Health education definition

It’s a good idea to wear a seatbelt. You should try to get daily exercise. These things may seem like common sense now, but at one point, they were health topics that we needed to be educated about. In fact, we are able to live healthier and safer lives because of health education and promotion programs. It’s a vital field, even if it’s one not everyone knows a lot about. To give you more insight, here’s a deeper look. Health Education and Promotion Puts Health Knowledge to Work Have you ever read a medical journal, a study on public safety, or any other research findings? They’re almost always written for other experts, not for the population at large. In other words, they need a translator—professionals who can take health and safety knowledge and turn it into everything from government policy to posters at bus stops. Health education and promotion is the bridge between what experts learn about health and safety and how we use that knowledge as a society. Health educators and others in the field are skilled at analyzing the biological, social, political, cultural, environmental, and behavioral factors that impact individual and population health. And they’re skilled at using that health data to assess a given community’s need for health education (i.e., determining gaps in public knowledge); developing plans, programs, and other ways to implement health education and policy; determining the right communication strategies for informing populations of specific health risks...

Patient education can be defined as the process of influencing patient behavior and producing the changes in knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to maintain or improve health. The Latin origin of the word doctor,“docere,” means “to teach,” and the education of patients and their families, as well as communities, is the responsibility of all physicians. Family physicians are uniquely suited to take a leadership role in patient education. Family physicians build long-term, trusting relationships with patients, providing opportunities to encourage and reinforce changes in health behavior. Patient education is, therefore, an essential component of residency training for family physicians. Patient education is critically important because it is clear that the leading causes of death in the United States (i.e., heart disease, cancer, stroke, lung disease and injuries) are closely associated with unhealthy lifestyles. There is also strong evidence to suggest that counseling and patient education provide substantial benefits. Providing patients with complete and current information helps create an atmosphere of trust, enhances the doctor-patient relationship and empowers patients to participate in their own health care. Effective patient education also ensures that patients have sufficient information and understanding to make informed decisions regarding their care. To provide effective patient education, a variety of practical skills must be mastered. These include ascerta...

Courtesy of the President's Council on Physical Fitness An individual’s physical and mental well-being is the concern of two similar areas of education: health education and physical education. Both deal with habits of exercise, sleep, rest, and recreation. Since physical well-being is only one aspect of a person’s overall health, physical education is often thought of as a part of health education. Health education is an activity aimed at the improvement of health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. It is used in schools to help students make intelligent decisions about health-related issues. There are many ways to teach health in schools. Usually instructors create and facilitate learning experiences that develop the student’s decision-making skills. Above all, teachers provide health information and a concern for factors that influence the quality of life. Health behavior plays a major part in a person’s overall well-being. Since health-related behaviors are both learned and amenable to change, formal health education usually begins when a child is most flexible—in primary school. This is also when a child is more apt to accept positive health behaviors. It is in these early years that the negative effects of a lifetime of health abuse can be prevented. Many health problems are known to be linked to smoking, poor nutrition, obesity, lack of exercise, stress, and abuse of drugs and alcohol ( see Basic to health education is the principle of preventive care. Healt...

Health Education/Health Promotion Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. (Source: This page is an index of ACHA and other resources on this topic. Resources include association projects, programs, publications, guidelines, and more. Additional information may be available under “External Resources.” ACHA Resources Health Promotion Section [members only] The ACHA Health Promotion Section provides networking opportunities, resources, and support to members in the health promotion field. Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness Coalition The purpose of the ACHA Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness coalition is: to encourage the inclusion of the campus community as a whole in college health efforts in order to build healthy environments that optimize learning; to provide a mechanism for the exchange of information, resources, and research-based best practices to address the health and wellness of faculty and staff on campus; and to provide continuing education and professional development across ACHA. ACHA Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness Survey 2012 The ACHA Faculty and Staff Health and Wellness Coalition conducted this survey to collect data about faculty and staff health promotion and wellness programs on ACHA member campuses. The data collected provides valuable information about these programs a...

Public health is a diverse field focused on improving the lives of the individual by focusing on the community. Anything that can affect a community’s health becomes a public health issue. Public health professionals and public health educators work together to benefit communities. Topics that public health professionals may work with are varied and can include bedbug infestations, heart health, the opioid crisis, disease outbreaks, human trafficking, clean water access, smoking cessation, war/conflict, safe driving, depression, gun violence, sanitation, air pollution, discrimination, vaccines, and access to healthy foods. The definition of community can be diverse and may include a neighborhood, state, region, or nation, but a community does not have to be geographic. Populations with similar beliefs, behaviors, or traits can face similar health issues. Examples of nongeographic communities include the elderly, children, LGTBQ, faith/religious groups, online gamers, and professional communities such as teachers, dentists, mechanics, etc. What Public Health Professionals Do Public health professionals devote their careers to monitoring health trends, advocating for healthy policies, and ensuring that established protocols are known and followed. They serve as a centralized source of information, research, and health communication. They also develop health promotion programs, conduct research, evaluate outbreaks, and establish policy to help improve the communities they ser...

The World Health Organization defines health education as “any combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their health, by increasing their knowledge or influencing their attitudes.” Because knowledge alone may not be powerful enough to motivate change, health education works to enhance knowledge, attitudes, and skills to positively influence health behaviors of individuals and communities. Adult learning theory is an important construct to consider for effective health education. Malcolm Knowles has identified five crucial assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners. These characteristics are (1) self concept, as a person matures, they move from a dependent personality to a self-directed one; (2) experience, an accumulation of experiences are a resource for learning; (3) readiness to learn, an adult’s readiness to learn is oriented to the tasks of their social roles; (4) orientation to... • Allender, J. A., Rector, C., & Warner, K. D. (2010). Community health nursing: Promoting and protecting the public’s health. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. • Knowles, M. (1973). The adult learner: Neglected species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company. • Knowles, M., & Associates. (1984). Andragogy in action: Applying modern principles of adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Smith, M. K. (2009). Andragogy. The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from • Taylo...