HEALTH EDUCATION - MAIN INSTRUMENT TO ACHIEVE A SUCCESSFUL HEALTH PROMOTION

Abstract

Health education is the profession of educating the members of the society about health and it represents the main instrument to achieve a successful health promotion. WHO defines it as “any combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their health, by increasing their knowledge or influencing their attitudes.” It is aimed at help the population to acquire health through their own behavior and efforts; it contains a set of coordinated interventions meant to help the individual or the group to know, to accept and to acquire the ways of acting that are useful to maintain and improve his own health and the one of others member of the society. Health education represents a certified source of information about physical, mental, emotional and social health. It motivates to improve and maintain health, prevent diseases and reduce risky behaviors. Health education is based on the interest that individuals are showing regarding the improvement of their living circumstances and it aims to make people feel that health positive evolution is achieved and derived from their personal decisions and responsibilities. It is a social intervention that tends to change consciously and durably behavior towards health problems; presupposes the knowledge of the cultural heritage of the group and the focus of his subjective interests and requires the removal of opposing resistances from the group to the intervention. Communities benefiting of positive health promotion strategies are able to develop their knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors. Health promotion is crucial to public health because it improves the health status of individuals, families, communities, and populations. It is a direct process meant to supply the necessary information for a critical examination of health problems. Also, is helping individual and social groups’ to take responsible choices which have positive effects on physical and mental health.