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Public Health: Promoting Health and Wellbeing

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Acheson, D (1988) Public Health in England. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Future Development of the Public Health Function. London, HMSO.
Action on Smoking and Health (2015) Young people and Smoking. Available at: http://ash.org.uk/download/young-people-and-smoking/ (Accessed: 22 March 2019)
Action on Smoking and Health (2018) Facts at a glance – key smoking statistics. Available at: http://ash.org.uk/download/facts-at-a-glance/ (Accessed: 23 March 2019)
Arday, D.R., Giovino, G.A., Schulman, J., Nelson, D.E., Mowery, P. and Samet, J.M., 1995. Cigarette smoking and self-reported health problems among US high school seniors, 1982–1989. American Journal of Health Promotion, 10(2), pp.111-116.
Barnett, M., 2005. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a phenomenological study of patients’ experiences. Journal of clinical nursing, 14(7), pp.805-812.
Dappen, A., Schwartz, R.H. and O’Donnell, R., 1996. A survey of adolescent smoking patterns. J Am Board Fam Pract, 9(1), pp.7-13.
Department of Health (2018) Public Health Outcomes Framework for England 2016/19. London:DH
Evans, R.I., Rozelle, R.M., Mittelmark, M.B., Hansen, W.B., Bane, A.L. and Havis, J., 1978. Deterring the Onset of Smoking in Children: Knowledge of Immediate Physiological Effects and Coping with Peer Pressure, Media Pressure, and Parent Modelling 1. Journal of applied social psychology, 8(2), pp.126-135.
Guerra-Lopez, I. (2007) Evaluating Impact: Evaluation and Continual Improvement for Performance Improvement Practioners. HRD Press: Massachusetts.
Kipke, M. (ed.) (1999) Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty. Washington: National Academy Press.
Naidoo, J. and Wills, J. (2016) Foundations for Health Promotion. 4th edn. Edinburgh:Elsevier
National Health Service Health Education England (2015) What is public health? Available at: https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/node/1467 (Accessed: 20 March 2019)
Office for National Statistics (2016) Smoking inequalities in England. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholandsmoking/adhocs/008181smokinginequalitiesinengland2016 (Accessed: 23 March 2019)
Otten, R., Engels, R.C., van de Ven, M.O. and Bricker, J.B., 2007. Parental smoking and adolescent smoking stages: the role of parents’ current and former smoking, and family structure. Journal of behavioral medicine, 30(2), pp.143-154.
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Royal Collage of Nursing (2019) Public Health. Available at: https://www.rcn.org.uk/clinical-topics/public-health (Accessed: 20 March 2019)
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Promoting Public Health and Wellbeing

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192 Health Promotion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best health promotion topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on health promotion, 📃 simple & easy health promotion essay titles, 💡 interesting topics to write about health promotion, ✅ most interesting health promotion topics to write about, 📑 good research topics about health promotion.

Utilizing Pender’s Health Promotion Model: Patient Education P, the necessity to manage the patient’s sugar blood levels is currently the main priority and the essential goal of the treatment process.
On the Strategies for Healthy Eating Promotion Today, I will discuss three strategies for healthy eating: I will first talk about the importance of making a food journal and planning meals and snacks for each week based on the available budget.
Health Promotion: Empowerment Strategies Community empowerment develops from individual to group, and embodies the objective to trigger social and political transformation in support of the community that embarks on the course.
Health Education and Health Promotion The website that belongs to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a lot of relevant information that can be used by healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and students. The CDC website provides health educators […]
The Role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Equity Principle in Relation to the Health Promotion Practice in New Zealand The Aspects and Importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi The aspect of protection which is discussed in relation to different interpretations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is important to be analysed as the key concept […]
Family Nursing Care Plan – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Therefore, it is critical to consider a holistic approach to take care of the family and improve the quality of their lifestyle.
The Holistic Health Promotion Model Overview This paper will therefore address the concerns in a holistic approach that will include spiritual support and beliefs, physical concerns, and the possible distress in the context of a family; the significance of a holistic […]
Precede-Proceed Model for Health Promotion Program The fourth component of the PRECEDE is determining the administrative and policy issues that affect implementation, and then choosing the best interventions to promote the desired and anticipated changes.
