi-squared test, to examine the associations between demographic and other variables and the three core activities (healthy lifestyle, outreach to family, and outreach to community).Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between the degree to which the volunteers engaged in core activities (“healthy lifestyle,” “outreach to family,” “outreach to community”) and the levels of health literacy (low, medium, high) among health promotion volunteers, controlling for the effects of age, gender, health condition, education which may also have an impact on volunteers’ outreach activities. Results Four hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were returned, a 79.0% response rate. Excluding 16 cases with missing values on health literacy or the degree of health promotion activities, 438 research subjects were included in the analysis (valid response rate: 76.2%). Health literacy and a few demographic and other characteristics of the

The World Health Organization?s Health Promoting Schools framework: a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis

OpenAIRE

Langford, Rebecca; Bonell, Christopher; Jones, Hayley; Pouliou, Theodora; Murphy, Simon; Waters, Elizabeth; Komro, Kelli; Gibbs, Lisa; Magnus, Daniel; Campbell, Rona

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Healthy children achieve better educational outcomes which, in turn, are associated with improved health later in life. The World Health Organization's Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework is a holistic approach to promoting health and educational attainment in school. The effectiveness of this approach has not yet been rigorously reviewed. METHODS: We searched 20 health, education and social science databases, and trials registries and relevant websites in 2011 and 2013. We i...

Social deprivation and exposure to health promotion. A study of the distribution of health promotion resources to schools in England

OpenAIRE

Chivu, CM; Reidpath, DD

2010-01-01

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund and is available from the specified link - Copyright @ 2010 Chivu and Reidpath BACKGROUND: Area deprivation is a known determinant of health. It is also known that area deprivation is associated with lower impact health promotion. It is less well known, however, whether deprived areas are less responsive to health promotion, or whether they are less exposed. Using data from a national, school-based campaign...

The Jakarta Declaration on health promotion in the 21st century.

Science.gov (United States)

1998-01-01

The Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July 1997, focused on the theme: New Players for a New Era--Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century. Health promotion strategies can change life-styles as well as the social, economic, and environmental conditions that determine health. Most effective are comprehensive approaches that combine public policy efforts, the creation of supportive environments, community action, the development of personal skills, and a reorientation of health services. Also required is the creation of new partnerships for health between different sectors at all levels of society and government. The conference identified five priorities for health promotion in the 21st century: 1) promote social responsibility for health; 2) increase investments for health development, especially for groups such as women, children, older persons, the indigenous, the poor, and marginalized populations; 3) consolidate and expand partnerships for health to enable the sharing of expertise, skills, and resources; 4) increase community capacity and empower the individual; and 5) secure an infrastructure for health promotion through new funding mechanisms, intersectoral collaboration, and training of local leadership.

Health promotion among older adults in Austria: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Boggatz, Thomas; Meinhart, Christoph Matthias

2017-04-01

To determine the types of attitudes to health promotion among older Austrians. Health promotion in old age becomes increasingly important in the current period of demographic transition. Interventions are likely to be successful if they take the attitude of older persons into consideration. There may be several types of attitudes to health promotion among older adults. Cross-sectional qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a purposive sample consisting of 36 home-dwelling older persons from local communities in the federal province of Salzburg, Austria. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring and subsequent construction of types. There are three main types of attitudes to health promotion. 'Health promoters through everyday activities' considered domestic work and walks to be sufficient in keeping up their health. Fitness-oriented persons practised sports of some type. Users of complementary methods practised such methods to some degree. These types of attitudes could be further differentiated according to their outcome expectations. In addition to benefits for health, socialising was also an important outcome. Physical decline may reduce a fitness-oriented attitude, whereas encouragement by others may trigger it. Older adults have various attitudes to health promotion, but these are not immutable. Health promotion programmes that are not restricted to a narrow focus on health but provide the opportunity to socialise may support older adults in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effects of student participation in school health promotion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Griebler, Ursula; Rojatz, Daniela; Simovska, Venka

2017-01-01

The aim of this systematic review was to summarize systematically the existing evidence for the effects of student participation in designing, planning, implementing and/or evaluating school health promotion measures. The focus was on the effects of participation in school health promotion measur...

Appropriate Health Promotion for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demaio, Alessandro Rhyll; Drysdale, Marlene; de Courten, Maximilian

2012-01-01

building, community empowerment and local ownership. Culturally-Appropriate Health Promotion is a framework of principles developed in 2008 with the World Health Organization (Geneva) and Global Alliance for Health Promotion. It guides community-focused health promotion practice built on and shaped...... by the respect, understanding and utilisation of local knowledge and culture. Culturally-Appropriate Health Promotion is not about ‘targeting’, ‘intervening’ or ‘responding’. Rather, it results in health program planners and policy-makers understanding, respecting, empowering and collaborating with communities......, and their socio-cultural environment, towards better health. This commentary aims to examine and apply the 8 principles of Culturally-Appropriate Health Promotion to the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. It proposes its widespread adoption as a framework for a more respectful...

Faith communities and their assets for health promotion: the views from health professionals and faith leaders in Dundee, in Scotland.

Science.gov (United States)

Fagan, Donna M; Kiger, Alice; van Teijlingen, Edwin

2012-06-01

Within the European Union, as well as in Canada and the United States (US), health promoters employ a number of strategies to encourage community-based health improvements. This involves the creation of innovative health promotion partnerships to support and enable people to choose and engage in healthy living practices. Compared to the US, in other Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, faith communities have largely been ignored in health promotion partnerships. This study established existing evidence about health promotion in faith communities in Scotland by examining the perceptions and attitudes concerning health promotion among faith leaders and health promotion professionals. We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews with health promotion professionals (n = 9) and representatives of Christian and non-Christian faith communities (n = 24). The majority of participants expressed an interest in the concept of health promotion in a faith community and could readily envision its application in their area of work. Both groups identified multiple physical assets, as well as social supports within faith communities that could be directed towards healthy living activities. Faith groups and church organisations may constitute potential partners and new settings to increase community capacity for health promotion. Further research and funding for demonstration projects may be particularly helpful to provide evidence of the strengths and limitations of faith-based health promotion in Scotland, which in turn could inform health promotion practice and policy.

'Troubling' moments in health promotion: unpacking the ethics of empowerment.

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Grace

2015-12-01

Concepts of empowerment feature strongly in global health discourses. Empowerment is frequently advocated as a positive approach to addressing individual and community-level health needs. Despite its popularity, relatively little has been said about the unintended consequences of empowerment, which may give rise to some troubling ethical issues or, indeed, result in outcomes that may not be considered health promoting. Drawing on current uses of empowerment within health promotion, along with insights from an ethnographic study on young people's health, this paper raises some critical questions about the ethics of empowerment. By doing so, the paper troubles the idea that empowerment is a 'good thing' without some careful attention to the varying ways in which the ethics of empowerment may unfold in practice. Findings revealed young people's different perspectives on health and priorities for health promotion. The present analysis highlights how these alternative framings prompt a number of ethical tensions for understanding and operationalising empowerment. In conclusion, the findings underscore the importance of promoting ethical reflexivity in health promotion and, crucially, attending to the unintended and potentially ethically problematic consequences of empowerment. So what? This paper raises some critical questions about the ethics of empowerment and calls for a more thorough engagement with the unintended consequences of empowerment within health promotion.

