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DEFINITIONS OF HEALTH EDUCATION

According to

Griffiths (1972)

, “

health education attempts to close thegap between what is known about optimum health practice and that whichis actually practiced.

”

Simonds (1976)

defined health education as aimed at“

bringing about behavioural changes in individuals, groups, and largerpopulations from behaviours that are presumed to be detrimental tohealth, to behaviors that are conducive topresent and future health.

”Subsequent definitions of health education emphasized voluntary, informedbehavior changes. In

1980

Green

defined health education as “

any combinationof learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behaviour conducive to health

(Green, Kreuter, Partridge, and Deeds, 1980). The

Role Delineation Project

defined health education as “

the process of assistingindividuals, acting separately or collectively, to make informed decisionsabout matters affecting their personal health and that of others

” (National Task Force on the Preparation and Practice of Health Educators, 1985).Health education evolved from three settings: communities, schools, andpatient care sites. Kurt Lewin’s pioneering work in group process and hisdevelopmental field theory during the 1930s and 1940s form the intellectual rootsof

Health Behavior and Health Education much of today’s health educationpractice. One of the earliest models developed to explain health behavior, theHealth Belief Model, was developed during the 1950s to explain behavior related totuberculosis screening (Hochbaum, 1958).

Health education includes not onlyinstructional activities and other strategies to change individual healthbehavior but also organizational efforts, policy directives, economicsupports, environmental activities, mass media, and community- levelprograms.

Two key ideas from an ecologic perspective help direct the identificationof personal and environmental leverage points for health promotion and educationinterventions (Glanz and Rimer, 1995). First, behavior is viewed as being affectedby, and affecting,

multiple levels of influence.

Five levels of influence for health-related behaviors and conditions have been identified. They are (1) intrapersonal, orindividual factors; (2) interpersonal factors; (3) institutional, or organizationalfactors; (4) community factors; and (5) public policy factors (McLeroy, Bibeau,Steckler, and Glanz, 1988). The second key idea relates to the possibility of

reciprocal causation

between individuals and their environments; that is, behaviorboth influences

and

is influenced by the social environment (Stokols, 1992).

Healtheducation covers the continuum from disease prevention and promotion of optimal health to the detection of illness to treatment, rehabilitation, andlong-term care. Health education is delivered in almost every conceivablesetting—universities, schools, hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores andshopping centers, recreation settings, community organizations, voluntaryhealth agencies, worksites, churches, prisons, health maintenanceorganizations, migrant labor camps, advertising agencies, the Internet,people’s homes, and health departments at all levels of government.

DEFINITIONS OF HEALTH

Health

is a quality of life involving social, mental, and biological fitness onthe part of the individual which results from the adaptations to the environment(Shirrefs, 1982)

Health

refers to a condition of physical, mental, and social well-being andthe absence of disease or other abnormal condition. It is not

static

condition;constant change and adaptation to stress result in homeostasis. Rene Dubor, oftenquoted in nursing education, says “The states of health or disease are theexpression of the success or failure experienced by the organism in its efforts torespond adaptively to environmental challenges.

Health

is multi-dimensional, and includes vocational health as well as themore traditional health components (Eberst, 1985).

Health

as defined in the Constitution of the World Health Organization (1946)refers to that state of complete physical, mental, social well-being, and not merelythe absence of disease and infirmity. It includes three basic concepts to a positiveconcept of health, such as: (a) reflecting concern for the individual as a total person;(b) placing health in the context of the environment, and (c) equating health withproductive creative living.Dever (1980) summarizes the varying ways that health can beconceptualized when he describes the ecological, social ecological, World HealthOrganization holistic and high-level wellness models of health.Others write of health as being more holistic.Self-awareness as a key component of health includes skills development,values awareness, goal setting, positive self-concepts, cognitive, and will powerdevelopment among numerous other variables. (Horowitz,1985). These definitions conceptualized health to be multi-dimensional, to includemany components and to encompass, many different aspects of one’s life (e.g.,vocational, spiritual, and interpersonal).

PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLE IN HEALTH EDUCATION

PHILOSOPHY:

Comprehensive health education programs encourage students to takeresponsibility for their own lives by acting conscientiously in the present and byestablishing positive health practices that will support and enhance lifelongwellness. Health education is a planned, sequential, k-12 curriculum that addressesthe physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of health. The curriculum isdesigned to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health,

prevent disease, and reduce health-related risk behaviors. It allows students todevelop and demonstrate increasingly sophisticated health-related knowledge,attitudes, skills and practices. The comprehensive curriculum includes a variety of topics such as personal health, sexuality education, mental and emotional health,injury prevention and safety, nutrition, prevention and control of disease, andsubstance use and abuse. Qualified, trained teacher provide health education.

PRINCIPLES:

School health education should:

- view health as more than the absence of disease- utilize all educational opportunities for health: formal and informal, traditional andalternative; inside and outside the school.- harmonize all of the health messages- empower students to act for healthy living and to promote conditions supportive of health- establish a basis for lifelong learning and promotion of health- foster interaction between schools, the community, parents and local services- ensure a healthy school environment

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HEALTH EDUCATION

Historical accounts revealed that people of the ancient world were soconcerned about their health. In the past, ancient Greek estates observed sportscompetitions in honor of their gods and goddesses. The competitors had to undergorigorous physical and mental trainings in order to win. This could have been truesince the early Greeks believed in what Plato had envisioned about health – a soundmind in a sound body; for the good of the soul. Tracing the history of health education to ancient times, Rubinson andAlles(1984) concluded that the health education profession has been helping peoplefor a very long time now.In the 1970s, the Role Delineation Project, a national project and wasdesigned to explore eventual credentialing or accrediting health educators,developed a specific description of the role of educators.In 1980, health education instruction was operationally defined by themembers of the Role Delineation Project as: “the process of assisting individuals,acting separately and collectively, to make informed decisions on matters affecting