Defining Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Health promotion and disease prevention programs focus on keeping people healthy. Health promotion programs aim to engage and empower individuals and communities to choose healthy behaviors, and make changes that reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and other morbidities. Defined by the World Health Organization, health promotion:

“enables people to increase control over their own health. It covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions that are designed to benefit and protect individual people's health and quality of life by addressing and preventing the root causes of ill health, not just focusing on treatment and cure.”

Disease prevention differs from health promotion because it focuses on specific efforts aimed at reducing the development and severity of chronic diseases and other morbidities.

Wellness is related to health promotion and disease prevention. Wellness is described as the attitudes and active decisions made by an individual that contribute to positive health behaviors and outcomes.

Health promotion and disease prevention programs often address social determinants of health, which influence modifiable risk behaviors. Social determinants of health are the economic, social, cultural, and political conditions in which people are born, grow, and live that affect health status. Modifiable risk behaviors include, for example, tobacco use, poor eating habits, and lack of physical activity, which contribute to the development of chronic disease.

Typical strategies for health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness programs include:

• Communication: Raising awareness about healthy behaviors for the general public. Examples of communication strategies include public service announcements, health fairs, mass media campaigns, and newsletters.
• Education: Empowering behavior change and actions through increased knowledge. Examples of health education strategies include courses, trainings, and support groups.
• Policy, Systems, and Environment: Making changes to conditions — through improved laws, rules, and regulations (policy), functional organizational components (systems), and economic, social, or physical environment — to encourage, make available, and enable healthy choices.

Health promotion and disease prevention program models are provided in Module 2.

Resources to Learn More

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Website
Provides information, statistics, tools, resources and grant funding related to health promotion and chronic disease prevention program planning.
Organization(s): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

National Prevention Strategy: America's Plan for Better Health and Wellness
Document
Provides information on the National Prevention Strategy — a comprehensive plan with evidence-based recommendations for building healthy and safe environments, expanding access to quality care, empowering people to make healthier choices, and eliminating health disparities.
Organization(s): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Date: 6/2011