HEALTH PROMOTION AND

HEALTH POLICY

BS 100.1
March,2023
Dr. Idda M.

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 Outline

Overview of health promotion

Key concepts related to HP
Historical milestones
contributing to the development
of HP
Basic principles of HP
Health policy
Origin of health promotion
Given that HE focuses more on
information and skills it has been
realized that HE is not sufficient
in improving health status and
quality of life
Thus, health promotion emerged
due to the narrow focus of
health education
Historical Development

Initially, the International

Conference on Primary Health
Care (PHC) in Alma-Ata, in
1978, defined and granted
international recognition to the
concept of PHC as a strategy to
reach the goal of Health for All
in 2000
Historical Development of HP

Global Conferences on HP:

1st: Ottawa charter (1986)
2nd: Adelaide (1988)
3rd: Sundsvall (1991)
4th: Jakarta (1997)
5th: Mexico (2000)
6th: Bangkok (2005)
 What is health promotion?
Health promotion is about raising
the health status of individuals and
communities. Promotion in the
health context means improving,
advancing, supporting,
encouraging and placing health
higher on personal and public
agendas.

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What is Health Promotion?...

WHO in the Ottawa Charter

(1986), defines health
promotion as:
“the process of enabling
people to increase control
over, and to improve their
health”
Health Promotion…..
Is the science and art of helping
people change their lifestyle
(way of life, existence, standard
of living, everyday life) to move
toward a state of optimal
health (O'Donnell, 1989).
Definition (Cont..)

Optimal health is defined

as a balance of physical,
emotional, social, spiritual
and intellectual health
(O'Donnell, 1989).
Principles of Health Promotion

Empowerment
Healthy public policy
Equity
Collective & coordinated action
Participation
1. Empowerment

Empowerment is a process by
which people are enhanced to
increase control of their physical,
political and social environments
(individuals should have power to
make healthy choices).
 Empowerment…..
This involves raising
awareness and knowledge
about health hazards (by using
effective and persuasive
communication).

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Empowerment (Cont..)
Empowerment is achieved
through:
Developing favourable healthy
public policies
Advancing health equity
Strengthening the collective
and coordinated action
Developing participatory
mechanisms
2. Healthy public policies
Health promotion goes beyond
health care to involve
development of healthy public
policy.
Healthy public policies (Cont..)

Health promotion policy combines

diverse but complementary
approaches such as legal tactics,
economic measures, taxation and
organizational change.
Health promotion requires the
identification of policy obstacles to
the adoption of healthy behaviours
3. Health equity
Health promotion focuses on
achieving social equity (i.e.
fairness, and justice)
Health promotion action aims at
reducing differences in health
status and ensuring equal
opportunities and resources to
enable all people achieve their
fullest health potentials.
4. Collective & Coordinated action
The prospects for health cannot be
ensured by the health sector alone.
People in all walks of life should be
involved as individuals, families and
communities.
Health practitioners, professionals
and social groups have a major
responsibility to mediate between
differing interests in society for the
pursuit of health.
5.Participation
 Health promotion is based on the
active involvement of the people
(stakeholders) who are beneficiaries
of a health program.
 Participation should take place at
different levels of a health program
including:
 Planning
 Implementation
 Monitoring
 Evaluation
Health Promotion
Practices
Accident Prevention
Promoting Accident Prevention
Legal framework:
……………………………………
………………………………………
………………………………………….
Control of injury fatality
Promoting control of injury
fatality:
Ensuring availability and use of
seat-belts
……………………………….
………………………………..
……………………………………
Eating Healthy Diet
Promoting Healthy Diet
1. Ensure that people access
healthy diet
2. ………………………………………….
3. ……………………………………………
4. ……………………………………………
Physical Exercises
Promoting Physical Exercises
1. Ensure availability of places that
can be used for physical
exercises
2. …………………….
3. …………………….
4. ……………………..
Tobacco Control
Promoting Tobacco Control

Put in place legal measures

against tobacco use at public
places
…………………………
………………………….
………………………….
Hand Washing
Promoting hand-washing
1. Ensuring availability of water
and soap at the public toilets
(work places, schools, pub,
etc)
2. …………………………..
3. ……………………………
4. …………………………….
Malaria Prevention
Promoting Malaria Prevention
1. Ensure availability and use of
treated bed nets
2. Put in place mechanism to
ensure destruction of
mosquito breed sites
3. ………………………………….
4. …………………………………
 Conclusion
HP takes into account that
human behaviour is not only
governed by personal factors
but also structural aspects of
the environment

