What is Health Promotion?
From 2019-2021, I pursued my Master of Science in Health Promotion at Queen’s University, and unless whoever I’m telling this is in Public Health or Health Promotion, I’m often immediately asked:
Well, what’s health promotion?
Do you often hear this question? If yes, welcome to the corner of the internet where we talk about all things health promotion, health communication, and how to hold digital space in this field.
Maybe this isn’t you, and you’re the one asking your peer, family member, or colleague, “Well, what’s health promotion?” In that case, this blog post is for you! Read on to learn more about health promotion, its foundations, how it relates to public health, and more…
What is Health Promotion?
The World Health Organization describes “health promotion” 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.”
The health promotion discipline considers the social determinants of health in its work, such as income, employment, education, environment, gender, culture, and race, among others. These factors determine our health, and health promotion works to empower individuals and communities to choose healthy behaviours in an equitable manner, meeting people where they are.
Taking action in the health promotion field can look like developing programs, policies, and interventions to reduce health inequities and improve overall health. These actions are notably “empowering, participatory, holistic, intersectional, equitable, sustainable and multi-strategy in nature,” as described by Health Promotion Canada.
Why is health promotion important?
Health promotion reduces the burden of disease
Health promotion increases the quality of life for all
Health promotion is cost-effective, especially because of its concentration on prevention – it vastly reduces the costs that many groups spend on clinical and maintenance care (e.g., patients, family members, insurance companies, and institutions)
What’s the difference between Health Promotion and Public Health?
Health promotion is described as a core function of public health, focusing on mobilizing community action, building healthy public policies, and establishing supportive environments. Other core public health functions include health protection, health surveillance, disease and injury prevention, population health assessment, and emergency preparedness and response.
Where do people with health promotion degrees work?
Health promotion degrees, such as an MA, MSc, or PhD, open up many doors, such as working directly in policy-making, consulting, data analysis, and more.
Some common job titles include:
Social or community service manager
Program manager
Health care coordinator
Health promotion specialist
More generally, people typically come out of a degree in health promotion having strengthened many soft skills, including communication, project management, research, analysis, and problem-solving.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my first blog post! If you have any thoughts, feel free to reach out to me.
