Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, and Health Education
Core concepts
Health promotion enables people to increase control over health. Know Ottawa Charter action areas (healthy public policy, supportive environments, community action, personal skills, reorienting services) and levels of prevention. Understand health education principles (needs assessment, adult learning, teach-back, health literacy). Familiarize with behavior-change models: health belief model, transtheoretical (stages of change), social cognitive theory. Know motivational interviewing and harm reduction.
Traps in questions
- Confusing health promotion (broad determinants) with health education (planned learning).
- Misidentifying the stage of change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance).
- Choosing authoritarian teaching when the stem describes a client-centered approach.
- Ignoring health literacy and cultural tailoring.
- Selecting primary prevention for a screening activity.
Worked example / rule of thumb
A client says, 'I know I should exercise, but I'll start next month.' This is contemplation (aware but not committed). Rule of thumb: match intervention to stage-raise awareness in precontemplation, build commitment in contemplation, action planning in preparation. Use teach-back to confirm understanding.
Key teaching points
Health promotion addresses determinants; education builds skills. Use learner-centered methods and evaluate comprehension.