Analysis of health promotion and prevention financing mechanisms in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Watabe, Akihito; Wongwatanakul, Weranuch; Thamarangsi, Thaksaphon; Prakongsai, Phusit; Yuasa, Motoyuki

2017-08-01

In the transition to the post-2015 agenda, many countries are striving towards universal health coverage (UHC). Achieving this, governments need to shift from curative care to promotion and prevention services. This research analyses Thailand's financing system for health promotion and prevention, and assesses policy options for health financing reforms. The study employed a mixed-methods approach and integrates multiple sources of evidence, including scientific and grey literature, expenditure data, and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Thailand. The analysis was underpinned by the use of a well-known health financing framework. In Thailand, three agencies plus local governments share major funding roles for health promotion and prevention services: the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), the National Health Security Office, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and Tambon Health Insurance Funds. The total expenditure on prevention and public health in 2010 was 10.8% of the total health expenditure, greater than many middle-income countries that average 7.0-9.2%. MOPH was the largest contributor at 32.9%, the Universal Coverage scheme was the second at 23.1%, followed by the local governments and ThaiHealth at 22.8 and 7.3%, respectively. Thailand's health financing system for promotion and prevention is strategic and innovative due to the three complementary mechanisms in operation. There are several methodological limitations to determine the adequate level of spending. The health financing reforms in Thailand could usefully inform policymakers on ways to increase spending on promotion and prevention. Further comparative policy research is needed to generate evidence to support efforts towards UHC. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Health promoting behaviors in industrial workers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gulay Yilmazel

2015-04-01

CONCLUSIONS: Health promoting behaviors were found to be in moderate level among cement factory workers. In our country, health protection and development programs at the national level would be useful to standardize for employees in the industrial sector. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2015; 14(2.000: 153-162

Promoting Oral Health Using Social Media Platforms: Seeking Arabic Online Oral Health Related Information (OHRI).

Science.gov (United States)

Almaiman, Sarah; Bahkali, Salwa; Alabdulatif, Norah; Bahkaly, Ahlam; Al-Surimi, Khaled; Househ, Mowafa

2016-01-01

Access to oral health care services around the world is limited by a lack of universal coverage. The internet and social media can be an important source for patients to access supplementary oral health related information (OHRI). Online OHRI presents an opportunity to enhance dental public health education about innumerable oral health issues and promote dental self-care. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of social media users among the Saudi population and identify the preferred social media platform for seeking Arabic OHRI and its impact on seekers' knowledge, attitude, and behavior. A total of 2652 Twitter followers were surveyed, using a web-based self-administered questionnaire to collect data on demographic characteristics and online OHRI seeking behavior More than two thirds, 67.7% (n= 1796), of the participants reported they were seeking Arabic online OHRI, while 41.1% of the participants reported they had no preference for using a specific social media platform. These results emphasize the need and importance of supporting the content of social media with trusted and high quality online OHRI resources to promote a high level of public awareness about oral health and dental health services. Further studies in this regard are highly recommended on a larger scale of nationalities to explore the role of social media platform preference in promoting health promotion and dental public health awareness.

The need for health promotion in jsc „vilniaus baldai“

OpenAIRE

Melkūnaitė, Eglė

2017-01-01

The Need for Health Promotion in JSC „Vilniaus Baldai“ The relevance of the study. Health promotion in workplaces brings benefits to the employees, organizations, governments and society as a whole. In order to successfully implement the health promotion program in the workplace, it is important to evaluate facilities, demands and situation of the employer. The aim of the study. To measure the need of health promotion in the company JSC „Vilniaus baldai“. The objective of the study. Measure t...

76 FR 67731 - Meeting of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-02

... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the... Public Health Service. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 10(a) of the Federal Advisory... scheduled to be held for the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public...

76 FR 26300 - Meeting of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-06

... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the... Public Health Service. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 10(a) of the Federal Advisory... scheduled to be held for the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public...

76 FR 58007 - Meeting of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-19

... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the... Public Health Service. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 10(a) of the Federal Advisory... scheduled to be held for the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public...

77 FR 15372 - Meeting of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-15

... Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the... Public Health Service. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 10(a) of the Federal Advisory... scheduled to be held for the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public...

[How to promote health competence at work].

Science.gov (United States)

Eickholt, Clarissa; Hamacher, W; Lenartz, N

2015-09-01

Health competence is a key concept in occupational health and safety and workplace health promotion for maintaining and enhancing health resources. The effects of governmental or occupational measures to protect or improve health fall short of what is required with regard to the challenges of a changing workplace, e.g., due to the delimitation of work. To secure employability it is becoming more and more important to encourage the personal responsibility of employees. To offer new conclusions on how employers and employees can promote health competence, a survey is required of the research within the fields of health competence and competence development, and of the status quo in enterprises. In this context, a Delphi Study provides an important contribution, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. The development of an extensive understanding of health competence is essential in a work-related context. Beyond knowledge-based health literacy, an action-oriented concept of competence implies the ability and willingness to act in a reasonable and creative manner in complex situations. The development of health competence requires learning embedded in working processes, which challenges competent behaviour. Enabling informal learning is a promising innovative approach and therefore coordinated operational activities are necessary. Ultimately, this is a matter of suitable organisational measures being implemented to meet the health competence needs of an enterprise. Even though the each individual employee bears his or her own health competence, the development potential lies largely within the prevailing working conditions.

Exploring strategies to improve the health promotion orientation of Flemish sports clubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Meganck, Jeroen; Seghers, Jan; Scheerder, Jeroen

2017-08-01

Sports clubs are increasingly recognized as an innovative setting for health promotion, as exemplified by the health promoting sports club concept. This study aims to assess the health promotion orientation of both youth sports clubs (YSC) and adult sports clubs (ASC) in Flanders and to identify the motives and barriers as reported by their representatives as a basis for proposing intervention strategies to improve the health promotion orientation in sports clubs. A total of 253 Flemish sports clubs, consisting of 156 YSC and of 97 ASC, completed the online questionnaire, covering club characteristics (e.g. finances, human resources), perceived motives and barriers for health promotion and the health promoting sports club index. Even though YSC were more health promoting than ASC, the results indicated that all sports clubs could improve their health promotion orientation. The most consistent predictors of health promotion orientation are perceived motives index for YSC and perceived lack of resources for ASC. Based on these results, interventions to enhance the health promoting orientation need to tackle the lack of resources such as lack of expertise regarding health promotion. Interventions aimed specifically at YSC should emphasize the direct benefits, for example by demonstrating how health promotion helps clubs to improve the provision of high quality sports participation and by awarding a health promotion quality label. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Social innovation for the promotion of health equity.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Chris; Barraket, Jo; Friel, Sharon; O'Rourke, Kerryn; Stenta, Christian-Paul

2015-09-01

The role of social innovations in transforming the lives of individuals and communities has been a source of popular attention in recent years. This article systematically reviews the available evidence of the relationship between social innovation and its promotion of health equity. Guided by Fair Foundations: The VicHealth framework for health equity and examining four types of social innovation--social movements, service-related social innovations, social enterprise and digital social innovations--we find a growing literature on social innovation activities, but inconsistent evaluative evidence of their impacts on health equities, particularly at the socio-economic, political and cultural level of the framework. Distinctive characteristics of social innovations related to the promotion of health equity include the mobilization of latent or unrealised value through new combinations of (social, cultural and material) resources; growing bridging social capital and purposeful approaches to linking individual knowledge and experience to institutional change. These have implications for health promotion practice and for research about social innovation and health equity. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The case of national health promotion policy in Australia: where to now?

