3 - Overview of Health Education

• Health education - should be viewed within thechanging context of health and disease; withinthe changing health picture where lifestyles playan important role and within the accepteddefinition of health.
• “Educe” Latin for “to lead out”
• Leading out what people already “know” and “believe” and do about their health; modifying those that are undesirable, and developing desirable behaviors that are conducive to health.
• Comprises of consciously constructedopportunities for learning involving some formof communication designed to improve healthliteracy including improving knowledge, anddeveloping life skills which are conducive toindividual and community health.
• Health Literacy - Capacity of an individual to obtain, interpret,and understand basic health information andservices and the competence to use suchinformation and services in ways that are healthenhancing
• Health Literacy: Fundamental literacy/numeracy, Science and Technology, Community/civic literacy, Cultural literacy
• FUNDAMENTAL LITERACY/NUMERACY - Competence in understanding and usingprinted language, spoken language, numerals,and basic mathematical symbols or terms.
• Involved in a wide range of cognitive, behavioral,and social skills and abilities.
• LITERACY PERTAINING TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Understanding of the basic scientific andtechnological concepts, technical complexity,the phenomenon of scientific uncertainty, andthe phenomenon of rapid change.
• COMMUNITY/CIVIC LITERACY - Understanding about sources of information, agenda, and methods of interpreting those agenda.
• Enables people to engage in dialog and decision making; includes media interpretation skills and understanding of civic and legislative functions.
• CULTURAL LITERACY - Understanding of collective beliefs, customs, worldviews, and social identify relationships tointerpret and produce health information.
• HEALTH PROMOTION− Any planned combination of educational,political, regulatory and organizational supportsfor actions and conditions of living conducive tothe health of individuals, groups orcommunities (Green and Kreuter, 2005).
• Process of enabling people to increase controlover the determinants of health and therebyimprove their health(World HealthOrganization, 1998).
• PREDOMINANT PHILOSOPHIES: Behavior change philosophy, Cognitive-based philosophy, Decision-making philosophy, Freeing/functioning philosophy, Social change philosophy
• BIOMEDICAL FOUNDATION: Microbiology, Parasitology, Nutrition, Environmental Health, Occupational Health
• PSYCHO-SOCIAL FOUNDATION: Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science
• DEVELOP HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY - Healthy public policy is characterized by an explicit concern for health and equity in all areas of policy, and by an accountability for health impact.
• CREATE SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS - Supportive environments for health offer people protection from threats to health, and enable people to expand their capabilities and develop self-reliance in health
• Encompass where people live, their local community, their home, where they work and play, including access to resources for health ,and opportunities for empowerment
• STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY ACTION - Community action for health refers to collective efforts by communities which are directed towards increasing control over the determinants of health.
• Individuals and organizations apply their skills and resources in collective efforts to address health priorities and meet their respective health needs.
• DEVELOP PERSONAL SKILLS - Life skills are fundamental building blocks for the development of personal skills.
• Consist of personal, interpersonal, cognitiveand physical skills.
• REORIENT HEALTH SERVICES - Characterized by a more explicit concern for the achievement of population health outcomes in the ways in which the health system is organized and funded.
• Reorientation must lead to a change of attitude and organization of health services, which focuses on the needs of the individual as a whole person, balanced against the needs of population groups.
• CLASSIFICATION OF HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGIES/METHODS: According to focus, Use of Behavioral theories, According to target factors
• Focus on the individual: The origin of health education/promotion, Usually utilized for purposes of secondary and tertiary prevention
• Focus on groups: Utilized for a number of persons present in one setting at the same time, Appropriate for the purposes of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention programs
• Focus on whole population: Most of the time utilize mass media to maximize coverage of the target populations, Very cost – effective for the purposes of empowerment and for primary prevention
• Pre-contemplation - A condition in which people are not thinking about change or have expressed no interest in change.
• Contemplation - The period in which people are seriously thinking about the behavior change.
• Preparation and Action - Period when an effort to try the behavior change is undertaken.
• Confirmation - The period when people can now maintain the new behavior.
• Pre-contemplation: Create awareness and interest
• Contemplation: Change values
• Preparation and action: Create opportunity for action
• Confirmation: Maintain change
• Communication: Targeting the predisposingfactors.
• Training: Target enabling factors.