on critical conversations about equity and systemic injustice, which attained both new urgency and a well-deserved central role in our national conversation health and health promotion. We have all seen, in real time, how structural discrimination and obstacles to opportunity do their work in a crisis. In our communities, every burden—from rates of infection and care outcomes, to economic adversity, to the challenges of virtual learning when schools are closed—falls heaviest on those for whom true equity has always been farthest from reach. Health Promotion Programs: From Theory to Practice is being published as the pandemic recedes; however, we can’t simply assume that healing and recovery follow. It falls on all of us—individuals and communities, companies and governments—to ensure that what’s ahead is not just the end of a disease but a durable and hopeful future for all who sacrificed and endured during this unprecedented time.
Today, health promotion programs have evolved to be integral to promoting a culture of health and wellness and to healthcare across the United States and internationally. The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) recognized the need for a book to help advance the field. Escalating rates of chronic disease, soaring healthcare costs, and increasing diversity of the U.S. population, as well as aging of the current health education workforce, all call for training a new generation of health promoters. The SOPHE board of trustees, executive director, and members offer this book, which combines the theoretical and practice base of the field with step-by-step practical sections on how to develop, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs. SOPHE hopes that this book, read in its entirety or in part, will help not only students who choose to major or minor in health education, health promotion, community health, public health, or health-related fields (e.g., environmental health, physical fitness, allied health, nursing, or medicine), but also professionals already working who want to acquire the technical knowledge and skills to develop successful health promotion programs. Acquiring the competencies to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs can improve health outcomes, promote behavioral and social change, and contribute to health equity and social justice. This book offers a concise summary of the many years of research in the fields of health education and health promotion, along with the expertise of many SOPHE members working in diverse contemporary settings and programs. The book also reflects SOPHE’s mission and its commitment to professional preparation and continuing education for the purpose of improving the quantity and quality of the lives of individuals and communities.
Undergraduate and graduate programs that prepare professionals to work in public health, health education, and health promotion and wellness have been flourishing in the United States and throughout the world for more than half a century. Thousands of students graduate every year with a baccalaureate or advanced degree in health promotion and get jobs in schools, colleges, businesses, healthcare facilities and systems, community organizations, and government.
We are enormously grateful to the many SOPHE members who wrote this book. Their expertise in many fields, including health education, public health, sociology, anthropology, psychology, nursing, medicine, physical education, nutrition, allied health, and many others, have been braided into this health promotion anthology. They have shared the foundations of the field as well as their own practical experiences in health promotion planning. May this book help teach, guide, inspire, ignite, catalyze, and transform students and professionals in their quest to develop successful health promotion programs that address the health challenges of both today and tomorrow.
ABOUT THE THIRD EDITION
The main purpose of the third edition is the same as the previous editions: to provide a comprehensive introduction to health promotion programs by combining the theory and practice with a hands-on guide to program planning, implementation, and evaluation. One of the fundamental premises of this book is the importance of using an approach based in both research and practice to guide and inform planning, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs. A secondary goal is to present the widespread opportunities to implement health promotion programs in schools, colleges and universities, communities, workplaces, and healthcare organizations and systems. This text addresses the needs of students and professionals who are pursuing careers in health education as well as nursing, medicine, public health, and allied health.
The third edition presents the new opportunities for health promotion by embracing healthy equity and social justice in the application of health theories and health program planning models for diverse populations and settings. These issues are broad and of growing importance, so they are integrated into all of the chapters and in particular highlighted in the chapters that address health promotion in schools, colleges and universities, workplaces, healthcare organizations, and communities. We believe that these strengthen the book and increase its appropriateness for use with students and in settings around the world.
Who Should Read This Book
This book is aimed at three audiences. The first audience is students pursuing a major or minor in health education, health promotion, community health, public health, or health-related fields such as environmental health, physical activity and education, allied health, nursing, or medicine. The second audience is young and mid-career practitioners, practicing managers, researchers, and instructors who for the first time are responsible for teaching, designing, or leading health promotion programs. The third audience is colleagues and professionals not trained in the health fields but working in settings where health promotion programs are increasingly prevalent and might be under their supervision (for example, school superintendents and principals, human resource directors working in business and healthcare, college deans of student affairs, faculty members, board members of nonprofit organizations, community members, and employers and staff members in businesses and healthcare organizations).
Overview of the Contents
This volume presents an up-to-date understanding of health promotion program planning, implementation, and evaluation in a variety of settings. The book is divided into five parts. Part One presents the foundations of health promotion programs: what health and health promotion are, the history of health promotion, sites of health promotion programs, and the key people (stakeholders) involved in programs. Highlighted and explored are the two guiding forces in planning, implementing, and evaluating health promotion programs. The first is promoting health equity and social justice. The second is the use of health theories and planning models.
Parts Two (planning), Three (implementing), and Four (evaluating) provide a step-by-step guide to planning, implementing, and evaluating a health promotion program. Each chapter within these parts covers specific phases of health promotion program planning, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability. Practical tips and specific examples aim to facilitate readers’ understanding of the phases as well as to build technical skills in designing and leading evidence-based health promotion programs.
Part Five presents health promotion programs across five settings: schools (preschool–12), colleges and universities, healthcare organizations, workplaces, and communities. Each chapter presents keys for effective site-specific programs to promote health.
At the beginning of each chapter, the Learning Objectives give a framework and guide to the chapter topics. The key terms at the end of each chapter can be used as a reference while reading this book as well as a way to recap key definitions in planning, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs.
Practical examples throughout the book reinforce the need for health promotion programs to be based on in-depth understanding of the intended audiences’ perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and barriers to change as well as the cultural, social, and environmental context in which they live. By referring to current theories and models of health promotion, the book also reinforces the need for health promotion practitioners to base their programs on theories, models, and approaches that guide and inform health promotion program design, implementation,