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Smith, James A; Crawford, Gemma; Signal, Louise

2016-04-01

Issue addressed Over the last three decades there has been an incremental investment in health promotion and prevention across Australia; yet, the Commonwealth Government and some state/territory governments have more recently instigated funding cuts in health promotion and prevention. This paper argues that the role of health promotion is critical in contemporary Australia and discusses strategies needed to move forward within the context of recent disinvestments. Discussion Key areas of concern relating to recent health promotion and prevention disinvestment in Australia include the abolishment of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, the cessation of the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health and significant cuts to Indigenous programs. These changes pose a significant threat to the health, economic and social well being of Australians and the region, particularly those that are most vulnerable. Conclusions Future health promotion and prevention efforts will require strategic leadership and action to enhance the promotion of health equity in Australia over the coming decades. We call on governments to (re)invest in health promotion and prevention both in and outside the health sector so that health promotion professionals can continue their advocacy efforts aimed at articulating their professional place in improving population health. So what? Recent changes to national health promotion and prevention policy are detrimental to the health and well being of the Australian population, particularly those most vulnerable. Sound planning to revitalise and refocus health promotion action in Australia is urgently required.

Elaborating on systems thinking in health promotion practice.

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Naaldenberg, Jenneken; Vaandrager, Lenneke; Koelen, Maria; Wagemakers, Anne-Marie; Saan, Hans; de Hoog, Kees

2009-03-01

Health and well-being are the result of a series of complex processes in which an individual interacts with other people and the environment. A systematic approach ensures incorporation of individual, ecological, social and political factors. However, interactions between these factors can be overlooked within a systematical approach. A systemic approach can provide additional information by incorporating interactions and communication. The opportunities of a systems thinking perspective for health promotion were investigated for this paper. Although others have also made attempts to explore systems thinking in the field of health promotion, the implications of systems thinking in practice need attention. Other fields such as agricultural extension studies, organizational studies and development studies provide useful experiences with the use of a systems thinking perspective in practice. Building on experiences from these fields, we give a theoretical background in which processes of social learning and innovation play an important role. From this background, we derive an overview of important concepts for the practical application of a systems thinking perspective. These concepts are the structure of the system, meanings attached to actions, and power relations between actors. To make these concepts more explicit and reduce the theoretical character of systems thinking, we use an illustration to elaborate on these concepts in practice. For this purpose, we describe a health promotion partnership in The Netherlands using the concepts structure, meaning and power relations. We show how a systems perspective increases insight in the functioning of a partnership and how this can facilitate processes of social learning and innovation. This article concludes by identifying future opportunities and challenges in adopting systems thinking for health promotion practice. A systems perspective towards health promotion can help projects reaching a more integral and

Promoting social responsibility for health: health impact assessment and healthy public policy at the community level.

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Mittelmark, M B

2001-09-01

The 1997 Jakarta Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Century called for new responses to address the emerging threats to health. The declaration placed a high priority on promoting social responsibility for health, and it identified equity-focused health impact assessment as a high priority for action. This theme was among the foci at the 2000 Fifth Global Conference on Health Promotion held in Mexico. This paper, which is an abbreviation of a technical report prepared for the Mexico conference, advances arguments for focusing on health impact assessment at the local level. Health impact assessment identifies negative health impacts that call for policy responses, and identifies and encourages practices and policies that promote health. Health impact assessment may be highly technical and require sophisticated technology and expertise. But it can also be a simple, highly practical process, accessible to ordinary people, and one that helps a community come to grips with local circumstances that need changing for better health. To illustrate the possibilities, this paper presents a case study, the People Assessing Their Health (PATH) project from Eastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It places ordinary citizens, rather than community elites, at the very heart of local decision-making. Evidence from PATH demonstrates that low technology health impact assessment, done by and for local people, can shift thinking beyond the illness problems of individuals. It can bring into consideration, instead, how programmes and policies support or weaken community health, and illuminate a community's capacity to improve local circumstances for better health. This stands in contrast to evidence that highly technological approaches to community-level health impact assessment can be self-defeating. Further development of simple, people-centred, low technology approaches to health impact assessment at the local level is called for.

Health promotion in schools: a multi-method evaluation of an Australian School Youth Health Nurse Program.

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Banfield, Michelle; McGorm, Kelly; Sargent, Ginny

2015-01-01

Health promotion provides a key opportunity to empower young people to make informed choices regarding key health-related behaviours such as tobacco and alcohol use, sexual practices, dietary choices and physical activity. This paper describes the evaluation of a pilot School Youth Health Nurse (SYHN) Program, which aims to integrate a Registered Nurse into school communities to deliver health promotion through group education and individual sessions. The evaluation was guided by the RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance) framework. The objectives were to explore: 1) whether the Program was accessible to the high school students; 2) the impacts of the Program on key stakeholders; 3) which factors affected adoption of the Program; 4) whether implementation was consistent with the Program intent; and 5) the long-term sustainability of the Program. Research included retrospective analysis of Program records, administration of a survey of student experiences and interviews with 38 stakeholders. This evaluation provided evidence that the SYHN Program is reaching students in need, is effective, has been adopted successfully in schools, is being implemented as intended and could be maintained with sustained funding. The nurses deliver an accessible and acceptable primary health care service, focused on health promotion, prevention and early intervention. After some initial uncertainty about the scope and nature of the role, the nurses are a respected source of health information in the schools, consulted on curriculum development and contributing to whole-of-school health activities. Findings demonstrate that the SYHN model is feasible and acceptable to the students and schools involved in the pilot. The Program provides health promotion and accessible primary health care in the school setting, consistent with the Health Promoting Schools framework.

Initial Teacher Education for School Health Promotion in Austria: Does It Support the Implementation of the Health-Promoting School Approach?

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Flaschberger, Edith

2013-01-01

Purpose: School health promotion is said to be most effective when implemented through a comprehensive, settings-based, whole-school approach. The purpose of this paper is to address the current lack of knowledge about the current state of teacher education for health promotion and its potential to further the development of settings-based…

A missing ethical competency? A review of critical reflection in health promotion.

