The Various Aspects of Health Promotion - Assignment Example

Health Promotion Introduction Health promotion is an important aspect of our daily lives as it helps in the prevention of problems that are likely to occur in the future. In this paper, the various aspects of health promotion will be discussed by first giving the various interpretations of health promotion. This will be followed by a discussion of the various principles that have been proposed as key in health promotion. A case study of Saudi Arabia is then discussed first by explain the problem of road accidents that has been seen as the number one cause of death in Saudi Arabia. This case will bring us to the reasons as to why people continue to ignore the health promotion aspect despite the many efforts directed at it. This knowledge will help in understanding what can be done to help ease the situation. The paper will conclude by a reflection on the various aspects discussed in the paper. Health Promotion: Key Concepts Health promotion has been defined by the world health organization as “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.” (WHO, 2011) Therefore to them it is a positive concept that emphasizes personal, social, political and institutional resources as well as capabilities. Other authors have defined it as any combination of health, education, economic, political, spiritual, or organizational initiatives that are designed to bring about positive attitudinal, behavioural, social or environmental changes that are conducive to promoting the health of populations (WHO, 2010). Health promotion is not limited to health but goes ahead to look at ways in which positive behaviour can be instilled in people so as to avoid future health related problems. It is directed towards taking action on the determinants of health (Seedhouse, 2004, pp. 10-25). These determinants are seen as the causes of health and this implies that there needs to be cooperation of sectors beyond health services in a way to reflect the diversity of conditions that influence health. This cooperation will involve the government at both the local and the national level taking responsibility to act appropriately and timely in ensuring that the total environment, which is beyond the control of individuals and groups, is conducive to health (Keith & Tilford, 2001, pp 100-180). Principles of Health promotion The world health organization proposes five key principles of health promotion. First, that health promotion involves the entire population and not a focus on specific individuals that are at risk from specific diseases (WHO, 2010). This implies that no health promotion campaign is aimed at the people already at risk but even those who have a lesser risk. This is because, when this disease strikes all the people will be affected in one way or another. The effects may be psychological, economic or even social and thus will still cause many other health concerns. Another reason is that these campaigns aim at educating the public so that they can take care of others who might be at risk in the future (Scriven & Orme, 2001, pp. 50-65). The second principle is that health promotion is directed towards action on the causes or determinants of health (WHO, 2010). This will require that many people cooperate in many sectors beyond health care to reflect the multiplicity of conditions that influence health. As said earlier there are many causes of health and these are not only those recognized by the health care providers for example behavioural, or pathogens but also the government policies that have an impact on health of individuals (Hendry, Wlliams, & Wilkinson, 2006). Government policies for example on the mandatory use of safety belts will reduce accidents on the roads. If another government does not require their citizens to use safety belts t means that deaths on roads will also increase and this is a health concern. The third principle is that health promotion should combine multiple but complementary methods or approaches that includes communication, education, legislation, fiscal measures, organizational change, community change, community development and spontaneous local activities against health hazards (WHO, 2010). It is important to realize that for health promotion approaches to succeed and to reach a big audience of the population the above mentioned factors are very important in ensuring this. People need to get information from all channels so as to increase their chances of adopting positive behaviour. A variety of channels will ensure that this is made possible and each channel should contain specific messages for a given population (Shilton, 2009, pp. 42-46). The fourth principle is that health promotion is aimed at affective and concrete public participation. This will require the further development of problem defining and decision making life skills at both the individual and group level and the promotion of effective participation mechanisms (WHO, 2010). Many people have talked of the importance of participatory development approach in any social change program (Jennings, 2000, pp. 5-10). For a program to be sustainable, the start point is the community. The diffusion approach works at influencing behaviour change in individuals through social marketing initiatives but research has shown that people rarely use the information they get from the mass media (Waisbord, 2008, pp. 509-515). Therefore it is important that grass root participation is sought and the health problems are approached from the individual communities if they have to succeed but with facilitation of mass media initiatives (Paul Castelloe, 2002, pp. 8-10). The fifth principle is that health promotion is primarily a societal and political venture and not medical service but the health care professionals have also a role to play in advocating and enabling health promotion (WHO, 2010). This principle essentially talks of