Health Education

Health Education is eclectic in nature.

It derives its body of knowledge from a variety
of disciplines Galli 1976
1. Provides a unique and essential social service.
2. Require of its members an extensive period of preparation.
3. Have underlying its practice a theoretical base.
4. Have a system of internal controls that tends to regulate the
behaviour of its members.
5. Have a culture peculiar to profession.
6. Sanctioned by the community (though HE is moving slowly in the
right direction, there are still a lot of people who do not recognize
health educators work.
7. Has an occupation association that is representative of all and can
speak on behalf of all the members of the occupation.
Health Education is an emerging
profession because it:
Greene and Simons-Morton have described professionals
with the following descriptors.
1. They believe in what they are doing.
2. They want to see the job done properly.
3. They do their best.
4. They feel a sense of responsibility for the quality of
work done by others in the field.
Status of Health Education
Key Words, Terms and Definitions
Physical healththe absence of disease and disability; functioning adequately from the
perspective of physical and physiological abilities; the biological integrity of the individual.
Mental health(psychological health)may include emotional health; may make explicit
reference to intellectual capabilities; the subjective sense of well-being.
Social healththe ability to interact effectively with other people and the social
environment; satisfying interpersonal relationships; role fulfilment.
Spiritual healthin addition to spiritual health, it has been labelled
personal health; it has been associated with the concept of self-actualization.

In addition to the word health and its various components, it is also
important that you have an understanding of the following key terms and
definitions:
Community healthincludes both private and public efforts of
individuals, groups, and organizations to promote, protect, and preserve the
health of those in the community
Health educationany combination of learning experiences designed to
facilitate voluntary adaptations of behaviour conducive to health.
Health promotionthe combination of educational and environmental
supports for actions and conditions of living conducive to health.
Health promotion and disease preventionthe aggregate of all purposeful activities designed
to improve personal and public health through a combination of strategies, including the
competent implementation of behavioural change strategies, health education, health
promotion, health protection measures, risk factor detection, health enhancement and health
maintenance
Public healththe sum of all official (governmental) efforts to promote, protect, and preserve
the peoples health
Coordinated school health programan organized set of policies, procedures, and activities
designed to protect and promote the health and well-being of students and staff which has
traditionally included health services, healthful school environment, and health education. It
should also include, but not limited to, guidance and counselling, physical education, food
service, social work, psychological services, and employee health promotion
Wellnessan integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the
potential of which the individual is capable, within the environment where he is functioning

Measuring Health or Health Status
Though the definition of healthis easy to state, trying to quantify the amount of
health an individual or a population possesses is not easy. Because of this difficulty, most
measures of health are expressed using health statistics based on the traditional medical
model of describing ill health (injury, disease, and death) instead of well health.

Rates
A rateis a measure of some event, disease, or condition in relation to a unit of population,
along with some specification of time . Some of the more commonly used rates are death
rates, birth rates, and morbidity rates.
Death rates(the number of deaths per 100,000 resident population) sometimes
referred to as mortality or fatality rates, are probably the most frequently used means of
quantifying the seriousness of injury or disease.
Crude rateis the rate expressed for a total population
Adjusted rateexpressed for a total population but is statistically adjusted for a
certain characteristic such as age.
Specific ratea rate for a particular population subgroup such as for a particular
disease or for a particular age of people .
Life Expectancy
Life expectancy is another means by which health or health
status has been measured and is based on mortality. It has been
described as the most comprehensive indicator of patterns of
health and disease, as well as the living standards and social
development (CDC, 1994).

The Practice of Health Education
The practice of health education is based on the assumption that
beneficial health behaviour in both children and adults will result from a
combination of planned, consistent, integrated learning opportunities. This
assumption rests on direct evidence from the evaluation of health education
programs in schools at worksites, in medical settings, and through the mass
media (Green & Ottoson,1994).
Assessing the needs of the target population
Developing appropriate goals and objectives
Creating an intervention that considers the
peculiarities of the setting
Implementing the intervention
Evaluating the results
Steps using by Health Educators
The health field is a term the government described as
being far more encompassing than the health care
system. It was a term that was much broader and
included all matters that affected health.
Human biology- includes all those aspects of health, both
physical and mental, which are developed within the
human body as a consequence of the basic biology of man
and the organic make-up of an individual.
Environmental includes all those matters related to
health which are external to the human body and over
which the individual has little or no control.
Lifestyle the aggregation of decisions by individuals
which affect their health and over which they more or less
have control.
Health care organization consist of the quantity,
quality, arrangement, nature and relationships of people
and resources in the provision of health care.


Causes of Death Lifestyle Environment Biology/Heredity Inadequate Health
care
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Heart disease 54.0 9.0 25.0 12.0
Cancer 37.0 24.0 29.0 10.0
Motor vehicle accident 69.0 18.0 1.0 12.0
Other accidents 51.0 31.0 4.0 13.0
Stroke 50.0 22.0 21.0 7.0
Homicide 63.0 35.0 2.0 0.0
Suicide 60.0 35.0 2.0 3.0
Cirrhosis 70.0 9.0 18.0 3.0
Influenza/pneumonia 23.0 20.0 39.0 18.0
Diabetes 34.0 0.0 60.0 6.0
All ten causes together 51.5 20.1 19.8 10.0


Prevention, as it relates to health, has been defined as
the planning for and the measures taken to forestall
the onset of, a disease or other health problem before
the occurrence of undesirable health events.


