I. Health Education Perspectives

• Health Education

  An art that draws upon the scientific knowledge amassed in the pursuit of numerous sciences (medicine and its allied sciences –biology, psychology, social sciences and many practical arts)
• Health Education


  The analysis (science) and synthesis (philosophy) of this knowledge constitute the materials out of which health education of the individual and community emerges
• Health Education is dynamic and has been affected by scientific, political, social, artistic, economic, philosophical changes of the times
• In the earliest civilizations, eating the flesh of unclean animals was forbidden
• In the earliest civilizations, disease was taken as an expression of the wrath of the evil spirits and cleanliness was practiced as next to godliness which was more for religious purposes than for hygienic purposes
• Hygeia


  The legendary daughter of Aesculapius, the God of Healing, who became the Goddess of Health in ancient Greek
• The Greeks believed that healers knew enough and that a man who adhered to hygienic modes of life, can attain long life
• Greek writings on health

  • Hippocratic Corpus (Hippocratic Canon)
  • Aphorisms
• Aphorism


  A short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or observation
• Example of Aphorism


  • "those who are attacked by tetanus either die in 4 days, or if they survived, recover."
• Regimen in Health


  A work of 2,000 words giving an outline of the main rules for eating and drinking either to get fat or to become thin
• Child Care (in ancient Greece)


  Infants should be washed in warm water for a long time and be given to drink their wine well diluted and not altogether cold
• The Greek education played a part in the dissemination of knowledge but it was addressed to the small upper class
• Gymnastic exercises were emphasized in Greek education which included instruction on the care of the body
• Greek view of Health


  A state of being in which the various forces constituting the human body were perfectly balanced
• The Roman attitude towards medicine differed from the Greeks
• Cato the Censor


  Practiced medicine under the guidance of a commentarium or a medical cookbook which contained a large range of prescriptions
• Cornelius Celsus


  Wrote a treatise De Medicina that set out pharmacopeia, rules for dealing with wounds and injuries, guidance on bathing, diet, drinking, exercise and discuss diagnosis and treatment of many of the major diseases
• Claudius Galen's Hygeia


  A work that gave a regimen for the young and the old
• In the Middle Ages, man's preoccupation was the salvation of soul rather than health for the body
• In the Middle Ages, Christianity made its contribution in the sphere of mental health by recognizing the importance of personality and the need for love in interpersonal relationships
• In the Middle Ages, the Christian doctrine holds that interpersonal relationships should be regulated by law
• In the Middle Ages, the medieval man had the conviction that by means of correct regimen, one could complete the allotted life span of three scores and ten
• Salernitan Regimen of Health (Regimen Sanitantis Salernitanum)


  Literature on the preservation of health that was popular among the bourgeois, burghers and artisans
• A Salernitan Regimen of Health


  • If you want to be healthy, if you want to remain sound, Take away your heavy cares, and refrain from anger, Be sparing of undiluted wine, eat little, get up, After eating fine food, avoid afternoon naps, Do not retain your urine nor tightly compress your anus. Do these things well, and you shall live a long time.
• The Renaissance period (1500-1750) was characterized by great scientific outburst and gradual release from traditionalism
• The Renaissance period saw the development of public health
• Factors that contributed to the foundations of Health Education

  • The rise of middle class
  • Growth of the state
  • Technological progress
  • Growth and spread of sciences in various fields
  • Rise of universities and seats of learning
  • Growth of literature and the writings of philosophers like Bacon and Rene Descartes
• Francis Bacon


  An English Philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist and author who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England and was an advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution
• Rene Descartes

  A French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy"
• There was increasing use of the experimental method with such men like Vesalius, Harvey, Fracastoro, and others and their increasing tendency to individualize disease entities on the basis of clinical observation
• The possibility of applying scientific knowledge to the needs of the community was given ideological form
• Girolamo Fracastoro


  An Italian physician, poet, and scholar in mathematics, geography and astronomy who subscribed to the philosophy of atomism and rejected appeals to hidden causes in scientific investigation
• Culture became more widely diffused because of the invention of printing and visual media, and was spread by word of mouth
• Charlatans


  Persons who pretend to have a knowledge or skill that they do not possess, especially medical knowledge
• The Age of Enlightenment and Reason (1750-1830) was an extension of the scientific advances of the previous century
• The Age of Enlightenment and Reason saw the acceptance of the supreme value of intelligence and recognition that social progress could be made effective only when there was informed public opinion
• The new health education movement during the Age of Enlightenment and Reason was international in character, where everywhere the same appeal to reason coupled in belief in progress and perfectibility
• Groups that influenced the Health Education movement

  • Legislators & Social Workers (Howard, Pestalozzi and Florence Nightingale)
  • Medical Men (Jenner, Frank, Chadwick, Pasteur, Lister and Koch)
• Louis Pasteur


  A French chemist and microbiologist who is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases, including the invention of pasteurization