Theoretical models of health promotion and education

Describe about the Health Promotion and Education?

Health is one of the most important factors in life. Yet, many people indulge in much risky behavior which can put their health in danger. It’s not easy to change their behavior as environmental, personal, political and social factors influence individual behavior. Health promotion and health education focuses on the evaluation, development and implementation of health interventions at both the environmental and behavioral levels. Health promotion and education program helps an individual to evaluate his or her behavior and gain trainings as an expert in promoting health and well –being (black & raine, 2006). The World Health Organization has stated health education and promotion as the process which enables people enhance their control over health and its determinants. On the other hand, health education is the process of educating people about health. Health does not mean only physical but it encompasses environmental health, social health, intellectual, emotional and spiritual health .It can be defined, as the way by which groups and individuals learn to behave in a manner relevant to the maintenance, promotion or restoration of health.

There are some theoretical models that explain health promotion and education. They are: health belief model, stages of change model, social learning theory etc.

In the late 1970s, the stages of Change Model were developed by James Prochaska and Carlo Diclemente when they were studying how smokers gave up their habit of smoking. The Scm model has been applied to many behaviors such as injury prevention, weight loss, drug problems, overcoming alcohol and others (Cracked.com, 2012). The idea that scm provides is that change of behavior is not a one step phenomena. Rather, people have to go through many stages to be able to be successful. These stages are overcome at individual paces. Each person should decide for themselves when one stage is over and when they should move to the next step. Moreover such decisions should come from inside as long term changes cannot be implemented externally. The stages of change are:

Pre contemplation: The individuals do not contemplate the fact that there is a problem with them. Contemplation: knowing the fact that there is the presence of a problem but not knowing or not so sure whether to change it or not. Determination/preparation: Preparing to change. Action/ Will power: change of the behavior. Maintenance: maintaining one’s will power that is necessary for change. Relapse: no being able to cope up with the change and returning to old habits.

But however, if a person is able to maintain his will power for long enough, he the person will be able to understand his emotions and behavior and start viewing it in a new light. If the person is able to reach this point e is finally able to transcend the old habits and is on the way to becoming a new person who no longer needs to be dependent on the old behavior n order to sustain himself (Education Portal, 2015).

Stages of change model

In the early 1950s the health Belief model was developed in order to study why people cannot adapt to disease prevention strategy of or cannot do early medical checkups to detect disease. The HBM suggests that if a person belief that a certain behavior of his is a personal threat to his health and if he believes in the recommendation for checking this threat then only he will adapt to this new behavior. The HBM believes that there are two aspects of health related bhavior1) the intention of an individual to escape sickness and 2) the knowing the fact the a health promotion will prevent the disease from happening again. Finally, the course of action of an individual is often guided by the person’s perceptions of the barriers and benefits related to health behavior. There are six phases of HBM: Perceived susceptibility: this refers to a person’s belief of having a disease or illness. Perceived severity: This refers to the person’s feeling about leaving the disease untreated. Perceived benefits: This refers to the person’s belief of the availability of different actions present to lower the threat of the disease or illness. Cue to action: This is the process where the patient finally decides on accepting a certain health guide to be cured of the disease or illness. Self-efficacy: This refers to the level of confidence of a person on himself or herself that he /she can effectively maintain or pursue a behavior (Green, 2000).

Social Learning Theory has been proposed by Albert Bandura in 1977. It states that behavior is learned through the process of observational learning from the environment. Bandura, unlike B.F. Skinner have proposed that humans judge about the relationship between the consequences of their behavior. The Social learning theory states that individuals understand from watching other people performing the behavior (Healthpromcornwall.org, 2015). Observational learning explains how children observe people around them and eventually learn to imitate them. With the Bobo Doll experiment Bandura told an adult to act aggressively towards the bobo doll, while children observed him and later on when they were told to play with the doll, they imitated the same aggressive behavior that they have seen earlier. In this concept, Bandura observed that not only external reinforcement shapes up a behavior but also internal reinforcement which is a form of sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and confidence.

Theoretical models offer a number of benefits to health promotion and education.

• It is used as a tool box for going further than intuition to evaluating and designing interventions of health education that is based on the idea that why certain people indulge themselves in certain behaviors related to health.
• It is used as a foundation for program development and planning that is consistent on using evidence based interventions.
• It is used as a road map for developing appropriate interventions, studying problems, evaluating impacts and identifying indicators
• It is used as a guide to help explain how health behavior is changed and the influences of many forces that guide it, including physical and social environments.
• Finally, it is used as a compass to help planners identify the suitable target audiences, outcomes for evaluation and methods for implementing changes (Koelen & Ban, 2004).

