Ecological Models Revisited: Their Uses and Evolution in Health Promotion Over Two Decades

Abstract

Since the 1980s, ecological models of health promotion have generated a great deal of enthusiasm among researchers and interventionists. These models emerged from conceptual developments in other fields, and only selected elements of the ecological approach have been integrated into them. In this article, we describe the tenets of the ecological approach and highlight those aspects that have been integrated into ecological models used in health promotion. We also analyze how ecological models have been applied to the study of two important public health issues, namely physical activity promotion and the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, by conducting an archival study of published research. Finally, we make a statement regarding the usefulness of ecological models for research and practice and propose recommendations for future research, program planning, and evaluation. 307

Sports clubs as settings for health promotion: Fundamentals and an overview to research

“…The settings approach to health promotion has been utilized in settings like cities, schools, hospitals and workplaces for almost thirty years (1,2). The work was for a long time limited to these traditional and institutional settings until other settings were also taken into consideration approximately fifteen years ago (3).…”

Relationship between the physical environment and different domains of physical activity in European adults: A systematic review

“…While earlier research on this topic focused mainly on the contribution of personal determinants of PA behavior, social ecological models have been of growing interest during the last decade. These models put forward that domainspecific PA is influenced by multiple factors, which interact across different levels [5][6][7]. Of particular interest is the environmental level, including the physical environment.…”

A tool for exploring the dynamics of innovative interventions for public health: the critical event card

“…Ecological interventions include multiple interactions among program components, various actors, and flexible strategies which vary according to context (Hawe 2015;Hawe and Riley 2005). Local norms, organizational values, and scale of expected effects inform the planning and implementation of ecological interventions (Hawe and Riley 2005;Trickett 2009;Richard et al 2011;IOM 2012). Innovative interventions that address complex health problems share most of these characteristics.…”

“…Those elements are human actors (people and groups of people) and non-human actants (knowledge, instruments, and resources) acting in a flexible and dynamic ways. ST-N create activities and events in support of the intervention transformative functions , and in response to contextual conditions (Rychetnik et al 2002;Hawe 2015;Riley 2005;Trickett 2009;Richard et al 2011;Potvin and Clavier 2012;Levin 2002;). Such events and activities aim to connect intervention's actants/actors to negotiate interests, to (re)configure identities and roles according to intervention's purpose (Callon et al 1999;Latour 2001Latour , 2005Law 1992).…”