Values of a Nurse’s Health Promotion and a Client The most proper way to tackle it is to accept it and follow the will of a patient. It is obligatory to respect the worldview and opinion of a patient.
Health Promotion Model by Nola Pender The environment as the second concept of the Health Promotion Model refers to the physical, cultural, and social background in which an individual grows.
Importance of Mental Health Promotion in Society Mental health is an integral part of health which serves as the foundation for the well-being and effective functioning for a person and society.
Pender’s Health Promotion Model HPM clearly states that the idea of health promotion is multidimensional, and all the levels that impact one adherence to a health plan are interconnected based on their relationship and the overall outcome.
Health Promotion: The Role of Nurses The Health Belief Model is a theoretical concept that allows nurses to predict the behaviors and beliefs of the people in a community towards medical health.
Self-Empowerment Health Promotion Model In terms of the self-empowerment model, the patient is taught to enhance the sense of personal identity and responsibility by being encouraged to pay attention to the decision-making process.
Lack of Health Promotion Issue Analysis Social ecology includes the hub of the suppositions of human health and the progression of useful strategies to enhance personal and combined welfare.
Sonagachi Project: The Health Promotion Program The union fights for the sex workers to hold the leadership of their projects for the benefit of the locals. Additionally, the sex workers are the occupants of administrative and decision making roles in the […]
Personal Health Promotion Plan It is important for people to embrace good eating habits and exercise to reduce the chances of developing chronic health complications.
Sex Workers’ Health Promotion Program The fact that the nature of issues associated with sexual health is very sensitive also prevents the broad discussion of the issue and the identification of viable solutions.
Public Health, Health Promotion, and Health Education The relationship between public health, health promotion and health education is an interesting one yet has humble origins that begin within with your average school.
Family Health Assessment: Health Promotion Strategy This system is referred to as the Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns and it’s a very comprehensive approach of collecting information from a patient so that nurses and doctors can use the information for diagnosis of […]
Social Marketing in Public Health Promotion The article will use numerous examples to counter the argument that social marketing is a waste of time and money. The use of social marketing may help a health organization to reach many people.
Environmental Factors and Health Promotion: Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution This presentation offers some information about the damage of air pollution and presents a health promotion plan with helpful resources and evidence from research.
Family Health Promotion Strategies Collective health begins at home, and a nurse can become a medium between the family and the society, explaining the importance of different health strategies to the family members.
Health Promotion: Diabetes Mellitus and Comorbidities This offers a unique challenge in the management of diabetes and other chronic diseases; the fragmented healthcare system that is geared towards management of short-term medical emergencies often is not well prepared for the patient […]
School-Based Nutrition Health Promotion Program This was based on the fact that, healthy eating habits in both children and adolescents had increasingly been noted to have deteriorated over the years hence the need to promote the health, growth and intellectual […]
A Study of the Health Promotion Needs in Organisation or Community Community-based Intervention in the context of health is a vital concern often ignored in most organizations and even hospitals, which hold the notion of health promotion.
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Management Strategies Since its founding in 1884, Montefiore Medical Center has worked tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of the people of New York City.
Role of the Pediatric Nurse in the Promotion of Health in School The role of a pediatric nurse is to promote physical and emotional health in schoolchildren and adolescents. The role of the pediatric nurse is to ensure that the child grows into a healthy and responsible […]
Health Promotion Pamphlet Analysis The pamphlet is laid out in such a way that it is appealing in that it is systematically subdivided into subheadings starting with a definition of high blood pressure, what high blood pressure does to […]
Health Promotion Plan: Immunization In that regard, a health promotion plan for immunization should include the element of the common good. Secondly, the promotion of immunization should find reflection in a reduction of infectious disease rates and the number […]
Health Promotion for Smokers The purpose of this paper is to show the negative health complications that stem from tobacco use, more specifically coronary heart disease, and how the health belief model can help healthcare professionals emphasize the importance […]
Mindfulness’ Role in Mental Health Promotion With the incorporation of mindfulness into therapy, one will be able to reduce stress by promoting active health education and learning to a patient.
An Ethical Health Promotion-Related Issue The work of medical workers, in this case, is to avoid conflicts, provide ethical assistance, and protect the security of visitors.
