Theories of health education

1. •Health behavior theories,
models and frameworks
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2. Health behavior theories---
• The mandate of most health education,
public health, and chronic disease
management programmes is to help
people maintain and improve their
health, reduce disease risks, and
manage chronic illness.
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3. Health behavior theories---
• Ultimately the goal is to improve the well-being
and self-sufficiency of individuals, families,
organizations, and communities.
• Often this will require behavior change at every
level.
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4. How are health behaviour theories
useful?
• As a toolbox for moving beyond intuition to
designing and evaluating health education
interventions that are based on an
understanding of why people engage in certain
health behaviour;
• As a foundation for programme planning and
development that is consistent with the current
emphasis on using evidence-based interventions;
• As a road map for studying problems,
developing appropriate interventions,
identifying indicators and evaluating impacts; 4

5. How are health behavior theories----
• As a guide to help explain the processes for
changing health behavior and the influences of
the many forces that affect it, including social
and physical environments;
• As a compass to help planners identify the
most suitable target audiences, methods for
fostering change and outcomes for evaluation.
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6. synopsis of some of the major health
behavior theories currently in use.
• No one theory dominates health education
practice.
• The contexts in which health behavior occurs
are evolving.
• A theory should be chosen based on the topic
and target population.
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7. The theory should be
• Logical
• Consistent with everyday observations
• Similar to those used in previous successful
programmes
• Supported by past research in the same area or
related ideas.
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9. The health belief model
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10. The health belief model---
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11. The health belief model---
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14. • Components that appear to be
essential to effective community-
based health education and
prevention strategies include the
following.
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15. • Participant involvement Community members
should be involved in all phases of a programme’s
development: identifying community needs,
enlisting the aid of community organizations,
planning and implementing programme activities
and evaluating results.
• Wide and comprehensive representation of
community members on programme planning
bodies provides for a sense of ownership and
empowerment that will enhance the programme’s
impact.
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16. • Planning Many programmes take two or three
years to move from original conceptualization
to the point at which services are delivered.
• Planning involves identifying the health
problems in the community that are preventable
through community intervention, formulating
goals, identifying target behavior and
environmental characteristics that will be the
focus of the intervention efforts, deciding how
stakeholders will be involved and building a
cohesive planning group.
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17. • Needs and resources assessment Prior to
implementing a health education initiative,
attention needs to be given to identifying the
health needs and capacities of the community
and the resources that are available.
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18. • A comprehensive programme
• The programmes with the greatest promise are
comprehensive, in that they deal with multiple
risk factors, use several different channels of
programme delivery, target several different
levels (individuals, families, social networks,
organizations, the community as a whole) and are
designed to change not only risk behaviour but
also the factors and conditions that sustain this
behaviour (e.g. motivation, social environment).
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19. • An integrated programme The programme
should be integrated; each component of the
programme should reinforce the other
components.
• Programmes should also be physically integrated
into the settings where people live their lives (e.g.
worksites) rather than solely in clinics.
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20. • Long-term change Health education
programmes should be designed to produce
stable and lasting changes in health behaviour.
This requires longer-term funding of the
programme and the development of a permanent
health education infrastructure within the
community.
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21. • Altering community norms In order to have a
significant impact on an entire organization or
community, the health education programme
must be able to alter community or
organizational norms and standards of behaviour.
• This requires that a substantial proportion of the
community’s or organization’s members be
exposed to programme messages, or preferably,
be involved in programme activities in some way.
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22. • More than 200 interventions in the following
topical areas have been reviewed
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24. Health education code of ethics
• Respect for human dignity and rights
• Respect for individual and family independence
• Client full consent
• Confidentiality
• Nondiscrimination or stigmatization
• Equity in access, coverage and service delivery
• Respect for cultural values and cultural diversity
• Refraining from conflict of interest, particularly
commercial interest
• Integrity and good personal conduct. 24

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