Making healthy choices easy choices: the role of empowerment

Abstract

An important goal of health promotion is to make it easier for people to make healthy choices. However, this may be difficult if people do not feel control over their environment and their personal circumstances. An important concept in relation to this is empowerment. Health professionals are expected to facilitate and enable people moving towards empowerment. In this paper, we address the question what is meant by individual empowerment. In an attempt to provide a theoretical framework, we discuss individual empowerment from a salutogenic perspective. This perspective introduces two fundamental concepts: the general resistance resources, and the sense of coherence. In addition, in order to further clarify and operationalise the concept, some factors influencing individual empowerment are identified, that is, locus of control, learned helplessness, self-efficacy and outcome expectations. These concepts find common ground in feelings of (lack of) control, but they differ in stability and changeability. We provide some suggestions how these factors can be influenced, and we discuss the meaning of the identified factors for empowering interactions between professionals and their clients. Health professionals can facilitate people to see a correspondence between their efforts and the outcomes thereof, improve and facilitate health literacy, in a relationship which can be characterised as partnership.

Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sociopolitical Control Scale

“…From its introduction to community psychology in 1981 (Rappaport, 1981), empowerment has become a cornerstone in prevention science and has extended the reach of community psychology to other disciplines such as social work (Itzhaky, 2003) and public health (Koelen & Lindstrom, 2005;Minkler, 2004), as well as to community practice (Holden et al, 2005). In tandem with elaboration of the empowerment construct (Zimmerman, 1990), measurement of PE through the original SPCS (Zimmerman & Zahniser, 1991) was a milestone in the development of empowerment theory.…”

Older People, Sense of Coherence and Community

“…Basic qualities of the house, like daylight, the level of thermal and sound insulation, and the ease of maintenance are valued for their physical comfort, as well as for providing feelings of privacy, safety, freedom, and independence. A meaningful house enhances feelings of personal control, autonomy, and responsibility, which seem to be pivotal to health development (Koelen & Lindström, 2005) and hence to healthy ageing. People who have a responsibility for day-to-day events, even seemingly small things such as watering plants, or caring for a little bird or dog, have more favourable psychological well-being and show higher health and activity patterns than people without such responsibilities (e.g., Rodin & Langer, 1977).…”

Present and future of nutrition guidance : lifestyle advice in primary care

“…The title of the fourth Heelsum workshop (2004) (64,(86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(91)(92)(93)(94)(95)(96) showed that we were aware that empowering and support were needed for both family doctors and patients. The disease-based evidence in primary care, the individual strategy of change, and the population interface of primary care were central themes in this workshop.…”