Family-Centered Health Assessment and Promotion Health services are crucial to the family because they enable the different members of the family to understand their health conditions and thus be able to promote their quality of life.
Social Cognitive Theory as Health Promotion Model The result of this connection is a regulation of behavior formed as reciprocal determinism: the environment influences the individual’s cognitive abilities and creates a specific type of thinking, the patterns of which, in turn, influence […]
Syrian Refugees in Ottawa: Health Promotion Needs This report will highlight the difficulties of neglected facets such as mental health and the crucial role of implementing global proficiency in health professionals and organizations that work with refugees.
Health Promotion and Primary Prevention The major goal of this community teaching plan is to educate the population on primary health prevention activities and raise their awareness of health promotion’s importance.
Hepatitis B: Prevention and Health Promotion Strategies The research determines the importance of nursing planning and interventions to attain the existing goals and how they can influence communities and populations’ health. For this reason, the significance of the topic and the necessity […]
The Problem of Obesity and Health Promotion The problem of obesity is relevant for countries in which most of the population is constantly starving, and in industrialized countries it has long been a serious aspect of public health.
Health Promotion Model in Childhood Obesity Medicine This theory will create a safe space for the patient and staff and improve the relationship and understanding of each other’s needs.
Health Promotion for Childhood Obesity by Nazaret The study described in the article spans three years and focuses on the effects of a gamified approach to weight loss in children suffering from obesity.
Population Health Promotion Benefits As a result, the community health nurse must supervise the community members in order to manage and control their health medical condition.
Immunization and Health Promotion The next one is Human papillomavirus, which is done in 2 or three doses before the age of 27. The seventh vaccine is Pneumococcal, which should be taken once before the age of 65 and […]
Health Promotion Strategies and Barriers Health promotion is one of the critical activities of the modern healthcare sector. The term implies the process of enabling people to improve their health and increase control of their well-being.
Nursing Theory and Health Promotion Model To use theory effectively in all realms of practice, training, and investigation, it is necessary to understand how to explain, analyze, and assess the concept.
Health Promotion and Educational Needs of Patients To compare the effectiveness of the preventive measures, it is necessary to explain the role of healthcare providers in stopping the spread of disease.
Nutrition and Health Promotion This shows that nutritional balance is essential in the development of a body, and thus excess or deficient intake can lead to health complications.
Nudging as an Ethical Health Promotion-Related Issue Non-educative nudging goes against patient rights of autonomy and informed consent, and healthcare professionals should abstain from them to not lose the patient’s trust.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Health Promotion For instance, it highlights the role of parents in the care process of minors, the right to access healthcare information for minors, the role of patients in self-care and the role of nurses in communicating […]
The Health Promotion Model Analysis As a result, the distinction is reflected in how diverse health models depict a person and the methods used to persuade them of the same notion of health and how to attain it.
Health Promotion and Interdisciplinary Approach In the realm of health promotion, experts from various multidisciplinary health workers have agreed on the characteristics of effective collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach. Thus, their skills and approach will be essential in the success […]
Teen Pregnancy: A Health Promotion and Sexual Education Plan For example, condoms may be used to prevent STDs, and oral contraceptives may be taken in order to ensure birth control. Pregnancy is related to a significant number of procedures and complicated care.
Smoking Cessation and Health Promotion Plan Patients addicted to tobacco are one of the major concerns of up-to-date medicine as constant nicotine intake leads to various disorders and worsens the health state and life quality of the users.
Health Promotion and Role of Nutrition One of the major aspects of health promotion concerns the patterns of nutrition, as there is a tendency of miscomprehending their impact on health.
Sexual Health and Diversity, Health Promotion Thus, there are obstacles to promoting sexual and reproductive health among LGBTI people, and they must be overcome to improve the nation’s health.
Health Promotion Plan: Smokers in Mississippi The main strategies of the training session are to reduce the number of smokers in Mississippi, conduct a training program on the dangers of smoking and work with tobacco producers.
The Importance of Ethical Health Promotion Most of the privacy and state-of-the-art strategies put in place are still inadequate and incapable of meeting the demands of more patients.
