Health Promotion Overview Lecture 1

Lecture 1

• Promotion is a marketing tool to convince consumers about health and fitness.
• Health promotion involves persuading consumers about health benefits.
• "No plan survives contact with the enemy" - refers to temptation as the enemy when trying to improve health.
• A plan may require adapting (operational flexibility) in the face of obstacles (e.g., injuries, time constraints).
• Personal experience isn't enough to support claims, literature should be consulted for evidence.
• Health promotion aims to reduce preventable health issues and enhance overall well-being.
• Values of health promoters include fostering social networks, community participation, and competence, along with equitable community access to resources like food and income.
• The Ottawa Charter for health promotion includes a holistic view of health (including physical, disease risk, mental health, etc.), focuses on participatory approaches, identifies relationships between variables and promoting strengths and assets in communities.
• Strategies for health promotion often include multiple complementary approaches.

Lecture 2

• Post-World War II, health became a priority for prolonging life, thus, public health measures became more important.
• Education is key to changing health behaviors.
• Emphasis has shifted to addressing risk factors and promoting healthy lifestyles to prevent chronic disease.
• Universal healthcare has increased access to health services for all, which is key to optimization.
• Health promotion is important as a proactive rather than reactive measure (e.g., disease prevention).
• Mental health challenges can arise from new technologies and increased automation
• There is reduced activity participation, linked to lifestyle choices and technology usage.

Lecture 3

• Health promotion empowers individuals to make healthier choices, including patient support, education, counsel and support tools.
• Prevention strategies focus on reducing disease, identifying risk factors, or detecting diseases early.
• Primary prevention (e.g., exercise and immunizations) aims to keep people healthy and free from disease by removing health risks.
• Secondary prevention focuses on identifying and treating diseases in early stages (e.g. screening).
• Tertiary prevention focuses on restoring health as diseases progress (e.g., surgery or chemotherapy).
• Determinants of health include income, social status, social networks, education, and employment conditions, physical environment, coping practices, genetics, gender, and cultural context.

Lecture 4

• "Everything in moderation"—emphasizing that even potentially harmful substances if consumed or used in moderation, are not bad for health.
• Chronic load is the long-term cumulative effect of workouts or activity.
• Progressive overload is increasing the amount or intensity of exercise (10-20%).
• Levels of promotion to reach the population: individual, community, or entire population.
• Population health: collected data of individuals, categorized by health, which is influenced by socio-economic factors, health practices, and early childhood development.
• Stages of health promotion: primordial (reducing risks to population), primary prevention (risk actions for susceptible populations), secondary prevention (treating pre-clinical conditions).

Lecture 5

• Health promotion research focuses on understanding how to communicate health information effectively.
• Mass media communication and interpersonal channels of communication to improve health outcomes for different segments of the population.
• Interactive health communication facilitates more direct interaction between audiences and information conveyors.
• Media advocacy champions the cause for groups unable to represent their interests, including promoting health.
• Limitations in effectiveness of health promotions need to be recognized - e.g. creating health inequities.
• Audience analysis is crucial for effective health communication, including demographic data, behaviors and values.
• Effective health education strategies consider audience to enhance learning and knowledge retention, include creating competitive market analyzes and campaigns for targeting a specific demographic.
• Research helps to determine quality of strategies.
• Conducting research allows for an understanding of how strategies for health promotion can be implemented, and how to effectively evaluate the quality and effectiveness of these approaches,.

Lecture 6

• Effective health research focuses on evidence-based approaches and cost-effectiveness.
• Research types: observational (cohort, cross-sectional, case-control, case reports), experimental (RCTs).
• Knowledge synthesis: meta-analysis and systematic reviews for summarizing knowledge.
• The hierarchy of study designs prioritizes rigor, starting with systematic reviews and meta-analyses moving down to observational designs which yield less rigorous evidence.

Lecture 7

• Methods for evaluating research studies: internal and external validity.
• Internal validity assesses the study design's quality in achieving valid results without interference. External validity assesses how well the results or a study can be generalized in a population
• Determining the validity of a study requires detailed consideration of all variables and processes, including factors influencing the outcome.

Lecture 8

• Evaluate a trial effectiveness: consider the discussion of variables and their effect size (the magnitude of the effect of the treatment.)