Health Promotion
A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2016) | Viewed by 135591
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues
It has been 30 years since the concept and approach of health promotion was presented in the Ottawa Charter as “… the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.” (WHO, 1986, p. 1). The goal was ‘Health for all by the year 2000’. This did not come true; but is it still reasonable to say that health promotion, so far, has achieved what was and is, needed?
Health promotion is the only public health area of action with a positive view of health, approaching people’s living conditions, health equity and emphasizing the equality of women and men (Potvin and Jones, 2011). The fields of action for health promotion are building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments for health, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. Key elements of health promotion are empowerment and people’s participation in the improvement of health and life situations. Participation of involved individuals, groups or community is central for the empowerment process to succeed (Rootman et al., 2001).
Socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions surrounding people’s lives are essential for health. Chronic diseases and unhealthy behavior are more common within socially and economically disadvantaged groups. However, health promotion efforts for reducing inequities in health has been criticized for focusing too much on individual behavioral changes rather than the broader aspects of social determinants of health needs (Baum and Fisher, 2014). Another concept that has been subject to the same criticism is health literacy. Also, health literacy has, to a large extent, been focusing on individualistic and behavioral aspects rather than the social determinants of health, which, according to critics, might undermine the success of such interventions.
Contributions to this Special Issue will critically engage with some of the issues above. We also invite contributions that will critically engage other aspects relevant to contemporary health promotion.
Dr. Kristine Crondahl
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- Social determinants of health
- Health literacy
- Empowerment
- Social mobilization
- Health equity/inequalities in health
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