Why Partnership Is Important for Public Health Promotion? In addition to treatment, they work with the prevention of illness, establish coordination between patients and the health system, and take part in improving public health. Additionally, it is important to recognize the role of […]
Health Promotion Model for Teaching Patient The purpose of this essay is to describe the model of health promotion and the barriers that affect the ability of patients to learn.
Osteoporosis: Pathophysiology, Health Promotion, and Disease Prevention Idiopathic; affects adults aged 50 and above or results from the effect of any other disorder. Sex women are at a higher risk.
Health Promotion Theories and How They Can Help Patients The introduction of interventions to correctly calculate calories, change daily activity, and take specific medications can help in the treatment of the patient.
Health Promotion Levels Overview Hence, the process of health promotion and disease prevention should also include different perspectives and channels to secure positive health care tendencies.
LGBTQ: Personal Characteristics in Health Promotion According to GLMA, since the patient’s cultural relevance is vital to improve their health in this healthcare facility, in addition to biophysical information, the questionnaire should contain cultural questions.
Approaches to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention In this case, disregard for the principles of individual responsibility and freedom of choice is the lesser evil that was adopted to achieve positive public health outcomes.
Evidence-Based Health Promotion Program: Immunization The purpose of this presentation is to inform about the question of immunization in detail while accentuating evidence-based effects of vaccination on children and adolescents.
Health and Wellness Promotion in Queens Village: Community Educational Program This presentation will describe the Queens Village community, its health needs, and design the educational proposal.
Cardiovascular Diseases and Health Promotion in Women The article notes that women are at higher risks of developing this condition due to misdiagnosis and lack of specialized care and treatment procedure and very few manage to get guideline-based preventive and treatment services.
Research Methods in Health Promotion Therefore, it is vital that the data collection instruments are valid and relevant so as to ensure validity in the health promotion research study.
Health Promotion: “Jeans for Genes” The principle of the CMRI is that medical research is central in prevention of future congenital disorders and treatment of current conditions in order to improve the lives of children and future generations.
Continuous Quality Improvement and Risk Management in Health Promotion S history as an example, CQI according to American Medical Association study in 1910, found the need to improve hospital conditions and follow up on patients to assess service delivery. By 1966, the focus had […]
Exercise and Health Promotion: Chandler Fitness Center I came to recognize that the objectives and the philosophy of the facility were to change people’s lives through fitness enhancement.
Health Promotion Weight Loss: How to Change People Behaviors and How to Keep Them Motivated to Lose Weight For example, when advising people on losing weight one should try to talk to them to get to details about their eating habits and whether they know how risky those are habits to their lives.
Identification of a Goal for Health Promotion The main goal of this health promotion project is to identify the problems that may bother people nowadays and to clarify the ways of how medical workers and nurses can participate in the solution of […]
Health Promotion for Older Adults in America To learn and adopt different forms of physical activity appropriate for older adults To motivate older adults to create small teams in their neighborhoods to participate in different forms of physical activity within the community […]
Elderly Health Promotion Intervention Plan Extensive research conducted over four decades haS underlined the role of regular physical activity in the elderly as the most important aspect that contributes to the well-being of the population that ages.
Health Promotion in the Adults Aged 65 and Older The social determinants of health and a sustained healthy lifestyle can have long-term effects, and the cost of care for that impact in the older population should not be a burden to the society as […]
Health Promotion: Life Course Theory Life Course Theory implements to the concept of health promotion for the aging population and the population with reduced physical activity in multiple terrains.
Health Promotion and Smoking Cessation I will also complete a wide range of activities in an attempt to support the agency’s goals. As well, new studies will be conducted in order to support the proposed programs.
Reflection Journal. Health Promotions Health Fair It was my privilege to realize that most parents knew the benefits of good nutrition and exercise to their kids between the age of three and six years.
Nursing: Health Promotion Overview The following actions of a nurse can promote the state of a patient with diabetes. Finally, the nurse should include and involve the patient’s family into the process: it is obvious, that the closest people […]
Nursing Health Interventions for Health Promotion The custom may bear a witness to the high cultural and spiritual development of the related members. The practical implementation characteristics of family traditions and routines are the tools of health promotion.
