Health promotion

Health promotion is also known as health education and information-education-communication (IEC). It is a dynamic, planned and measurable process aimed at the prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases, injuries and violence by changing the behaviour of individuals and groups.

Regarded as both a science and an art, its theoretical base is mixed, drawing on psychology, epidemiology, social science and communication theory and research. More recently, a new branch of health promotion has developed: behaviour change communication (BCC). Drawing on traditional health promotion, BCC focuses more on delivering appropriately tailored messages to help people change a specific behaviour. It is an interactive process, which also aims to equip people with the means to maintain a new behaviour, with a particular focus on the social context in which the message is being received.

Health promotion works through advocacy to ensure that appropriate policies and legislation are in place, and through community development and participatory programmes at community level to ensure that strategies are culturally appropriate and "do-able". Training of health delivery staff, for example in providing client-centred consultation, is also usually a key element of a health promotion programme. In combination, these different elements create a climate referred to as "the enabling environment".

Health promotion topics are selected on the basis of evidence. Simple, targeted messages are developed and pre-tested, usually with target group members. These messages are then communicated through a range of mass media, including radio, TV, theatre, print, folk media (traditional media using sound, image and sign language) and giveaway items; and through interpersonal communication (IPC) methods, such as peer education. Other methods like social marketing can increase user uptake of items such as condoms, clean injecting equipment, and insecticide-treated bednets.