Health Promotion

Original Editor - Habibu Salisu Badamasi Top Contributors - Habibu Salisu Badamasi, Oyemi Sillo and Kim Jackson

Introduction

Prevention is better than cure!

When it comes to addressing public health issues, health promotion is more important than ever. The global health situation is at a critical juncture, with the globe confronting a 'triple burden of diseases,' which includes an unfinished agenda of communicable diseases, newly emerging and re-emerging diseases, and the extraordinary development of non-communicable chronic diseases. Factors that aid progress and development in today's world, such as globalization of trade, urbanization, ease of global travel, advanced technologies, and so on, act as a double-edged sword, increasing the vulnerability to poor health on the one hand, while also contributing to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy dietary patterns on the other. There is a high incidence of tobacco smoking, as well as an increase in poor eating habits and a decrease in physical activity, all of which contribute to an increase in biological risk factors, which leads to an increase in non-communicable diseases.

Health promotion is a multi-faceted social and political process. It encompasses not just efforts aimed at improving individuals' skills and capabilities, but also actions aimed at improving the social, environmental, and economic determinants of health in order to maximize their beneficial impact on public and personal health. Health promotion is the process of helping people to have more control over the determinants of health, both individually and collectively, and thereby enhance their health.

Health promotion strategies and priority action

Ottawa Charter identifies three basic strategies and priority action for health promotion. These are advocacy for health to create the essential conditions for health; enabling all people to achieve their full health potential; and mediating between the different interests in society in the pursuit of health.

• Enabling

• Mediating

The Ottawa Charter identified five priority action areas:

• Build healthy public policy
• Create supportive environments for health
• Strengthen community action for health
• Develop personal skill;
• Reorient health services

Role of physiotherapist in health promotion

Physiotherapists, as members of the health promoter community, play a significant role in health promotion, wellness, fitness, disease and disability prevention and management for individuals and populations by acting as a link between health and health care delivery. Meaning, physiotherapists took advantage of this chance and their expertise to assist individuals and populations in improving their overall health and avoiding health problems.  Education, direct intervention, research, and advocacy are all possible roles for physiotherapists. In accordance with the profession's objective of empowering people to take charge of their own health.

Physiotherapists also tailor health advice to the community in which people live, work, learn, and play. Physiotherapists, for example, take into account and account for social determinants of health when providing clinical and community services. In addition, physiotherapists develop specialized techniques assisting individuals in changing their health behaviors and ensuring that clinical and community treatments are integrated, accessible, and mutually reinforcing

Role in prevention, wellness, fitness, and health promotion

1. Integrate decision-making abilities throughout the International Classification of Functions' dimensions and context variables.
2. Include data on body functions and structures, activities and involvement, as well as pertinent personal and environmental elements, such as social determinants of health, in a plan of care (economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, neighborhood, and built environment)
3. .Integrate scientific principles of movement, function, and exercise progression to promote physical activity and improve health outcomes for individuals and populations  
4. Incorporate concepts of prevention, wellness, fitness, and health promotion with every patient or client as appropriate  
5. .Integrate and interpret the elements of medical, biopsychosocial, and health promotion models that allow them to monitor health status over time  
6. Design and develop integrated clinical and community screening programs to prevent and manage disease and disability, and refer as appropriate, as part of a community‐based integrated team that is focused on healthy lifestyles
7. Apply the best available evidence in selecting and prescribing exercise for individuals, and planning physical activity and injury prevention programs for individuals and communities  
8. Use skills in behavior change to promote healthy lifestyles in individuals and communities  
9. Adapt tasks and the environment to promote healthy behaviors and improved health outcomes for individuals and populations of all ages, including those with complex health and functional needs, as part of a community‐based integrated team  
10. Adopt healthy lifestyle choices for themselves that include engaging in active forms of transportation and meeting national guidelines for participation in physical activity and exercise

    Role in management of disease and disability

1. .Recognize the risk factors for, and the course of, chronic diseases and the potential impact on quality of life and on activities and participation  
2. Establish and facilitate collaborative, interprofessional, patient‐ and client‐centric relationships that empower individuals and populations in self-management across the lifespan and through the health continuum, with an emphasis on movement and function  
3. Apply best available evidence in selecting, prescribing, and using intervention and measurement strategies to establish exercise prescription for individuals to help them prevent primary, secondary, and tertiary conditions or optimize functional mobility  
4. Apply best available evidence in planning programs to educate populations to help them prevent primary, secondary, and tertiary conditions or restore functional mobility  
5. .Provide nonsurgical and nonpharmacological services as a hallmark of physical therapist practice  
6. .Predict and interpret health outcomes and functional needs in the context of where people live, work, learn, and play .

  Role as a dynamic link between health and health services delivery

1. Apply their expertise in exercise and physical activity to adapt health recommendations for individuals and populations, from clinical settings to the home and community  
2. Function as a member of an interprofessional team of health providers, wellness and fitness providers, community health workers, public health providers, and other diverse professionals to help individuals and populations reduce their disease risk and improve their health and quality of life  
3. Communicate and collaborate with relevant health professionals to help individuals and populations receive appropriate health services  

 Role as advocates for prevention, wellness, fitness, health promotion, and management of disease and disability

1. .Support scientific, educational, legislative, and other policy initiatives that promote regular physical activity and exercise to enhance health and prevent disease  
2. .Advocate for physical education, physical conditioning, and wellness instruction at all levels of education, from preschool through higher education
3. .Advocate for community design that promotes opportunities for safe physical activity and active forms of transportation for individuals and populations of all ages and abilities
4. Advocate for strategies that reduce inequities and barriers related to social determinants of health