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Tretheway, Rebecca; Taylor, Jane; O'Hara, Lily; Percival, Nikki

2015-12-01

There is increasing emphasis in the health promotion literature on the ethical imperative for the profession to move towards critical practice. A key challenge for health promotion is that critical practice appears both under-developed and under-practiced. This is evident in the omission of critical reflection from Australian and international competencies for health promotion practitioners. A narrative literature review was undertaken to explore the current use of critical reflection in health promotion. Critical reflection models relevant to health promotion were identified and critiqued. There was a dearth of literature on critical reflection within health promotion, despite recognition of its potential to support critical practice. The discipline of critical social work provided literature on the use, effect and outcome of critical reflection in practice. The interdisciplinary critical reflection model was identified as the model most applicable to health promotion. Underpinned by critical theory, this model emphasises both critical and ethical practice. Critical reflection is a core competency for health promotion practitioners to address the ethical imperative to move towards critical practice. There is a need to explore the application of a critical reflection model in health promotion to determine how it may support critical and ethical practice. So what? If health promotion is to meet its ethical responsibilities, then critical reflection needs to be articulated as a core health promotion competency and a model for its application in health promotion developed.

Health Promoting Schools: Initiatives in Africa

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Macnab, Andrew J.; Stewart, Donald; Gagnon, Faith A.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale for and potential of World Health Organization (WHO) health promoting schools (HPS) in Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: Overview of the related literature and presentations at the 2011 Stellenbosch international colloquium on HPS relating to sub-Saharan Africa. Findings: Schools…

Leading by Example: Health Promotion Programs for School Staff

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Herbert, Patrick C.; Lohrmann, David K.

2011-01-01

Health promotion programs for school staff are an overlooked and underused resource that can reduce overweight and obesity among teachers and other staff members. They can also reduce staff absenteeism, increase productivity, reduce costs associated with health care and disability, and foster a climate that promotes good health schoolwide. An…

The Variables Associated With Health Promotion Behaviors Among Urban Black Women.

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Hepburn, Millie

2018-04-24

To improve understanding of variables impacting health promotion behaviors among urban Black women. A cross-sectional survey was used. Urban Black women (N = 132) between the ages of 30 to 64 years participated. The study was conducted in a U.S. metropolitan region in 2015. Health literacy (Newest Vital Sign [NVS]), self-efficacy (New General Self-Efficacy Scale [NGSE]), and readiness for change (Health Risk Instrument [HRI]) were correlated with health promotion behaviors (Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile II [HPLPII]). Univariate statistics addressed demographic characteristics; bivariate/simultaneous linear regression determined the relationships between the NVS, NGSE, and HRI to health promotion behaviors (HPLPII). Demographics: 72.6% completed high school and 25% completed college, and the mean body mass index (BMI) was >32. Positive correlations existed between each variable to health promotion behaviors: NVS (r = .244, p promotion behaviors. Education and health literacy were also correlated (r s = .414, p = .001). Although health literacy, self-efficacy, and readiness for change are associated with health promotion behaviors, readiness for change was the most highly correlated. The development and incorporation of interventions to promote health promotion behaviors should include readiness for change, health literacy, BMI, and education, especially among urban Black women in order to reduce critical health disparities. Community-based and culturally relevant strategies in promoting health that are integrated into existing lifestyles and designed to impact readiness for change will have the greatest impact on reducing health disparities both in the United States and in countries experiencing rapid urbanization. For example, healthy eating behaviors or increased physical activity may be best adopted when integrated into existing community-based spiritual or cultural events via trusted community leaders. Replication of this study in other populations of Black

Concept Analysis: Health-Promoting Behaviors Related to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Infection.

Science.gov (United States)

McCutcheon, Tonna; Schaar, Gina; Parker, Karen L

2015-01-01

The concept of health-promoting behaviors incorporates ideas presented in the Ottawa Charter of Public Health and the nursing-based Health Promotion Model. Despite the fact that the concept of health-promoting behaviors has a nursing influence, literature suggests nursing has inadequately developed and used this concept within nursing practice. A further review of literature regarding health promotion behaviors and the human papilloma virus suggest a distinct gap in nursing literature. This article presents a concept analysis of health-promoting behaviors related to the human papilloma virus in order to encourage the application of the concept into nursing practice, promote continued nursing research regarding this concept, and further expand the application of health-promoting behaviors to other situations and populations within the nursing discipline. Attributes of health-promoting behaviors are presented and include empowerment, participation, community, and a positive concept of health. Antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents are also presented, as are model, borderline, and contrary cases to help clarify the concept. Recommendations for human papilloma virus health-promoting behaviors within the nursing practice are also provided. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Ethical considerations of worksite health promotion: an exploration of stakeholders’ views

OpenAIRE

van Berkel, Jantien; Meershoek, Agnes; Janssens, Rien MJPA; Boot, Cécile RL; Proper, Karin I; van der Beek, Allard J

2014-01-01

Background: Developing, implementing and evaluating worksite health promotion requires dealing with all stakeholders involved, such as employers, employees, occupational physicians, insurance companies, providers, labour unions and research and knowledge institutes. Although worksite health promotion is becoming more common, empirical research on ethical considerations of worksite health promotion is scarce. Methods. We explored the views of stakeholders involved in worksite health promotion ...

Promoting and protecting the health of children and young people.

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Licence, K

2004-11-01

The health-related behaviours adopted by children and young people can have both immediate and long-term health effects. Health promotion interventions that target children and young people can lay the foundations of a healthy lifestyle that may be sustained into adulthood. This paper is based on a selective review of evidence relating to health promotion in childhood, carried out to support the external working group on the 'Healthy Child' module of the Children's National Service Framework. This is a selective review of mainly secondary research. It focuses on injury prevention, support for parenting and the promotion of good mental health, and promoting a healthy diet and physical activity amongst children and young people. In many areas, the quality of primary research into health promotion interventions aimed at children and young people is poor. Interventions are heterogeneous and not described in sufficient detail. Sample sizes tend to be small, and there are commonly problems of bias. Despite these difficulties, there is good evidence for a range of interventions, including (1) area road safety schemes; (2) combining a variety of approaches to the promotion of the use of safety equipment, including legislation and enforcement, loan/assisted purchase/giveaway schemes, education, fitting and maintenance of safety equipment; (3) school-based mental health promotion; (4) parenting support; (5) interventions that promote and facilitate 'lifestyle' activity for children, such as walking and cycling to school, and those that aim to reduce sedentary behaviours such as parent education to reduce the time children spend watching TV and using computers; and (6) controlling advertising of unhealthy food that is aimed at children. There are effective interventions to promote and protect the health of children and young people that require action across the five areas described in the Ottawa Charter. Health, social care and education services have a direct role in the

Health 2.0-Lessons Learned: Social Networking With Patients for Health Promotion.

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Sharma, Suparna; Kilian, Reena; Leung, Fok-Han

2014-07-01

The advent of social networking as a major platform for human interaction has introduced a new dimension into the physician-patient relationship, known as Health 2.0. The concept of Health 2.0 is young and evolving; so far, it has meant the use of social media by health professionals and patients to personalize health care and promote health education. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter offer promising platforms for health care providers to engage patients. Despite the vast potential of Health 2.0, usage by health providers remains relatively low. Using a pilot study as an example, this commentary reviews the ways in which physicians can effectively harness the power of social networking to meaningfully engage their patients in primary prevention. © The Author(s) 2014.