the need for society to come up with ways to promote their health with the government forming policies that promote health. The healthcare practitioner’s role is that of a facilitator and not necessarily designing strategies and policies to promote health (Mahon, 2007, pp. 11). Saudi Arabia: background on traffic accidents Car accidents refer or a traffic collision refers to an incident that occurs when a vehicle hits or collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, stationary material on the road such as road debris, trees or utility poles for example telephone or electricity poles. This collision may result in injury of the car driver and passengers, death or damage to property. Car accidents are caused by many factors including: vehicle design, speed of operation, road design, environment, driver skill/impairment and driver behaviour (D & C Police, 2011). The world health organization approximates that about 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads and between 20 and 50 million people sustain fatal injuries. South East Asian leads with the highest fatalities on road accidents (WHO, 2010). Morbidity- a state in which an individual departs from the normal physical and psychological wellbeing and mortality- state of being dead or alive, are all resultant effects of car accidents. The morbidity and mortality rates are higher in low and middle income countries at 21.5and 19.5 per 100,000 population respectively while the higher income countries stand at 10.3 per 100,000 of the population (GHO, 2011). These statistics are very high keeping in mind that there is improved road network and literacy on road use and this should bring down road accidents. Saudi Arabia has the highest number of deaths resulting from road accidents. A report by the Kingdom’s General directorate of Traffic revealed that an average of seven people die on the country’s roads each day. This is alarming as the world health organization ranked Saudi Arabia as number one in the world in terms of road accidents. It is said that the principal cause of death in Saudi Arabia is road accidents with many male adults between the ages of 16 to 36 perishing on the roads (GDT, 2011). A study in 2010 revealed that 6, 485 people had died as a result of road accidents, 36000 were injured in over 485,000 traffic accidents during the year 2008-2009 (Joffe-Walt, 2010). These are very high statistics which outnumber developed and underdeveloped countries. Surprisingly the same causes of death are cited in both western countries and Saudi Arabia. The problem is that the Saudi Arabia statistics are abnormally high (Ansari, Akhdar, Mandoorah, & Moutaery, 2000, pp. 37-39). The causes of these deaths have been attributed to many factors among them the following. First the accidents are attributed to general causes which include: a large increase in the number of vehicles and expansion of road networks within and between cities; large national development projects which require the development of supporting transport systems; and the increased number of expatriates from different countries with different habits and culture who are unfamiliar with local driving conditions and requirements (Ansari, Akhdar, Mandoorah, & Moutaery, 2000, p. 38). The specific causes include: driving errors; 50% of the accidents are due to excess speed and the violation of traffic signals at intersections; poor vehicle conditions and poor state of the roads especially the open roads; and drug abuse problems. Reasons for ignoring Health promotion initiatives There are various reasons as to why people in Saudi Arabia ignore road safety health promotion advice and this is attributed to individual and societal factors that seem to foster the continued rejection of information on health promotion. The first reason relates to their lifestyle. Many people in Saudi Arabia are well off because of the wealth acquired from the sale of oil (Hammad, Kysia, Rabah, Hassoun, & Connelly, 1999, pp. 12-22). These people are able to purchase expensive cars that they feel match their lifestyle. These people have been found as the majority contributors to the number of road accidents. This is because they feel they have a say on the road and that the other drivers have nothing to offer. In so doing they run past red lights, they overtake carelessly and over speed to prove the potential that their car has. These people have continuously rejected information about the need to follow traffic signals and many have broken traffic rules that have led to many accidents. Studies show that these individuals are especially males within the ages of 16 to 36 that are very aggressive. The second reason is the confusion that is brought about by the changing trends in advice. As noted earlier there are huge government projects in the country that are aimed at improving the state of roads and other infrastructure. There are many mass media campaigns concerning the importance of road safety keep on changing every day because of the various initiatives by different departments. These initiatives are seen as inconsistent and aimed at solving various causes at the same time. This creates confusion as people do not know what message to follow and how it impacts on their health. The world health organization having realized that this problem exists in the country came up with measures to help address this but this caused more confusion on the existing policies (WHO, 2006, pp. 5-20). The third reason is that of resentment because of the manner in which the messages are given. Many messages fail because the people are not involved in the designing of those messages. As explained earlier participatory development is essential to the success of any health promotion initiative. The government is not coming up with messages that address the needs of the people and this is because they design the messages on what they feel is important for the people