Health Promotion: Examining Theories and Applications in Healthcare

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of health promotion, commencing with a comprehensive definition derived from various sources. It then critically examines the empowerment model of health promotion, elucidating its principles and strategic actions, including advocacy and policy change. The essay highlights the model's emphasis on community empowerment, self-actualization, and individual agency in managing health. Furthermore, it transitions to the practical application of health promotion by demonstrating how interventions can encourage positive health-related behaviors, specifically focusing on a smoking cessation campaign. The essay details the campaign's target population, the social determinants of health linked to smoking, and the interventions employed, such as behavioral support and nicotine replacement therapy, illustrating the significance of health promotion in improving public health outcomes. The essay also underscores the importance of education, training, and the involvement of healthcare professionals in the success of health promotion initiatives.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE
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Healthcare
Health Promotion
(Student details :)
6/29/2019

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Contents
Health Promotion.....................................................................................................................2
Part 1.........................................................................................................................................2
Part 2.........................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................14

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Health Promotion
This essay is based on critically examining a range of theories and concepts
underlying health promotion interventions. In addition to that, this essay is going to
demonstrate an advanced understanding of the all social determinants of public
health (Nicholson et al., 2016).
Part 1
Health promotion allows community people to enhance control of their own health.
As defined by the World Health Organization, health promotion covers a broad range
of social as well as environmental interventions which are majorly designed for
benefiting and protecting one’s health and quality of life. In addition to that, health
promotion can be defined as preventing and addressing the root causes of bad
health, while not only focusing on cure and treatment. In order to define health
promotion well, WHO has utilized three main elements as follows:
According to (Green et al., 2019), people require gaining skills, knowledge, and info
for making healthy choices. For example, people must be aware of the food they eat
along with the healthcare services which they require for regular lifestyle. Health
literacy suggests that communities require opportunities for making all of the above-
mentioned choices. Apart from this, modern health promotion suggests that people
need to be ensured of surroundings into which people may demand policy actions for
further improving their health (Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008).
World health organization suggests that health promotion always needs
policymakers all across the government departments making health a core line of the

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government policy. It means that community people must consider health
implications while taking key decisions. In addition, people must prioritize health-
related policies which prevent them from becoming ill. Health promotion also protects
people from unexpected injuries (Cole & Fielding, 2010). In this context, good
governance for health plays an important role in global health promotion activities.
For instance, through aligning tax policies over harmful and unhealthy products like
tobacco, food products having high sugars, salt and fat, and alcohol with effective
measures for boosting trade within other fields (Chalhoub, 2018).
The third major element of health promotion is healthy cities which are having a
major role while promoting good health worldwide. In this context, commitment and
strong leadership at a municipal level are required for healthy urban planning aiming
an effective health promotion (Australian Government, 2013).
In this way, health promotion can be defined as a way to build up preventive
measures within modern communities as well as primary healthcare facilities.

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In order to critically analyze one health promotion framework or model utilized for
exploring the major principles of health promotion, this essay has used an
empowerment model of health promotion (Australian Government, 2013). This health
promotion framework offers surveillance as well as an assessment of the community
population’s wellbeing and health. The empowerment model is often used to assess
the evidence of the effectiveness of programs, services, and interventions for
enhancing population health and wellbeing. In addition to that, strategy and policy
development along with their implementation for the population health and well-being
this model of health promotion works well.

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Source: (Green et al., 2019)
Moreover, the empowerment model of health promotion assists in leadership and
collaborative functioning for population community health (Buse & Hawkes, 2015).
Some key principles of health promotion include health protection, health
improvement, academic public health, public health intelligence, and social
healthcare quality. In this context, two main action strategies of the empowerment
model of health promotion are clearly showing in the above-mentioned model. One
of the action strategies is about traditional ways of seeking to affect policy like
lobbying. Besides, advocacy exercise power from those who own power yet who are
doing so on behalf of the powerless (Al-Sawai, 2013). The key interests of the world
health promoters are to represent health issues and control advertising of them
within some useful ways which have considered to be harming to the whole
community’s public health. The second strategic action of this health promotion
model comprising means of generating policy change for creating an adequate level
of people’s pressure in a way that decision makers feel obliged to change for good.
Moreover, the empowerment model of health promotion aims to persuade
community peoples for adopting behaviours which would result in preventive
measures of the several diseases. This model considers both lifestyle and medical
aspects of modern health services. The chosen framework of the contemporary
health promotion suggests that health education is critical for the persuasion and
effective well-being of the community. When health promotion is achieved efficiently
then it offers support and empowerment among society and its people (WHO, 2013).
As we know that empowered individuals always make an active contribution towards
community actions which ultimately contributes to those individuals’ empowerment.

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The empowerment model of health promotion enables the engagement of the
community people with several services which can contribute to good health within a
productive and assertive manner. In this context, empowerment within the health
area is a key principle for the community health promotion because it focuses on
communities as well as individuals enhancing control on their lives and health. In
addition to that, this health promotion model involves communities which are
becoming organized and hence ultimately adopting actions for creating revolutionary
social change. For understanding the significance of the health promotion it can be
seen as self-actualization model which seeks to grow an individual's capability of
controlling their health status into their surrounding environment (World health
organization, 2015).
Apart from this, empowerment model is designed to enhance an individual's basic
sense of self-worth and personal identity for the development of life skills
(Mccracksen & Phillips, 2017). Therefore, the health promotion framework includes
decision-making as well as problem-solving skills, in a way that the individual can
effectively take control of their own life. With the help of implying this health
promotion model, people are encouraged for engaging in critical actions and critical
thinking at their individual level. Hence, this model, while majorly successful for
individual people, does not target at population groups and hence it is unlikely to
impact social norms (Jacobsen, 2018).
In this way, community empowerment is more important than participation,
involvement, and engagement of different communities for health promotion
purposes (Healthy People Gov, 2019). This implies that community ownership, as
well as an action which exclusively aims at political and social change should be

