Introduction
The terms ‘health promotion’ and ‘health education’ are often used interchangeably. In many cases this is problematical as they are distinct and different things. Whitehead (2004) attempted to overcome this problem by separating out and defining the terms. Health education is defined as:
An activity that seeks to inform the individual on the nature and causes of health/ illness and that individual's personal level of risk associated with their lifestyle-related behaviour. [It] seeks to motivate … behavioural change through directly influencing their value, belief and attitude systems, where it is deemed that the individual is particularly at risk or has been affected by illness/disease or disability already.
Whitehead (2004)Health promotion is defined as:
The process by which the ecologically driven socio-political-economic determinants of health are addressed as they impact on individuals and the communities within which they interact. [It] seeks to radically transform and empower communities through involving them in fundamental activities such as influencing public health. It looks to develop and reform social structures through evolving participation between all representative stakeholders in their different sectors and agencies.
Whitehead (2004)Health promotion is a broad and complex process that overarches all health strategy related to primary health care, public health, population health and community health. It is often an overtly political and policy-driven process that includes types of health education activity such as ‘radical’ health education (Clavier & de Leeuw, 2013; Green et al., 2015).
When it comes to primary health care program planning and evaluation, the terms health promotion and health education are also often used interchangeably but this is less of a problem than already stated. Health promotion approaches often, by default, include health education interventions. Reflecting this, many ‘health’ planning and evaluation tools and models incorporate both health promotion and health education processes (Raingruber 2014; Whitehead & Irvine, 2010). For the purposes of detailing health program planning and evaluation, many of the processes ‘overarch’ both approaches (Linsley, Kane & Owen, 2011; Watkins & Cousins, 2010). In the case of this chapter, where just the term ‘health promotion’ is used, it can be assumed that it most likely will also include health education planning and evaluation.
Any health promotion or health education program requires a formal process of planning and evaluation in a systematic manner (Green et al., 2015).
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