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Conclusion…
HP is an intervention that
focuses on a wide-range of
factors that may influence health
HP aims at changing/ influencing
cultural believes, institutional
arrangement as well as political
factors
 References
Neil Bracht. 1999. Health Promotion
at the Community Level.2. New
Advances. Second Edition. Sage
Publications, Inc.
James F. Mackenzie, Brad L. Neiger
and Rosemary Thackeray.
(2013).Planning, Implementing and
Evaluating Health Promotion
36 Programs. Chapter one
 References …
 O'Donnell, M. (1989) "Definition of
Health Promotion: Expanding the
Definition." American Journal of Health
Promotion. Vol. 3, No. 3. p. 5

 Green L., Kreuter M. 1990. "Health

Promotion as a Public Health Strategy
for 1990s". Annual Review of Public
Health, Volume 11, p.313-334

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 What is Policy?

• Policy is commonly used to

refer to statements about
objectives which give
expression to intentions of
governments, and which assign
responsibility for their
implementation to particular
organizations.
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 Uses of the term Policy
1. A broad label to describe a
particular field of activity, e.g.
foreign policy.
2. An expression of general purpose or
of a desired state of affairs.
3. Specific proposals such as those
found in certain statements of the
plan of governments, e.g. to have a
dispensary in each village.
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 Uses of the term Policy…
4.Decisions of governments by
which a pattern of related
decisions is seen to constitute
policy;
e.g. Removing street and
pavement traders, confining
petty traders to particular
locations, rounding up
prostitutes.
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 Policy process
Policy making, implementation
and evaluation are essentially
political processes.
Different people and groups
articulate their interests.
Quite often their thoughts and
desires can be shaped by
those in power to a large
extent.
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Policy process….
Many areas of policy are not
entirely within the control of
governments.
Private interests and
organizations play a part:
Trade Unions, NGOs, Private
business.
 Tanzania Health Policy
Has 9 specific objectives:
1. To reduce the burden of morbidity
and mortality, and to increase the life
expectancy of all Tanzanians, by
providing high quality health services,
paying particular attention to
vulnerable groups – infants and under
fives, children of school age, the
youth, those with disabilities, women
43 of reproductive age, and the elderly.
 Tanzania’s Health Policy
2. To ensure that Primary Health
Care is available and is provided
effectively in accordance with
the law and current regulations.

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 Tanzania’s Health Policy
3. To prevent and control
communicable and non
communicable diseases, especially
HIV and AIDS, malaria, TB, as well
as nutritional deficiency related
diseases, environmental hygiene,
occupational diseases, and
diseases due to chemical waste.

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 Tanzania’s Health Policy
4. To mobilize the citizens against
preventable diseases so that
they are able to identify and to
find the means for controlling
them.
5. To educate every citizen to
understand that they are directly
responsible for protecting their
own health and that of their
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families.
 Tanzania’s Health Policy
6. To institute collaboration between
the public and private sectors, faith –
based organizations, NGOs and
communities in providing health care.
7. To plan and train health workers,
and to increase the number of health
professionals who have high level
skills to provide health care which is
gender sensitive, at all levels of the
47 health services.
 Tanzania’s Health Policy
8. To establish and to maintain the
health infrastructure, taking into
account the special needs of people
with disabilities, and institute regular
maintenance of health facilities and
equipment.
9. To review and to evaluate the Health
Policy, laws and regulations, as well as
the standards of health care delivery

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 Tanzania’s Health Policy
Health policy may be subsumed
within specific illness policies
e.g. the National HIV/AIDS
Policy, The Malaria Control Policy.

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 The centrality of health
Health is such a strong principle,
all social policies are imbued with
health policy.
Housing, education, economic
growth policies influence the
environment and lifestyle.
The major impediment to
health comes from the social
and physical environment.
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 The centrality of health…..
Health is much more of an
outcome , not simply of treatment,
but of improvements in the total
environment – social and physical.
Health Promotion is an ideal health
policy issue.
Health Policy has to strike a
balance between public health
measures including preventive
health services and personal
curative services
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 Conclusion
Health policy is very central in
health promotion and in the
improvement of peoples health

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