Commercial activities and the promotion of health in schools.

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Raine, Gary

2013-11-01

Many companies nowadays consider schools to be an important setting for marketing to children. However, important concerns can be raised from a health promotion perspective about the potential negative impact of commercial activities on the health and well-being of pupils. As this discussion paper will demonstrate, some commercial activities raise concerns in relation to physical health and obesity, not only by potentially undermining formal curriculum messages, but also through the active promotion of specific products, particularly those high in fat, sugar or salt. Nonetheless, the issues raised by commercial activities are not solely limited to effects on physical health. By allowing commercial activities, schools risk instilling in pupils consumer-orientated values. This is significant as such values have been linked to the development of poor health and well-being. Furthermore, the presence in schools of commercial activities will also militate against informed decision-making and be disempowering. There is also evidence that business-sponsored teaching materials can contain biased and misleading information. The potential negative impacts of commercial activities are inconsistent with goals in relation to the promotion of health and the principles of health-promoting schools.

Health promotion as multi-professional and multi-disciplinary work

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrisanthy Sotiriadou

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Background: A health promoter is the name given to all those experts who are intended to prevent disease andill health and to increase well-being at the community level. That seems to be a very good and useful idea ingeneral, but can it be achieved by individuals alone?Objective: Review to what extend team work and the concept of team development are a pre-requisite foreffective health promotion. That is the central objective of this article and the answer will be explored through ananalysis of the international literature.Discussion: The first part will set out to define the notions of both health promotion and health promotionspecialists, in order to provide a framework for the multi-professional and multi-disciplinary nature of healthpromotion. The second part will try to establish the meaning of collaboration for health promotion, starting withdefinitions of the concepts: group, team and teamwork. The benefits of collaborative work in health promotionwill be discussed alongside the common barriers that can arise during the process.Conclusions: The article will conclude by proposing the characteristics of a successful team-working healthpromotion group.

Health Promotion in Schools: A Scoping Review of Systematic Reviews

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Chilton, Roy; Pearson, Mark; Anderson, Rob

2015-01-01

Purpose: Schools are an important setting for a wide variety of activities to promote health. The purpose of this paper is to map the different types of health promotion programmes and activities in schools, to estimate the amount of published evaluations of health promotion within UK schools, and to identify any provisional "candidate…

Health Promoting Lifestyles Among Primary School Teachers Working in Edirne

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Burcu Tokuc

2007-12-01

Full Text Available To determine some socio-demographic characteristics and to evaluate daily life behaviors of the teachers who are working in Primary Schools in Edirne with Health Promotion Life Style Profile (HPLSP, was aimed in this study. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. A questionnaire which was prepared by the investigators and HPLSP was sent to all teachers working in 33 primary schools in Edirne. 410 teachers accepted to participate and completed the questionnaire. Data were evaluated by SPSS v 13.0. It was found that teachers participated in the study were generally at medium level at health promoting behaviors, and the highest mean score was nutrition and the lowest was exercise. The total health promoting behaviors score and inter personel relations score was significantly higher in females but exercise score was significantly higher in males. It was also found that the total score of health promoting behaviors, increased with age. For increasing and supporting health promoting behaviors of the teachers, health promotion lectures should be included in occupational education and in-service training programs, and health professionals always must be in relation with teachers. [TAF Prev Med Bull. 2007; 6(6: 421-426

Health Promoting Lifestyles Among Primary School Teachers Working in Edirne

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Burcu Tokuc

2007-12-01

Full Text Available To determine some socio-demographic characteristics and to evaluate daily life behaviors of the teachers who are working in Primary Schools in Edirne with Health Promotion Life Style Profile (HPLSP, was aimed in this study. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. A questionnaire which was prepared by the investigators and HPLSP was sent to all teachers working in 33 primary schools in Edirne. 410 teachers accepted to participate and completed the questionnaire. Data were evaluated by SPSS v 13.0. It was found that teachers participated in the study were generally at medium level at health promoting behaviors, and the highest mean score was nutrition and the lowest was exercise. The total health promoting behaviors score and inter personel relations score was significantly higher in females but exercise score was significantly higher in males. It was also found that the total score of health promoting behaviors, increased with age. For increasing and supporting health promoting behaviors of the teachers, health promotion lectures should be included in occupational education and in-service training programs, and health professionals always must be in relation with teachers. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2007; 6(6.000: 421-426

An integrated approach to the prevention and promotion of health in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper reports the results of a review of health promotion programmes in the workplace. The aim of this review was to ascertain evidence of success in health promotion in the workplace. Workplace health promotion (WHP) programmes help to improve employee health by optimising an organisation's overall economic, ...

Barriers to promote cardiovascular health in community pharmacies: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Perales, María Del Mar; Lasheras, Berta; Beitia, Guadalupe; Beltrán, Idoia; Marcos, Beatriz; Núñez-Córdoba, Jorge M

2017-06-01

Community pharmacists play an important role in the provision of health promotion services, and community pharmacies are considered as a potentially ideal site for cardiovascular health promotion. Information based on a systematic review of barriers to promoting cardiovascular health in community pharmacy is currently lacking. We have sought to identify the most important barriers to cardiovascular health promotion in the community pharmacy. We have systematically searched PubMed and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts for a period of 15 years from 1 April 1998 to 1 April 2013, contacted subject experts and hand-searched bibliographies. We have included peer-reviewed articles, with English abstracts in the analysis, if they reported community pharmacists' perceptions of the barriers to cardiovascular health promotion activities in a community pharmacy setting. Two reviewers have independently extracted study characteristics and data. We identified 24 studies that satisfy the eligibility criteria. The main barriers to cardiovascular health promotion in the community pharmacy included pharmacist-related factors; practice site factors; financial factors; legal factors; and patient-related factors. This review will help to provide reliable evidence for health promotion practitioners of the barriers to promoting cardiovascular health in the community pharmacy setting. This knowledge is valuable for the improvement of cardiovascular health promotion in this setting and guiding future research. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Organizational change theory: implications for health promotion practice.

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Batras, Dimitri; Duff, Cameron; Smith, Ben J

2016-03-01

Sophisticated understandings of organizational dynamics and processes of organizational change are crucial for the development and success of health promotion initiatives. Theory has a valuable contribution to make in understanding organizational change, for identifying influential factors that should be the focus of change efforts and for selecting the strategies that can be applied to promote change. This article reviews select organizational change models to identify the most pertinent insights for health promotion practitioners. Theoretically derived considerations for practitioners who seek to foster organizational change include the extent to which the initiative is modifiable to fit with the internal context; the amount of time that is allocated to truly institutionalize change; the ability of the agents of change to build short-term success deliberately into their implementation plan; whether or not the shared group experience of action for change is positive or negative and the degree to which agencies that are the intended recipients of change are resourced to focus on internal factors. In reviewing theories of organizational change, the article also addresses strategies for facilitating the adoption of key theoretical insights into the design and implementation of health promotion initiatives in diverse organizational settings. If nothing else, aligning health promotion with organizational change theory promises insights into what it is that health promoters do and the time that it can take to do it effectively. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Integrating weight bias awareness and mental health promotion into obesity prevention delivery: a public health pilot study.

