BRIEF HISTORY OF

Health
Education
In the past, ancient Greek estates
observed sports competitions in honor of
their gods and goddesses.
The competitors had to undergo rigorous
physical and mental trainings in order to
win.
This could have been true since the early
Greeks believed in what Plato had
envisioned about health - a sound mind in
a sound body, for the good of the soul.
Tracing the history of health education to
ancient times, Rubinson and Alles (1984)
concluded that the health education
profession has been helping people for a very
long time now.
In the 1970s, the Role Delineation Project, a
national project and was designed 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 the members of
the Role Delineation Project as: "the
process of assisting individuals, acting
separately and collectively, to make
informed decisions on matters affecting
individual, family, and community health.
Based upon scientific foundations, health
education is a field of interest, a
discipline, a profession."
In 1985, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's
Guide to Curriculum Planning in Health Education adapted
the term total health in connection with health education.
The term refers to the lifelong interdependence, constant
interaction, and balance of the physical, emotional social
and intellectual dimensions of human growth and
development.
Health education at present is conceived as any
combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate
voluntary adaptations of behavior conducive to health
(Green, 1980).
Hence, health education should be a planned change by
the health educator himself (Breckon, et al. 1985).
Thank You for
listening!