Primary prevention- comprised of those preventive
measures that forestall the onset of illness or injury
during the prepathogenesis period.
Secondary prevention- includes the preventive
measures that lead to an early diagnosis and prompt
treatment of a disease or an injury to limit disability
and prevent more serious prognosis.
Tertiary prevention- it is at this level that health
educators work to retrain, reeducate, and rehabilitate
the individual who has already incurred disability,
impairment, or dependency.
Three Levels of Prevention
Risk Factors
The targets of health promotion and health prevention are risk
factors, those inherited, environmental, and behavioral influences
capable of provoking ill health with or without previous
disposition.
Risk factors can be divided into two
categories:
Modifiable risk factors (changeable and
controllable)
Nonmodifiable risk factors (nonchangeable
or noncontrollable)

Health Risk Reduction
In order to be able to take aim at specific risk factors,
it is important that health educators have a basic
understanding of both communicable (infectious) and
noncommunicable (noninfectious) diseases.
Communicable diseases- is an illness caused by some
specific biological agent or its toxic products that can
be transmitted from an infected person, animal, or
inanimate reservoir to a susceptible host.
Noncommunicable diseases- is one that cannot be
transmitted from infected host to susceptible host.

The Chain of Infection
-a model that is used to help explain the spread of
a communicable disease from one host to another. The
basic premise represented in the chain of infection is
that individuals can work to break the chain (reduce
the risk) at any point; thus, the spread of disease can
be stopped.

Communicable Disease Model
-a second model used to describe the spread of a
communicable disease model. The elements of this model are agent,
host, and environment. These three elements summarize the minimal
requirements necessary for the presence and spread of a
communicable disease in a population.




Host

Agent Environment
Multicausation Disease Model
-the chain of infection and communicable disease
models are most helpful in trying to prevent disease
caused by a pathogen. However, they are not applicable
to noncommunicable diseases, which include many of
the chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
The concept of caused by many factors is referred to as
the multicausation disease model.

Cause Estimated
Number of Deaths
Percentage of
Total Deaths
Tobacco 400,000 19
Diet/Activity
Patterns
300,000 14
Alcohol 100,000 5
Microbial Agents 90,000 4
Toxic Agents 60,000 3
Firearms 35,000 2
Sexual Behavior 30,000 1
Motor Vehicles 25,000 1
Illicit Use of Drugs 20,000 <1
TOTAL 1,060,000 50
Actual Causes of Death United States 1990
1 Disease of the heart 737,563 Tobacco use, high blood pressure, elevated serum
cholesterol, diet, diabetes, obesity, lack of exercise,
alcohol abuse, biological factors.
2 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) 538,455 Tobacco use, alcohol misuse, diet, solar radiation,
ionizing radiation, worksite hazards, environmental
pollution, biological factors.
3 Cerebrovascular diseases
(stroke)
157,991 Tobacco use, high blood pressure, elevated serum
cholesterol, diet, diabetes, obesity, biological
factors
4 Chronic obstructive pulmonary
diseases
102,899 Tobacco use
5 Unintentional injuries 93,320 Tobacco use (fires), alcohol misuse, product
design, home hazard, handgun availability, lack of
safety restrains, excessive speed, automobile
design, roadway design
6 Pneumonia and influenza 82,923 Tobacco use, infectious agents, biological factors
7 Diabetes mellitus 59,254 Obesity (for adult onset), diet, lack of exercise,
biological factors
8 Human immunodeficiency virus
infection
43,115 Sexual practices, drug misuse, exposure to blood
products
9 suicide 31,284 Handgun availability, alcohol or drug misuse,
stress, biological factors
10 Chronic liver disease and
cirrhosis
25,222 Alcohol misuse, infectious agents
Leading Causes of Death, Number of Deaths, and Associated Risk Factors for All Ages: United States, 1995
Rank Cause Number Risk Factors
Other Selected Principles
Participation- refers to the active involvement of those in the target
population in helping identify, plan, and implement programs to address
the health problems they face. Without such participation, ethical issues
associated with program development come into play, and the target
population probably will not support and feel ownership of (responsibility
for0 the program.
Empowerment- is a social action process that promotes participation of
people, organizations and communities in gaining control over their lives
in their community ang larger society.
Cultural sensitivity- is having and showing respect for cultures other
than ones own. Cultural sensitivity is an important principle of health
education because of the close relationship that often exists between
health and culture. Cultural factors arise from guidelines (both explicit and
implicit) that individuals inherit from being a part of a particular society,
ethnic group, race, or other group.
The Discipline of Epidemiology
Epidemiology is defined as the study of the
distribution and determinants of disease and injuries
in human populations.
Endemic- occurs regularly in a population as a
matter of course.
Epidemic- an unexpectedly large number of cases
of disease in a population.
Pandemic- an outbreak of a disease over a wide
geographical area, such as a continent.