Health Promotion and Disease prevention

By Shimelis
Module Description:
The module is designed to equip learners
with the knowledge, skills and attitude
needed to promote health and prevent
disease in individuals, families and
population.
Module Objective:
At the end of this module, students will be
able to apply principles and methods of HP
to improving the health of a population
Introduction To Health Education and
Health Promotion
Learning objectives

At the end of this class; you will

be able to:
 Explain the concept of Health.
 Define Health Education / HP.
 State historical development of Health Education.
 Describe objectives of Health Education.
 State basic principles of Health Education.
 State approaches to health education.
 Identify Targets & settings for health education.
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 Brainstorming
5

• How do you define health?

• Define health education?

• Describe health promotion?

• Describe the role of health promotion in public health?

• What is determinant of health?

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 Introduction
Health: WHO defined health as “a state of
complete physical, mental and social well
being and not the mere absence of disease or
infirmity.”
Physical health: refers to anatomical integrity and
physiological functioning of the body. To say a person is
physically healthy:
 All the body parts should be there.
 All of them are in their natural place and position.
 None of them has any pathology.
 All of them are doing their physiological functions
properly.
 And they work with each other harmoniously. 7
 Introduction
Mental health - ability to learn and think clearly. A
person with good mental health is able to handle day-to-
day events and obstacles, work towards important goals,
and function effectively in society.
Social health
• ability to make and maintain acceptable interactions
with other people. E.g. To feel sad when somebody close
to you passes away.
Illness: Is the subjective state of a person who feels
aware of not being well.
Sickness: Is a state of social dysfunction: a role that an
individual assumes when ill
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 Introduction
• Health Education: “is a combination of learning
experiences designed to facilitate voluntary
actions conducive to health.” OR a profession of
educating people about health.
• Health Promotion: is “the process of enabling
people to increase control over the
determinants of health, and thereby to improve
their health” (Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion, 1986).

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 Historical development of
HE/P
As a practice as old as human being. The concept of
educating about health has been around since the
dawn of humans.
 At the time of Alma Ata declaration of Primary Health Care in
1978, health education was put as one of the components of
PHC and it was recognized as a fundamental tool to the
attainment of health for all.
 Adopting this declaration, Ethiopia utilizes health education
as a primary means of prevention of diseases and promotion
of health

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 As a profession in the world ~>100 years – USA
 As a course: Gondar Health science ~ 1954
 As a profession in Ethiopia: JU for 15 years

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 Various terms used for communication
and health education activities
• Information, Education and Communication (IEC) is a term
originally from family planning and more recently HIV/AIDS control
program in developing countries.
• It is increasingly being used as a general term for communication
activities to promote health
• Information: A collection of useful briefs or detailed ideas,
processes, data and theories that can be used for a certain period
of time.
• Education: A complex and planned learning experiences that
aims to bring about changes in cognitive (knowledge), affective
(attitude, belief, value) and psychomotor (skill) domains of
behavior.
• Communication: the process of sharing ideas, information,
knowledge, and experience among people using different
channels.
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• Social mobilization is a term used to describe a
campaign approach combining mass media and
working with community groups and organizations.
• Health extension is an approach of promoting change
through demonstration, working with opinion leaders
and community based educational activities.
• Nutrition education is education directed at the
promotion of nutrition and covers choice of food,
food-preparation and storage of food.
• Family Life Education refers to education of young
people in a range of topics that include family
planning, child rearing and childcare and responsible
parenthood. 13
• Patient education is a term for education in hospital
and clinic settings linked to following of treatment
procedures, medication, and home care and
rehabilitation procedures.
• Behavior Change Communication (BCC): Is an
interactive process aimed at changing individual and
social behavior, using targeted, specific messages and
different communication approaches, which are linked
to services for effective outcomes.
• Advocacy: refers to communication strategies focusing
on policy makers, community leaders and opinion
leaders to gain commitment and support. It is an appeal
for a higher-level commitment, involvement and
participation in fulfilling a set program agenda.
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Aims and principles of HE &
HP
Aims of HE & HP:

