Health education

Abstract

The processes of health education and health promotion are linked and may overlap. Health education is the process by which messages aimed at enabling individuals to take greater control over and improve their health are defined. The first step in the process is to gain an understanding of the basic cause of the disease process under consideration. The second step is to identify the essential causative factors. Some of these will be beyond individual personal control, such as environmental factors and genetics. However, other factors may be under the control of the individual and amenable to change. The final step is that to define and communicate key messages derived from the previous stages so as to improve the health of both individuals and populations. Health promotion is the process by which these messages are taken and disseminated whether by word of mouth, in print or through one of the rapidly expanding forms of electronic media. The World Health Organisation defines health promotion as the process that extends health education beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

Key points

• Health education is the process by which people are given information needed to exercise a greater degree of control over their own health.

• The process requires an understanding of disease aetiology, the causative factors, and socially simple and acceptable messages for beneficial behavioural change.

• Oral health education should be integrated into general health education as there are common risk factors linking oral and systemic diseases.