Advancing Discourse on Health Promotion: Beyond Mainstream Thinking

Abstract

Attention must be redirected toward health promotion as nursing evaluates the goal of health for all. Confusion regarding health promotion behavior is illustrated by terms with diverse meanings and uses. In a process of critical analysis, five multidisciplinary experts in health promotion responded to a survey targeting the distinction of health promotion, health promotion behavior, health protection behavior, disease prevention behavior, preventive health behavior, health behavior, and healthy lifestyle. Descriptors of health promotion were derived from a multidimensional conception of well-being. Disagreement existed concerning health protection and health behavior. Nursing interventions are linked to reflective discourse regarding health promotion behavior.

Comparison of the health‐promoting lifestyles of nursing and non‐nursing students in Istanbul, Turkey

“…A health‐promoting lifestyle is a “multidimensional pattern of self‐initiated actions and perceptions that serve to maintain or enhance the level of wellness, self‐actualization, and fulfillment of the individual” (Walker et al. , 1987: 77) and is emphasized in the World Health Organization's goal of health for all (Kulbok et al. , 1997).…”

Health promotion and health education: advancing the concepts

“…A clear conceptual framework is required as a foundation for effective nursing‐related health promotion and health education research and practice (King 1994, Kulbok et al. 1997).…”

Health promotion and health education viewed as symbiotic paradigms: bridging the theory and practice gap between them

“…Nettleton (1996) also draws on the concepts of ‘risk’, ‘surveillance’ and the ‘rational self’ to establish a new paradigm in medicine, acting in turn as a critical analysis of health promotion. From a more neutral position, Kulbok et al. (1997) describe health protection as a strategy that lies equally between both health education and health promotion activity.…”

“…Buchanan (1994, 1998) supports this notion, stating that health education and health promotion require a broader conceptualization of theory that recognizes that its knowledge base is contingent and contextual, rather than universal, determinate and invariable. Similarly Kulbok et al. (1997) suggest that, in defining the two paradigms, there is no singular generalizable pattern of health promotion behaviour nor a singular motivation for health educating behaviour.…”