Health Promotion

Health Promotion is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses a range of domains, including educational, political, regulatory, and organizational supports, in pursuit of individual, group, and community health. The field of health promotion includes both the research and delivery of interventions and programs related to the determinants of optimal health. Specifically, behavioural and environmental determinants that influence the health of individuals and communities, such as healthy lifestyles, public policy, community organization and mobilization, and social and physical environments, are highlighted in this area of concentration. The methods of health promotion draw from a number of disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, political science, geography, human ecology).

Mission

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Health is a multidimensional concept that can be viewed from multiple perspectives. The process of enabling, and what is seen as enabling, is shaped by the paradigm and construct of health used in research and/or practice.

Three major health promotion paradigms are identified: relational, social political and behavioural health promotion. Each paradigm is associated with particular definitions and theories, which in turn guide the values and goals that are incorporated in a research process. It is acknowledged that those in the field of Health Promotion embrace different paradigms in their work.

RELATIONAL	SOCIO-POLITICAL	BEHAVIOURAL
Definition Theories Practice Research Values Goals	Definition Theories Practice Research Values Goals	Definition Theories Practice Research Values Goals

Students from the field of health promotion are expected to be familiar with the three major paradigms, as well as various health promotion strategies, applications and research encompassed by the paradigms. These include, but are not limited to, approaches involving healthy lifestyle education, empowerment strategies, community development/participatory action, social marketing, relevant policy and programming, and consciousness raising, each of which might be carried at various levels of society (individual, community or population).

Core faculty members for Health Promotion field.

Course descriptions for the Health Promotion field.