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McVey, Gail L; Walker, Kathryn S; Beyers, Joanne; Harrison, Heather L; Simkins, Sari W; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly

2013-04-04

Promoting healthy weight is a top priority in Canada. Recent federal guidelines call for sustained, multisectoral partnerships that address childhood obesity on multiple levels. Current healthy weight messaging does not fully acknowledge the influence of social determinants of health on weight. An interactive workshop was developed and implemented by a team of academic researchers and health promoters from the psychology and public health disciplines to raise awareness about 1) weight bias and its negative effect on health, 2) ways to balance healthy weight messaging to prevent the triggering of weight and shape preoccupation, and 3) the incorporation of mental health promotion into healthy weight messaging. We conducted a full-day workshop with 342 Ontario public health promoters and administered a survey at preintervention, postintervention, and follow-up. Participation in the full-day workshop led to significant decreases in antifat attitudes and the internalization of media stereotypes and to significant increases in self-efficacy to address weight bias. Participants reported that the training heightened their awareness of their own personal weight biases and the need to broaden their scope of healthy weight promotion to include mental health promotion. There was consensus that additional sessions are warranted to help translate knowledge into action. Buy-in and resource support at the organizational level was also seen as pivotal. Professional development training in the area of weight bias awareness is associated with decreases in antifat attitudes and the internalization of media stereotypes around thinness. Health promoters' healthy weight messaging was improved by learning to avoid messages that trigger weight and shape preoccupation or unhealthful eating practices among children and youth. Participants also learned ways to integrate mental health promotion and resiliency-building into daily practice.

[The "health promotion" approach, a strategic alternative to teenagers' health in the Democratic Republic of Congo?].

Science.gov (United States)

Nsakala, Gabriel Vodiena; Coppieters, Yves

2014-01-01

This paper describes a review of the possibilities of improving HIV/AIDS prevention and reproductive health of teenagers and adolescents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This approach was based on compilation of institutional, political, legislative and national strategy data. The document review was completed by information collected from 15 key informants and by direct observation of the work of peer educators and community workers, allowing evaluation of the possibilities of development of the priority domains of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in young adolescents. Health promotion interventions for adolescents are globally ensured institutionally by three specialized programmes of the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with numerous national and international partners. Organized operationally outside of the primary health care circuit, strategic actions are more specifically directed towards acquisition of knowledge than individual skills by means of IEC (information, education and communication) and (BCC) (behaviour change communication) approaches, but with disappointing results. Although traces of these five priority domains of the Ottawa Charter are perceptible in the national response to the health problems of adolescents, the work of the various actors is not coordinated and organized in compliance with health promotion guidelines. The training of health workers appears to be a major determinant to structure this response around a dynamic federating the actions of all stakeholders to orient them towards the options of the health promotion approach.

Mental health promotion competencies in the health sector in Finland: a qualitative study of the views of professionals.

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Tamminen, Nina; Solin, Pia; Stengård, Eija; Kannas, Lasse; Kettunen, Tarja

2017-07-01

In this study, we aimed to investigate what competencies are needed for mental health promotion in health sector practice in Finland. A qualitative study was carried out to seek the views of mental health professionals regarding mental health promotion-related competencies. The data were collected via two focus groups and a questionnaire survey of professionals working in the health sector in Finland. The focus groups consisted of a total of 13 professionals. Further, 20 questionnaires were received from the questionnaire survey. The data were analysed using the qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin. A content analysis was carried out. In total, 23 competencies were identified and clustered under the categories of theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and personal attitudes and values. In order to promote mental health, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the principles and concepts of mental health promotion, including methods and tools for effective practices. Furthermore, a variety of skills-based competencies such as communication and collaboration skills were described. Personal attitudes and values included a holistic approach and respect for human rights, among others. The study provides new information on what competencies are needed to plan, implement and evaluate mental health promotion in health sector practice, with the aim of contributing to a more effective workforce. The competencies provide aid in planning training programmes and qualifications, as well as job descriptions and roles in health sector workplaces related to mental health promotion.

Sustainable development goals for health promotion: a critical frame analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Grace; Corbin, J Hope; Miedema, Esther

2018-05-25

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lay the foundations for supporting global health and international development work for the next 15 years. Thirty years ago, the Ottawa Charter defined health promotion and outlined key principles for global action on health, including the importance of advocating, enabling and mediating for health equity. Advocacy underscores a human right to health and suggests political action to support its attainment. Enabling speaks to health promotion's focus on the empowerment of people and communities to take control over their health and aspirations. Mediation draws attention to the critical intersectoral partnerships required to address health and social inequities. Underpinned by this approach, the aim of this paper is to consider how key health promotion principles, namely, rights, empowerment and partnership feature (and are framed) within the SDGs and to consider how these framings may shape future directions for health promotion. To that end, a critical frame analysis of the Transforming Our World document was conducted. The analysis interrogated varying uses and meanings of partnerships, empowerment and rights (and their connections) within the SDGs. The analysis here presents three framings from the SDGs: (1) a moral code for global action on (in)equity; (2) a future orientation to address global issues yet devoid of history; and (3) a reductionist framing of health as the absence of disease. These framings raise important questions about the underpinning values of the SDGs and pathways to health equity - offering both challenges and opportunities for defining the nature and scope of health promotion.

The CompHP Core Competencies Framework for Health Promotion in Europe

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Barry, Margaret M.; Battel-Kirk, Barbara; Dempsey, Colette

2012-01-01

Background: The CompHP Project on Developing Competencies and Professional Standards for Health Promotion in Europe was developed in response to the need for new and changing health promotion competencies to address health challenges. This article presents the process of developing the CompHP Core Competencies Framework for Health Promotion across…

[Outcomes evaluation of the school staff health promotion project].

