Health Promotion and Quality of Life

Introduction

The promotion of health among individuals is required for enhancing their quality of life to ensure improved health and well-being. In this respect, the assignment is going to explain concept regarding health education and health promotion. The approaches used for mass media campaign for promotion of health are to be evaluated. Further, the role of mass media in the promotion of healthcare on the basis of an example is to be analysed and discussed.

Task 1

AC1.1 Explaining health promotion and health education

The health education and health promotion are overlapping terms due to which people often are unable to differentiate between them. As mentioned by Eldredge et al. (2016), health promotion is referred to supportive process which endeavours to design effective health condition that would lead to better wellness among individuals. This is because health promotion is developed not to manage a single health issue in an individual but to spread awareness regarding all risk factors and related information for a specific health issue among the population. As argued by Doyle et al. (2018), health education is part of social science which gathers information from environmental, biological, physical, psychological and medical sciences. This is done to prevent diseases and promote health along with avoid disability and premature death of individuals due to hindered lifestyle and behaviour. The aim of health education is imparting knowledge among the people regarding the way their health condition and lifestyle are causing negative impact as well as inform the skills to be developed for maintaining better health behaviour and attitudes which ensures them to lead healthy life (Kyaw et al. 2019). However, the aim of the health promotion is to influence change in the behaviour of people and organisation so that they develop responsibility and concerned attitude to take actions in altering their lifestyle which is creating the health problems (substance abuse, drug addiction, etc) (Marcus-Varwijk et al. 2018).

The difference between health education and health promotion is that the former is the study field whereas the latter is the one which takes the shape of the advertisement of the study (Grace et al. 2017; Fletcher et al. 2018). This is because health education imparts knowledge about the factors causing health aliments and health promotion develops approaches in informing these data to be public in creating awareness. The health education is seen to be implemented as subject in academic institution to make students and young individuals develop understanding of the essential aspect of health behaviour and attitudes. This is executed as it is perceived that it could bring cascading impact of the individuals in the society to gain wellness and health awareness (Dinh et al. 2016). However, health promotion is found to be key focus of the government and healthcare professionals to arrange it in raising awareness regarding disease prevention and promotion of healthy behaviours among individuals (Halsall et al. 2020).

AC2.1 Evaluating approaches used in mass media campaign

In order to evaluate the approaches used in the mass media campaign for health promotion, one of the examples of mass media health promotion for certain health issue is to be selected so that appropriate evidence can be gathered (McBride et al. 2019). For example, in the UK, one of key mass media campaign for anti-smoking health promotion in Stoptober. The Stoptober is referred to the 28-day campaign developed by the Public Health England from October 2019 to encourage smoking cessation and quitting among the population through delivery of necessary healthcare support and services to individuals (campaignresources.phe.gov.uk, 2019). The mass media approaches used in the campaign includes radio, television and digital media along with included public relationship component (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019).

The strength of using mass media like radio, digital platform and television is that it allows wide number of individuals in the community is to be reached within short amount of time to deliver them the intended information (Nghiem et al. 2019). This is the intention of the Stoptober which used the mass media approaches to holistically reach audience of all age in England, UK to influence them to stop smoking. However, the limitation of mass media approaches is that it is largely undifferentiated due to which hindrance is created in reaching the health education to target audience in specific manner (Nghiem et al. 2018). In case of Stoptober, it is seen that they initially faced issues with reaching the target audience who are actually smoking. This is because they did not narrowed down the casting and delivery of information as per time and other factors to be able to help them reach target audience in the success of the campaign (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). Thus, to achieve better results with the mass media approach they narrowcast their information. The narrowcasting is referred to selection of specific media channels and designing media content for accomplishing the demands of target groups in influencing them to make changes in their lifestyle and behaviour to experience better health and well-being (Cross et al. 2017). In relation to narrowcasting, in Stoptober, the campaign accessed support from the commercial and public sector that helped it to promote the delivery of information for smoking cessation to target individuals (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). For instance, Stoptober used Youtube to reach younger individuals who are active on the site to ensure they know regarding the campaign and take actions for quitting smoking. In addition, different time slots are considered in the specific networking channels to reach the target audience (campaignresources.phe.gov.uk, 2019).