but it is not what the people see as important. These messages are then disseminated through the mass media assuming that all people have access to the mass media. The messages contain threatening or fear appeals. Studies have shown that fear appeals do not work in the current society and only continues to reinforce the idea (WHO, 2006). How the above knowledge will help in preventing morbidity and mortality These reasons are important because they help in a variety of ways. The knowledge about the lifestyle of the people will necessitate that a health promotion campaign is started that addresses the lifestyles of the people with regards to contributing to road accidents. People can be told of the need to drive carefully even if they own expensive cars. They should also be told of the need to follow the law so that they do not cause road accidents. Secondly as concerns confusion it is important that all projects on health promotion are integrated such that no department works singly but in conjunction with others so that they come up with consistent messages that will impact positive on people’s behaviour. Messages targeting lifestyle can also talk about why there is need to stop over speeding and alcohol consumption and offer reasons why these activities lead to road accidents. This will eliminate the confusion and make people readily accept the messages (Green & Tones, 2010, pp. 20-55). Thirdly, resentment is caused by lack of involvement in the designing of the content of the promotional material. People need to be consulted on what they think are their needs before a message is produced. When messages come from the people they are readily accepted (corcoran, 2007, pp. 53-73) and chances of social and behaviour change are high and this will contribute immensely to the decrease in the number of road accidents in the country. Health promotion approaches As explained in the introductory part, health promotion will take many approaches. There are basically five health promotion approaches and these include the following: Medical, behaviour change, empowerment, social change and educational (Rujukan, 2011). Selecting the best approach will depend on the situation or health issue to be addressed. For this case the best approach will be the social change approach to solve the problem of car accidents. This approach aims at bringing about changes in the physical, social, and economic environment that enables people to enjoy better health, radical health promotion that makes the environment supportive of health and lastly it is focussed on changing the society and not individual behaviours (Rujukan, 2011). The methods used in this approach are focussed on shaping the health environment and include the following: Lobbying/advocacy, development of healthy public policies and legislation, fiscal measures and creation of supportive social and physical environments (Rujukan, 2011). This approach will be very important in reducing mortality and morbidity because it does not only focus on individuals but the society as a whole and what can be done to avert the situation. In so doing various ideas are employed here ranging from legislations to empowerment and to advocacy and mass media campaigns. People will be educated and realise the importance of adhering to traffic rules and regulations and this will go a long way in reducing mortality rates. The above approach may incorporate behaviour change to a certain extent. Behaviour change is aimed at sensitizing individuals to adopt healthy behaviour because personal health is an individual responsibility. This is done through communication, education, persuasion and motivation. The people can be advised on the importance of not drinking and driving because of the direct impact it has on their ability to drive. Getting people to change is difficult because behaviours are complex and multifaceted (Rujukan, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion it has been seen that health promotion is a wide concept that embodies many things. Its primary purpose is to enable people to increase control over and to improve their health. It is not an individual initiative but rather a collective initiative that emphasizes personal social political and institutional cooperation in order to provide a healthy environment for its people. These initiatives are aimed at bringing about attitudinal, behavioural social and environmental changes that are conducive to the improvement of health of people. The world health organization provided a framework that underlines the principles of health promotion. The five principles identified are important in the success of any health promotion initiative as it has been seen above. It has also been seen that people ignore health promotion initiatives for a number of reasons especially in the case of Saudi Arabia. These reasons can help organizations and institutions come up with effective measures that will help in reducing road carnage. References Ansari, S., Akhdar, F., Mandoorah, M., & Moutaery, K. (2000). Causes and effects of road traf®c accidents in Saudi Arabia. Public Health, 114: 37-39. corcoran, N. (2007). Communicating Health: Strategies for Health Promotion. London: Sage Publications. D & C Police. (2011, september 23). Road Collision Unit. Retrieved December 24, 2011, from Devon and Cornwall police: http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/Traffic/CollisionUnit/Pages/default.aspx GDT. (2011). General Department of Traffic Statistics. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from Misnistry of Interior: http://www.moi.gov.sa/wps/portal/traffic/!ut/p/b1/jc9LDoIwEAbgs3CCTiklsCwV28YUqISK3RgWhJAIuDDG44uKS9TZTfL980AO1ciNza3vmms_jc352bvwRHnBVaQJFjzgoAJsoeSUkH0wg-MMEoA0TjCDSGoAJY31K22Z0vBfHlaK_cyX7YgOyL2YyGxJhCQY0nBmhsp8RytQgiwAcl9vsOFsC0YGGxrLz6IFfPvjPWH90ExOQ GHO. (2011). Road safety. Geneva: WHO. 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