introduction to health education

2. theoretical
concepts,
effective
strategies and core
competencies

3. contents
 Introduction
 Definition
 Aim & concept
 Principles od health education
 Process of health education
 Approach to health education
 Method of health education

4.  Health education forms an important part of
the health promotion activities currently
occurring in the countries that make up the
WHO.
 These activities occur in schools, workplaces,
clinics and communities and include topics
such as healthy eating, physical activity,
tobacco use prevention, mental health,
HIV/AIDS prevention and safety

5.  It reviews health education theories and
definitions,
 identifies the components of evidence-based
health education and outlines the abilities
necessary to engage in effective practice.

6.  However, a number of challenges exist,
including having access to appropriate up-to-
date tools on how to engage in effective
health education practice and confusion as
to how health education can meaningfully
contribute to the goals of health promotion.
In response to these challenges,

7.  Much has been written over the years about
the relationship and overlap between health
education, health promotion and other
concepts, such as health literacy.

8.  Attempting to describe these various
relationships is not easy; discussion of these
concepts can be intense since the
professional affiliation associated with them
is often strong and entrenched and the
concepts are either still evolving or have
evolved at different times from separate
disciplines.

9.  Health
 The WHO Constitution of 1948 defines health as
a state of complete physical, social and mental
well-being, and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity.
 In addition, the Ottawa Declaration states an
“individual or group must be able to identify and
realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to
change or cope with the environment. Health is,
therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life,
not the objective of living.
 Health is a positive concept emphasizing social
and personal resources, as well as physical
capacities

10.  WHO, Declaration of Alma-Ata. With the
Declaration of Alma-Ata, 6-12 September 1978
 attention was focused on the concerted effort
regarding the improvement
 of health in 34 countries. What were the issues?
Improving health education and paying attention
to the prevention of health problems,
 the promotion of healthy food, good mother and
child care and good health care such as
immunizations against infectious diseases, the
treatment of diseases, and the prevention of
injuries

11.  In the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
(WHO 1986), the goal was to create “Health for
All by the year 2000.” The emphasis is on health
promotion and health education as: “the process
of enabling people to increase control over and
to improve their health.” There are five
important areas in the “Health for All- strategy”:
(1) developing health policy; (2) developing a
physical and social environment that promotes
health; (3) strengthening community action; (4)
developing health skills in people to optimize the
chances of health; (5) reorientation of health
care facilities.

12.  Health promotion is defined by the Ottawa
Charter as the process of enabling people to
increase control over and to improve their
health.
 For the purposes of this document, health
promotion is viewed as a combination of
health education activities and the adoption
of healthy public policies

13.  Health education focuses on building
individuals’ capacities through educational,
motivational, skill-building and
consciousness-raising techniques.
 Healthy public policies provide the
environmental supports that will encourage
and enhance behaviour change.

14.  By influencing both individuals’ capacities
and providing environmental support,
meaningful and sustained change in the
health of individuals and communities can
occur

15.  Health literacy is an outcome of effective
health education, increasing individuals’
capacities to access and use health
information to make appropriate health
decisions and maintain basic health.

16.  Lifestyle (lifestyles conducive to health)
 “A way of living based on identifiable
patterns of behaviour which are determined
by the interplay between an individual’s
personal characteristics, social interactions,
and socioeconomic and environmental living
conditions

17.  Thanks for your attention