Science.gov (United States)

Woynarowska-Sołdan, Magdalena

This article presents selected outcomes of a 3-year project "Health promotion of school staff in health-promoting schools," as well as the achievements and difficulties in its implementation. The research was conducted on 644 teachers and 226 members of non-teaching staff in 21 schools. The method involved opinion poll and authored questionnaires. A 2-part model of outcome evaluation was developed. Most participants appreciated the changes that took place within the 3 years of the project implementation. These included the improved level of their knowledge about health, health-conducive behaviors (62-93%) and the physical and social environment of the school (50-92%). Changes were more frequently acknowledged by teachers. About 80% of the participants had a positive attitude to the project, but only 20% assessed their involvement as considerable. About 90% believed that health promotion activities should be continued. According to the project leaders, insufficient support and financial resources, and difficulties in motivating school employees, particularly the nonteaching staff, to undertake health-promotion activities were the major handicaps in the project implementation. The project outcomes can be assessed as satisfying. They revealed that it is posssible to initiate health promotion among school staff. This can be effective on condition that participants are motivated, actively engaged in the project and supported by the head teacher and the local community. Necessarily, school leaders should be prepared to promote health among adults and to gain support from school policy decision makers, school administration, trade unions and universities involved in teacher training. Med Pr 2016;67(2):187-200. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

Outcomes evaluation of the school staff health promotion project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magdalena Woynarowska-Sołdan

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Background: This article presents selected outcomes of a 3-year project “Health promotion of school staff in health-promoting schools,” as well as the achievements and difficulties in its implementation. Material and Methods: The research was conducted on 644 teachers and 226 members of non-teaching staff in 21 schools. The method involved opinion poll and authored questionnaires. A 2-part model of outcome evaluation was developed. Results: Most participants appreciated the changes that took place within the 3 years of the project implementation. These included the improved level of their knowledge about health, health-conducive behaviors (62–93% and the physical and social environment of the school (50–92%. Changes were more frequently acknowledged by teachers. About 80% of the participants had a positive attitude to the project, but only 20% assessed their involvement as considerable. About 90% believed that health promotion activities should be continued. According to the project leaders, insufficient support and financial resources, and difficulties in motivating school employees, particularly the nonteaching staff, to undertake health-promotion activities were the major handicaps in the project implementation. Conclusions: The project outcomes can be assessed as satisfying. They revealed that it is posssible to initiate health promotion among school staff. This can be effective on condition that participants are motivated, actively engaged in the project and supported by the head teacher and the local community. Necessarily, school leaders should be prepared to promote health among adults and to gain support from school policy decision makers, school administration, trade unions and universities involved in teacher training. Med Pr 2016;67(2:187–200

Basic webliography on health promotion and disease prevention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Ferreira Junior

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Objectives: To introduce a basic webliography to access highly qualified evidence-based material on health promotion and disease prevention, aiming at the continuing education of health professionals. Methods: By means of Google® browser, applying the descriptors in sequence to progressively refine the search on Internet and key concepts to be learned, all previously defined by the authors themselves, we proceeded a qualitative analyses of the 20 first listed links for each searched issue and the final selection of the most scientifically relevant ones. Results: The 34 selected links are presented in 4 groups: 23 portals, 5 guides and recommendations, 4 scientific journals and 3 blogs that allow free access to health promotion and disease prevention related subjects, such as: concepts; national and international public policies; epidemiology, statistics and health indicators; diseases screening and prophylaxis; counseling for behavior change of health related habits; and interdisciplinary work. Among the selected links 10 (29% are written in English while the others are in Portuguese. Conclusions: The identification of reading materials on health promotion and disease prevention available on Internet, many in Portuguese, allowed us toselect relevant scientifically qualified literature and turn it accessible to health professionals, enabling the acquisition of new knowledge or quick update.

Working in Australia's heat: health promotion concerns for health and productivity.

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Singh, Sudhvir; Hanna, Elizabeth G; Kjellstrom, Tord

2015-06-01

This exploratory study describes the experiences arising from exposure to extreme summer heat, and the related health protection and promotion issues for working people in Australia. Twenty key informants representing different industry types and occupational groups or activities in Australia provided semi-structured interviews concerning: (i) perceptions of workplace heat exposure in the industry they represented, (ii) reported impacts on health and productivity, as well as (iii) actions taken to reduce exposure or effects of environmental heat exposure. All interviewees reported that excessive heat exposure presents a significant challenge for their industry or activity. People working in physically demanding jobs in temperatures>35°C frequently develop symptoms, and working beyond heat tolerance is common. To avoid potentially dangerous health impacts they must either slow down or change their work habits. Such health-preserving actions result in lost work capacity. Approximately one-third of baseline work productivity can be lost in physically demanding jobs when working at 40°C. Employers and workers consider that heat exposure is a 'natural hazard' in Australia that cannot easily be avoided and so must be accommodated or managed. Among participants in this study, the locus of responsibility for coping with heat lay with the individual, rather than the employer. Heat exposure during Australian summers commonly results in adverse health effects and productivity losses, although quantification studies are lacking. Lack of understanding of the hazardous nature of heat exposure exacerbates the serious risk of heat stress, as entrenched attitudinal barriers hamper amelioration or effective management of this increasing occupational health threat. Educational programmes and workplace heat guidelines are required. Without intervention, climate change in hot countries, such as Australia, can be expected to further exacerbate heat-related burden of disease and loss

Promoting Community Health Resources: Preferred Communication Strategies

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Background: Community health promotion efforts involve communicating resource information to priority populations. Which communication strategies are most effective is largely unknown for specific populations. Objective: A random-dialed telephone survey was conducted to assess health resource comm...

Health promotion and dental caries.

Science.gov (United States)

Maltz, Marisa; Jardim, Juliana Jobim; Alves, Luana Severo

2010-01-01

The central idea of the Brazilian health system is to prevent the establishment of disease or detect it as early as possible. Prevention and treatment of dental caries are related to behavioral factors, including dietary and oral hygiene habits, which are related to many chronic diseases. Dental health promotion therefore should be fully integrated into broadly based health-promoting strategies and actions such as food and health policies, and general hygiene (including oral hygiene), among others. For decades, a linear relationship between sugar consumption and caries has been observed. Recent data has indicated that this relationship is not as strong as it used to be before the widespread use of fluoride. However, diet is still a key factor acting in the carious process. Oral hygiene is a major aspect when it comes to caries, since dental biofilm is its etiological factor. Oral hygiene procedures are effective in controlling dental caries, especially if plaque removal is performed adequately and associated with fluoride. An alternative to a more efficient biofilm control in occlusal areas is the use of dental sealants, which are only indicated for caries-active individuals. If a cavity is formed as a consequence of the metabolic activity of the biofilm, a restorative material or a sealant can be placed to block access of the biofilm to the oral environment in order to prevent caries progress. The prevention of dental caries based on common risk-factor strategies (diet and hygiene) should be supplemented by more disease-specific policies such as rational use of fluoride, and evidence-based dental health care.

Health promotion and dental caries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marisa Maltz

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The central idea of the Brazilian health system is to prevent the establishment of disease or detect it as early as possible. Prevention and treatment of dental caries are related to behavioral factors, including dietary and oral hygiene habits, which are related to many chronic diseases. Dental health promotion therefore should be fully integrated into broadly based health-promoting strategies and actions such as food and health policies, and general hygiene (including oral hygiene, among others. For decades, a linear relationship between sugar consumption and caries has been observed. Recent data has indicated that this relationship is not as strong as it used to be before the widespread use of fluoride. However, diet is still a key factor acting in the carious process. Oral hygiene is a major aspect when it comes to caries, since dental biofilm is its etiological factor. Oral hygiene procedures are effective in controlling dental caries, especially if plaque removal is performed adequately and associated with fluoride. An alternative to a more efficient biofilm control in occlusal areas is the use of dental sealants, which are only indicated for caries-active individuals. If a cavity is formed as a consequence of the metabolic activity of the biofilm, a restorative material or a sealant can be placed to block access of the biofilm to the oral environment in order to prevent caries progress. The prevention of dental caries based on common risk-factor strategies (diet and hygiene should be supplemented by more disease-specific policies such as rational use of fluoride, and evidence-based dental health care.