AC4.1 Evaluating mass media role in health promotion

The role of the mass media used in Stoptober which is health promotion campaign for smoking cessation was to act as educator and supporter. The media when act as educator has the key role to provide detailed information regarding the positive and negative impact of any action or product (Moon et al. 2017). This is evident from the campaign of Stoptober where they used the media to play the role of educating the negative impact of smoking on the health of individuals. The media role to act as supporter in health promotion provide data regarding the actions to be performed and tools to be used in achieving good health (Wadham et al. 2019). In case of Stoptober, similar role has been played by the mass media used where they mentioned that e-cigarettes could be used in cessation of smoking for long-term in gradual manner. Moreover, the Stoptober promoted stories of smokers who have quit smoking and how they gradually executed it which ensured to provide support in smoking cessation. The media has the role as program promoter where they try to promote any service or products among the individuals in the market. The Stoptober used mass media to play the role of program promoter for e-cigarettes to raise its use among smokers to be able to quit smoking (campaignresources.phe.gov.uk, 2019).

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that health education has the aim to provide knowledge and skills of understanding cause of health issue. However, health promotion uses this education regarding health for advertisement of health issues in raising awareness regarding the health condition among individuals. The mass media approaches used mostly in health promotion as seen in Stoptober are radio digital media and television. The mass media in health promotion are seen to play the role of support, program promoter and educator to ensure health improvement.

References

Cross, R., Davis, S. and O'Neil, I., 2017. Health communication: Theoretical and critical perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.

Dinh, T.T.H., Bonner, A., Clark, R., Ramsbotham, J. and Hines, S., 2016. The effectiveness of the teach-back method on adherence and self-management in health education for people with chronic disease: a systematic review. JBI database of systematic reviews and implementation reports, 14(1), pp.210-247.

Doyle, E.I., Ward, S.E. and Early, J., 2018. The process of community health education and promotion. Waveland Press.

Eldredge, L.K.B., Markham, C.M., Ruiter, R.A., Fernández, M.E., Kok, G. and Parcel, G.S., 2016. Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Fletcher, G.F., Landolfo, C., Niebauer, J., Ozemek, C., Arena, R. and Lavie, C.J., 2018. Promoting physical activity and exercise: JACC health promotion series. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 72(14), pp.1622-1639.

Grace, S., Innes, E., Patton, N. and Stockhausen, L., 2017. Ethical experiential learning in medical, nursing and allied health education: A narrative review. Nurse education today, 51, pp.23-33.

Halsall, T., Manion, I., Henderson, J., Robeson, P., Purcell, R., Liversidge, P. and Iyer, S.N., 2020. Examining partnerships within an international knowledge translation network focused on youth mental health promotion. Health Research Policy and Systems, 18(1), pp.1-10.

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Marcus-Varwijk, A.E., Peters, L., Visscher, T., Smits, C., Ranchor, A. and Slaets, J., 2018. Impact of a nurse-led health promotion intervention in an aging population: Results from Community Health Consultation Offices for Seniors. International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC), 18. Pp.20-37.

Moon, J., Williford, A. and Mendenhall, A., 2017. Educators' perceptions of youth mental health: Implications for training and the promotion of mental health services in schools. Children and youth services review, 73, pp.384-391.

Nghiem, N., Cleghorn, C.L., Leung, W., Nair, N., van der Deen, F.S., Blakely, T. and Wilson, N., 2018. A national quitline service and its promotion in the mass media: modelling the health gain, health equity and cost–utility. Tobacco control, 27(4), pp.434-441.

Wadham, E., Green, C., Debattista, J., Somerset, S. and Sav, A., 2019. New digital media interventions for sexual health promotion among young people: a systematic review. Sexual health, 16(2), pp.101-123.