Not any single model dominates the health promotion and education. Some theories focus on individuals while others examine changes within institutions, families, communities and cultures. A health problem may be addressed by more than one model and no one theory is suitable for all the health problems.

Some theories have converged over the years. A theory should be chosen based on target population and topic. Choosing the model must first start with the assessment of the problem, the topic, the type of behavior to be addressed and finally the unit of analysis or change. The theory should be supported by past research, consistent with observations of everyday, logical, similar to those used in previous successful endeavors (Hong, 2007).

The health belief model

Health educators take the help of planning models while developing health programs. Planning models are used for making plans, then doing it, and finally evaluating health promotion programs and for proving a framework on which to build a plan. A number of planning models have been developed over the years .there are many models that attempt to explain the nature and intensity of intervening variables in human behavior. But health behavior is mainly focused on three parameters .They are focus on intrapersonal capacities, those focus on interpersonal relationships and those that examine environmental contexts and supports (PeÃŒÂrez & Luquis, 2008).

A health promotion campaign is important to render success of a wellness program. A well researched and effective campaign should consist of cross channel communication that deliver motivational messages across the people and inspire them to take care of their health and lifestyle. The 2012 national advertising campaign against smoking drove 1.6 million smokers to try to quit smoking and helping 100,000 to succeed. In UK, Ash i.e. Action on Smoking and health was a campaign that was established in 1971 by the Royal College of Physicians. It was a public health campaign that was aimed towards eliminating the harm caused by tobacco. The campaign as not directed towards condemning or attacking smokers but its main task was to develop an opinion and awareness towards the epidemic caused by tobacco. Another aim of Ash was to initiate policy measures that will reduce the burden of disease, addiction and premature deaths attributable to tobacco (BBC News, 2015). In UK advertising has proved to be a highly profitable method in helping smokers decide to quit smoking for their own good. The Department of Health has created hugely successful and innovative campaigns over the years. In England, nearly 80,000 people are killed every year for smoking. Around 1,260 people are admitted to hospitals every day because of smoking related illness. Healthy Lives, healthy people is a tobacco control plan in England which has st out a tobacco control strategy for the citizens which can rule out smoking from the lives of the English. This campaign has reminded smokers of the unhealthy effects of smoking and their reasons of why they should quit smoking. They have encouraged other people to help their relatives to quit smoking as well as helping them with the most effective ways of quitting. Because of these health campaigns started out by the government nearly two –thirds of England’s smokers have already accepted that they want o give up on the bad habit. Another Graphic anti-smoking campaign from public health England warns the smokers that smoking rots the body inside out and affects the bones, teeth, brain and eyes. The Public health England has launched a campaign by saying That it causes a slow and steady decline of the body. An online advertising showed a man smoking a cigarette formed of rotting human flesh, marking the PHE;s slogan that every cigarette rots you from inside out. The PHE has claimed that the previous anti smoking campaigns “Mutations” and :Toxic cycle” has helped in declining the smoking rates in England to a remarkable 18.4 percent. The campaign aims to highlight the effect of the toxic ingredients in cigarettes to a human body which would cause damage to their muscles and bones. PHE warned the current smokers that 59 % of them are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than non smokers and smoking also degenerates eyes at a much earlier age. Professor Kevin Fenton, National director for well being and health for PHE said that much of the signs of smoking come during middle ages but the invisible effects start showing up at a shockingly early age. he also said that any age is good for stopping but it should be sopped earlier to stop the effects of smoking, so the smokers should stop smoking now and stop the rotting of the body (Resources.smokefree.nhs.uk, 2015). However, the smoking group has branded the campaign as poisonous. In reply Simon Clark , director of the smoking group Forest has said that any sane adult of United Kingdom knows the health risks of smoking and they need not be taught only they have to realize it and stop smoking. But he also said that the way the public campaigners are trying to scare and harass the public with exaggerated claims and dubious statistics is not healthy and if Public Health England wants to be effective they should be engaged with consumers and not scare them off with rotten campaigns such as this.

Social learning theory

Conclusion:

Health is one of the most important factors in life.  Health education is the process of educating people about health. There are some theoretical models explains health promotion and education. They are health belief model, stages of change model, social learning theory etc. The idea that Stages of Change Model provides is that change of behavior is not a one step phenomena. Rather, people have to go through distinct phases to be able to be successful (Thecommunityguide.org, 2015). The HBM suggests that if a person belief that a certain behavior of his is a personal threat to his health and if he believes in the recommendation for checking this threat then only he will adapt to this new behavior. .The Social learning theory states that individuals learn from watching other people performing the behavior.

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