Health Promotion Challenges at Sea - a Danish Case

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjarnø, Lulu

HEALTH PROMOTOIN CHALLENGES AT SEA - A DANISH CASE L Hjarnoe, Centre for Maritime Health and Safety, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark INTRODUCTION: For the past 15 years the need for health promotion initiatives in the maritime sector has become more and more evident. Thus...... previous studies have documented increased mortality and morbidity (incidences) among seafarers, not only due to accidents but also to lifestyle like cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and diseases related to alcohol. These diseases are related to factors like alcohol consumption, obesity, physical...... inactivity and smoking, which for the latter three are factors highly represented in the maritime industry. The aim of this study is to identify the current health status of seafarers and to detect, strengths and weaknesses of health promotion interventions implemented in this target group. METHODS: A 1 year...

Home as a health promotion setting for older adults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mahler, Marianne; Sarvimäki, Anneli; Clancy, Anne

2014-01-01

promotion care. As official guidelines in the Nordic countries state that home is the best place to grow old, it is essential that older persons keep their health and functional capacity in order to be able to live at home for as long as possible. As current policy emphasises living at home, home care......The number and the proportion of older persons is growing in the Nordic Countries. The growth in the older population has a clear impact on the care system for older persons. One trend is to prioritise home care instead of care in institutions. Another trend is to emphasise preventive and health......, preventive work and health promotion it becomes essential to study the home as a health promotion setting. Objective: The aim of this study was to reach a new understanding of home as a health promotion setting for older persons. Study design: The method used was a literature reflection and analysis...

Polyphenol-Rich Lentils and Their Health Promoting Effects.

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Ganesan, Kumar; Xu, Baojun

2017-11-10

Polyphenols are a group of plant metabolites with potent antioxidant properties, which protect against various chronic diseases induced by oxidative stress. Evidence showed that dietary polyphenols have emerged as one of the prominent scientific interests due to their role in the prevention of degenerative diseases in humans. Possible health beneficial effects of polyphenols are measured based on the human consumption and their bioavailability. Lentil ( Lens culinaris ; Family: Fabaceae) is a great source of polyphenol compounds with various health-promoting properties. Polyphenol-rich lentils have a potential effect on human health, possessing properties such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-inflammatory and anticancer. Based on the explorative study, the current comprehensive review aims to give up-to-date information on nutritive compositions, bioactive compounds and the health-promoting effect of polyphenol-rich lentils, which explores their therapeutic values for future clinical studies. All data of in vitro , in vivo and clinical studies of lentils and their impact on human health were collected from a library database and electronic search (Science Direct, PubMed and Google Scholar). Health-promoting information was gathered and orchestrated in the suitable place in the review.

Promoting Community Health and Eliminating Health Disparities Through Community-Based Participatory Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Ruiping; Stone, John R; Hoffman, Julie E; Klappa, Susan G

2016-03-01

In physical therapy, there is increasing focus on the need at the community level to promote health, eliminate disparities in health status, and ameliorate risk factors among underserved minorities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is the most promising paradigm for pursuing these goals. Community-based participatory research stresses equitable partnering of the community and investigators in light of local social, structural, and cultural elements. Throughout the research process, the CBPR model emphasizes coalition and team building that joins partners with diverse skills/expertise, knowledge, and sensitivities. This article presents core concepts and principles of CBPR and the rationale for its application in the management of health issues at the community level. Community-based participatory research is now commonly used to address public health issues. A literature review identified limited reports of its use in physical therapy research and services. A published study is used to illustrate features of CBPR for physical therapy. The purpose of this article is to promote an understanding of how physical therapists could use CBPR as a promising way to advance the profession's goals of community health and elimination of health care disparities, and social responsibility. Funding opportunities for the support of CBPR are noted. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Gender and Evolutionary Theory in Workplace Health Promotion

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Björklund, Erika; Wright, Jan

2017-01-01

Objective: Ideas from evolutionary theories are increasingly taken up in health promotion. This article seeks to demonstrate how such a trend has the potential to embed essentialist and limiting stereotypes of women and men in health promotion practice. Design: We draw on material gathered for a larger ethnographic study that examined how…

An exploration of health concerns & health-promotion behaviors in pregnant women over age 35.

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Viau, Paula A; Padula, Cynthia A; Eddy, Barbara

2002-01-01

To explore the specific health concerns and health-promotion behaviors of childbearing women 35 years of age or older. Semistructured interviews with women ( = 50) ages > or =35 in their third trimester of pregnancy. Interviews lasted approximately 1 hour, were conducted by two nursing faculty, and were scheduled to accommodate participant needs. Process recording was used to document participant responses. Verbatim statements were recorded, and subjects were redirected to clarify responses when necessary. Content analysis and coding were completed by an independent researcher, based upon techniques derived from Miles and Huberman (1994). Data reduction was accomplished by the identification of categories of responses that described the participants' meaning. Study participants reported concerns reflecting both fetal well-being and maternal health-related issues. The majority of childbearing women (86%) reported engaging in multiple health-promotion behaviors focusing on daily nutritional intake, lifestyle activities, and rest patterns. Participants reported conscientious decisions to eliminate substances recognized as harmful, and to alter exercise, employment, or daily responsibilities to accommodate physical changes during pregnancy. Participants were "proactive healthcare seekers," accessing information from a variety of sources and seeking services to meet their individualized needs. The multitude and frequency of health-promotion behaviors adopted by those > or =35 years of age during pregnancy is indicative of this group's ability to independently initiate change, and exceeds the percentages previously reported. The nurse can be influential in supporting lifestyle modifications adopted during the childbearing period as permanent health-promotion behaviors.

Health promotion in Family Health Strategy: the perception of the nursing staff Crato - CE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danielle Lopes de Alencar

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Objective: To evaluate the perception of the nursing staff of the Family Health Strategy (FHS on health promotion. Methods: This was a qualitative and descriptive study, which occurred in nine FHS of the city of Crato-CE in the period October-December 2010. The subjects were nine nurses and eight of the nursing technicians with service time of three to eight years at FHS investigated. Randomly chosen and electing the criterion of saturation data, we used semi-structured interview, which was recorded. During data analysis, we opted for collective subject discourse (CSD, which emerged the central ideas that enabled the formation of CSD for each professional category. The subjects were informed about the research objectives by submitting the Term of Consent, which was signed by all. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Rural University of Cariri (RUCA, with approval No. 21/2010. Results: It was observed that the conceptual and practical vision on health promotion approaches the concept of prevention, however, nurses recognize health more broadly, in the context of the social construction of individual, differing from the CSD of the nursing technicians. The actions taken in the field of health promotion are still delimited by lectures. Conclusion: Perceptions of professionals are constituted by a weakness related to CSD and the actions performed by them, constituting an obstacle to the consolidation of a new model of care that has as central to health promotion.

The importance of context in the evolution of health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, Michael

2013-06-01