• To ensure that the community accepted health

as a valued asset.
• To equip individuals with knowledge and skills
to influence their attitudes in such a way as to
help them to solve their own health problems.
• To promote development of health services
(WHO, 1954)

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 Basic Principles HE & HP
1. Principle of definite aim
 In order to be successful, the health educator should
have a well defined objective.
2. Principle of credibility
 Good health education is based on facts- it must be
consistent and compatible with the scientific knowledge
and also with the local culture and educational system.
3. Principle of interest
 It is known that people are unlikely to listen to things that
are not of their interest or concern .
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 Basic Principles...
4. Principle of participation
 Participation is a key principle in health education program,
and it is based on the principle of active learning.
5. Principle of motivation
 In every person, there is a fundamental desire to learn.
Awakening this desire, hence, is called motivating.
6. Principle of comprehension
 Health educators should know the level of understanding,
educational status, and literally of the people to whom the
teaching is directed so that they can easily tailor their
message to their audiences.

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 Basic Principles...
7. Principle of Re-enforcement
 If a program is not re-enforced, the understanding of
people possibly returns to its pre-awareness stage.
8. Principle of learning by doing
 Learning will be best when supported by practical
sessions such as demonstrations and field
attachments in stead of mere explanation of facts.
9. Principle of known to unknown
 This refers to importance of starting the health
education session from what people know (simple)
Proceeding to what people don’t know (complex) to
ensure their participation and confidence.
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 Basic Principles…
10. Principle of role model (setting examples)
 Health education should be supported by actual
situations and practical examples, and health educators,
themselves, should be model to what they educate.
11. Principle of good human relations
 Good relationship (rapport) with audience should be
established by sharing information, ideas, and feelings
transparently so that there could be a process of
establishing and maintaining trust.
12. Principle of leadership
 Psychologists established that people learn best from
individuals whom they respect and appreciate. 19
Basic Principles...
13. Principle of feed back
 For effective communication process, response of the
audience is very important element so that the health
educator can confirm that the learning objective is already
achieved or not.
14. Principle of successive Experience
 It is necessary to provide satisfying experience in order to
establish a new practice.
15. Principle of group support
 Any new idea or practice will be feared at first; it is only
when many people support the new idea that the individual
members come out for adoption.

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Approaches to HE/P

1. The persuasion approach –deliberate attempt to influence the other

persons to do what we want them to do (DIRECTIVE APPROACH).
Example: Patient Medication

2. The informed decision making approach-giving people information,

problem solving and decision making skills to make decisions but
leaving the actual choice to the people. Example: FP

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Targets for health education

1. Individuals: Such as clients of services,

patients, healthy individuals

2. Groups: E.g. groups of students in a class,

youth club and etc.

3. Community: E.g. people living in a village

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Health education settings

Communities
Health care facilities
Work sites
Schools
Prisons
Refugee camps …etc

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Who is responsible for HE &
HP?

Health education is the duty of everyone engaged in

health and community development activities.

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Role of health educator

• Talking to the people and listening of their problems

• Thinking of the behavior or action that could cause, cure and prevent
these problems.
• Finding reasons for people’s behaviors
• Helping people to see the reasons for their actions and health
problems.
• Asking people to give their own ideas for solving the problems.
• Helping people to look as their ideas so that they could see which
were the most useful and the simplest to put into practice.
• Encouraging people to choose the idea best suited to their
circumstances.

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The roles of HE in primary health care (PHC)

Primary Health Care (PHC)

• Is shortly, defined as an essential health care based on practical,
scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods & technology.

• HE is:
A component of PHC
Core principles of PHC is “community participation”.

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The roles of HE in primary health
care (PHC)
Promoting community involvement and self-reliance
Enhancing decision-making skill at local levels
Allowing diversity of objectives in formulating policy
Harmonizing national and local plans
Facilitating inter-sectoral action
Using appropriate technology
Measuring the community involvement and impact of health education

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THANK YOU!!