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promoted for the good health of the global communities. Thus, empowerment model
of health promotion:
 Encourages reflection related to others as well as the whole society.
 Clarifies beliefs and values of the community people.
 Motivates people for reflecting and changing their views for improved health
and well-being (Hanefeld, 2015).
 Grows a sense of identity within community people.
 Promotes independence.
 Utilizes the action competence procedures for the individuals through
recognizing determinants which may be out of their self-control.
 Assists people for knowing where, when, why, as well as how to take help for
their good health.
 Fosters empowerment as well as resilience at an individual level.
 Emphasizes highly upon the individuals and societies of people (Holz, 2017).
 Improves self-awareness.
 Utilises critical action and critical thinking in relation to an individual.
 Offers opportunities for celebrating individuality within the community (Halfon
et al., 2014).

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Part 2
In this discussion, health promotions’ applications for encouraging positive health-
related behaviours will be demonstrated (Commission on Social Determinants of
Health, 2008). In this way, one health promotion intervention will be used to illustrate
the significance of the health promotion concept. In this context, a health
promotion intervention is usually a combination of program strategies or elements
specially designed for producing behaviour changes in a positive direction. In
addition, these health intervention programs improve the health status of the
individuals as well as an entire population of the community. Besides, health
promotion interventions may comprise new or stronger policies, educational
programs, improvements within the surrounding environment, or most importantly a
health promotion campaign (Cole & Fielding, 2010). Here, well-planned health
interventions are always highly effective as they:
 Build the core significance of a systematic planning
 Are capable to introduce different health campaign models
 Consider all the factors related to the quality of health promotion programs
 Identify the requirement of developing partnerships as well as recognizes the
major characteristics of successful health partnerships all across the world
(Castellanos, 2017).
It has been observed that if health promotions interventions are appropriately
adopted, then they always prove effective within ethnic minority populations.
Therefore, this discussion is going to find as well as summarise info over health
promotion interventions in the context of smoking cessation. In addition to that, this

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chosen health promotion intervention has focused on increased physical activity and
improved healthy eating which should be recommended for an effective utilization
within a large population (Allen & Christie, 2016).
Details of the health promotion intervention or campaign
The selected health promotion campaign undertook a systematic review of the real
evidence for smoking cessation for promoting healthy eating and increased physical
activity in the UK. In this way, the searched have been conducted in the Campbell
Collaboration and the Cochrane library for getting systematic reviews. In this way,
the essay is covering stop smoking interventions and services provided in primary
care as well as community settings (Huynen et al., 2005).
The target population for health promotion intervention
The target population for the chosen health promotion was everyone over the age of
12. As the health intervention program aimed at ensuring that everyone who smokes
is encouraged to stop with the help of advising and giving the support they all require
(Marr, 2018). Hence, the health promotion campaign emphasized on targeting
vulnerable groups who majorly find smoking cessation tough and hence they smoke
a lot (Chalhoub, 2018).
Apart from this, the target population for the conducted health promotion campaign
was including:
 Providers and commissioners to stop smoking interventions who own a role or
responsibility of the health promotion
 Health as well as wellbeing boards
 Health, social care as well as frontline staff

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 The members of the society who really want to stop smoking
 The people who want to assist others to stop smoking (World Health
Organization, 2018).
Social determinants of health linked with the smoking issue
In this context, social determinants of health are greatly linked to the health
conditions occurred due to excessive smoking (Nicholson et al., 2016). Here, these
social determinants of health are the wide range of social, personal, environmental
and economic factors which effectively determine individuals as well as population
health. The major social determinants which are linked to the chosen health
condition are as follows:
 Employment and operating environs
 Social and income status
 Childhood Experiences
 Literacy and education
 Healthy behaviours and healthy eating
 Genetic and biology endowment
 Access to well-arranged health services (World Health Organization, 2018).
 Culture
 Gender
The health promotion intervention commissioned and provided stop smoking
intervention for meeting local public needs. The intervention also used
transformational and sustainability plans and health strategies along with different
plans for ensuring evidence-based stop smoking interventions. The intervention used
Public Health England’s profiles for estimating smoking prevalence amid the local

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population. The conducted health campaign prioritized specific groups which are at
high risk of smoking or tobacco-related harm (Green et al., 2019).
Apart from this, the health promotion intervention conducted after monitoring stop
smoking services and support among community people. In this context, an
intervention always needs ensuring below listed evidence-based interventions for the
adults who smoke:
 Individual and group behavioral support
 A brief advice
 NRT (nicotine replacement therapy)
 Varenicline
 Bupropion (Australian Government, 2013).
From the perspective of education and training, the health promotion campaign
ensured training and continuous professional development available for all who are
providing advice and support related to stopping smoking campaign. There were so
many healthcare workers who advised people on how to stop smoking efficiently. In
this way, this health promotion campaign encouraged and trained healthcare
professionals for asking people over smoking and advised them about the dangers
of the consequences of passive smoking (WHO, 2014).
The methods used for evaluating the health promotion intervention
 In this context, there are many methods which are needed by the different
organizations, as per their function and size. Some of these methods are as
follows: