Health Promotion

Health Promotion: Process, Scope, and Entities

• Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health.
• It involves public policy addressing health determinants such as income, housing, food security, employment, and quality working conditions.
• Health promotion is aligned with health equity and can be a focus of non-governmental organizations dedicated to social justice or human rights.
• The process of health promotion works in all settings and sectors where people live, work, play, and love.
• The WHO's settings approach to health promotion, Healthy Settings, looks at the settings as individual systems that link community participation, equity, empowerment, and partnership to actions that promote health.
• Health promotion in the hospital setting aims to increase health gain by supporting the health of patients, staff, and the community.
• Worksite health promotion programs include exercise, nutrition, smoking cessation, and stress management.
• The WHO and its Regional Offices are influential in health promotion around the world.
• The Australian Health Promotion Association is a professional body that was incorporated in 1988.
• The Ministry of Health Promotion in Ontario aims to promote and encourage Ontarians to make healthier choices at all ages and stages of life.
• The Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand is the national umbrella organization of over 150 organizations committed to improving health.
• Health promotion in New Zealand has become an established approach in addressing public problems since the 1980s through increasing use of intersectoral action, public policy, and mass media as promotional strategies.National Health Promotion Policies and Initiatives Across Four Countries

Norway:

• Norway created the Norwegian Public Health Act (PHA) in 2012, based on policies of health equity, HiAP, sustainable development, the precautionary principle, knowledge-based approaches, and civil society participation.
• The PHA gives decision-making power to the counties to decrease inequalities and increase the fair distribution of resources across all populations.

Sri Lanka:

• In 2015, the life expectancy of Sri Lankan people was 72 for male and 78 for female, with a shift towards non-communicable diseases related to lifestyle and environmental factors.
• The Sri Lankan National Health Promotion Policy emphasises advocacy and empowerment to enable individuals and communities to take control of their health, as well as improving the management of health promotion interventions across sectors.

Sweden:

• Health promotion is primarily the responsibility of the Public Health Agency of Sweden, but many regional initiatives exist, such as clinical health promotion programs in specific areas.
• Health promotion initiatives focus on health equity and empowering groups in society that experience poorer health status.
• Health promotion in schools has grown due to the link between student health and well-being.

United Kingdom:

• The Royal Society for Public Health was formed in 2008 by the merger of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health and the Royal Institute of Public Health.
• The Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland was set up to provide leadership, strategic direction, and support to all those involved in promoting health in Northern Ireland.
• Recent work in the UK on the relationship between health promotion and social marketing has highlighted and reinforced the potential integrative nature of the approaches.

United States:

• Developing personal skills is the core of Health Education, which is often confused for the whole of Health Promotion.
• Government agencies concerned with health promotion include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
• Nongovernmental organizations concerned with health promotion include the American Public Health Association and the Society for Public Health Education.