Health Promotion Month

Health is an essential component of human society, which is inseparable from the ultimate goal of human development. There exists an intricate relationship between man and his environment that forms the socio-ecological approach to health. Every nation, regions and community in this world striving to strike a balance in their natural environment should encourage health promotion.

The cardinal focus of Health promotion is to establish equity in health. The main goal of Health promotion is minimizing the disparity in current health status and ensuring commensurate opportunities and resources to all people so that they can attain their fullest health potential.

What is actually Health promotion?

While studying about Health promotion it is important to define the process. According to World Health Organization (WHO), health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Whereas in U.S this is a much narrower concept which is considered as the “science and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.”

What are the basic principles of health promotion?

In order to confirm the health promotion there are certain elementary principles to adopt:

Prerequisites for health – The primary resources and condition for health are shelter, food, education, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, peace, social justice and equity. A strong foundation in these prerequisites will bring improvement in health.

Advocate – An important dimension of good health is social, economic and personal development. The various factors social, cultural, economic, political, environmental, behavioral and biological favor health or can be harmful. Health promotion can be filliped by advocacy for health.

Mediate – The health sector alone cannot provide the basic prerequisites and scope for health promotion. Health promotion is only possible if there is a coordinated effort from all quarters - governments, health, nongovernmental, voluntary organizations, by local authorities, by industry and by the media, and other social and economic sectors,.

Enable – Unless the people take control of those things that determine their health, they would not be able to achieve full health potential. This is equally applicable to both men and women.

Policies that can enhance Health promotion

Health promotion needs a comprehensive policy for implementation, which would merge different yet complementary approaches especially in legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and organizational change. Only a well-coordinated effort can assure greater equity in health. This joint action can lay the foundation for safer healthier public services as well as cleaner, more pleasurable environment.

For health promotion it is vital to identify the impediments obstructing the adoption of healthy public policies in non-health sectors, and chalk out plans to annihilate them. The policy-makers should plan to aim for a healthier society and better life.

Health promotion is essential for healthy life