Health Promotion: Competency Framework A competency framework that is deployed in the health care sector incorporates nine competencies that are important in guiding the provision of health care and the healthcare promotion practice.
Cholesterol Screening Program and Health Promotion The role of the health sector in the cholesterol-screening program is to conduct extensive research on the prevalence of the condition in addition to educating on its effects and ways of alleviation.
Health Promotion and Challenges Faced by Women Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus affects the health outcomes of many women in the world. I have also identified several practices that can improve the health outcomes of many women with T2DM.
Health Promotion on Hypertension Amongst African Americans For instance, in this case where health promotion is aimed to inform people on the importance of managing their blood pressure, the messages that support these people may encourage the African Americans to seek medical […]
A Model for Implementing Health Promotion Programs in Communities The Community Health Improvement Plan proposed in the community as the program to address the issue of obesity should be discussed in the context of the MAP-IT framework and with references to the planning and […]
Analysis of the Current Health Promotion Pamphlet According to the SMOG tool, the discussed pamphlet is of the average readability level, and the required reading levels are correlated with the 7th and 8th grades.
Health Promotion Activity to Prevent Obesity The data collected in the triage units at the hospital indicate a persistent increase in the average weight of patients who come to the hospital.
Scientific Writing: Effectiveness of Health Promotion Programs Under the “Healthy People 2010” In this case, the purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of the programs under the “Healthy People 2010” initiative.
Water for Environmental Health and Promotion The recognition of the effect of the epidemiological triangle is quite crucial, as people ought to realize the interrelationship of the host, environment and agent in the process of spreading diseases and the effect that […]
Community Health Promotion: The Fight Against Diabetes in a Community Setting Applying principles of community-based health promotion it is important to focus on Type 2 diabetes and the people that are prone to acquiring this medical condition.
Community-Based Health Promotion Project The main goal of this paper is therefore to propose the implementation of a health promotion program for the adolescents in New Jersey as part of the community-based project. The health promotion program to be […]
Health Promotion in Nursing Analysis In this essay, a review of the literature of three journals will be put in perspective with a view of knowing the definition of health promotion, and the roles of the nurses in the overall […]
School Campus Service: Wellness and Health Promotion Majority of the campuses in the United States try to offer the best services to their workers and students. The funds are always enough for the performance of the agency to provide the best health […]
Exploration of a Health Promotion Priority To enhance the understanding of the process and theoretical frameworks, the promotion of physical activity and active communities in Victoria will be discussed.
A Needs Assessment in Health Promotion The VMOSA model will be chosen as the framework for strategic planning, in which the objects are community-oriented, with the mission and the vision being identified through the course of the assessment.
Cultural Factors in Health Promotion Strategies Health promotion is aimed at bettering the individual social, economic and environmental conditions in a bid to minimize the effects on the overall health of the individual and the society.
Settings for Oral Health Promotion Action in Nursing Homes in Sydling Health promotion offers the potential to tackle the underlining determinants of oral health thereby improve the oral health of this section in society. Assessing the oral health needs is an essential step in developing effective […]
Use of Precede Model for Reviewing a Global Health Promotion Program The program under review will enter the PRECEDE model at phase one as it involves determination of the social problems, the needs, and thus the quality of life of the individuals in need of developing […]
Health Promotion Program by the World Health Organization The name of the program is Bangkok program for Health Promotion in a Globalized World, in accordance with the Bangkok treaty, on the basis of which the program was initiated.
Health Promotion Program: Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Decrease Around the world cardiovascular disease happens to be the leading cause of death, and among the major causes of disability and diminished productivity in adults.
Promotion of Cardiovascular Health and Cancer Prevention The purpose of this presentation is to review recommendations of the NAS Global Report 2017 for cancer and cardiovascular diseases prevention, analyze the current international healthcare policies, and define the reasons for their implementation.
Implementing and Evaluating Prevention and Health Promotion Activities That is why it is necessary to develop suitable health promotion activities that will improve public health and limit the spread of the condition under analysis. In addition to that, the given framework is suitable […]
Health Promotion Program Evaluation In this paper, the evaluation of a health education program for high-risk groups will be described and explained to identify the main benefits of the idea, to choose appropriate methods of evaluation, and to clarify […]
Involving the Community in Health Promotion Program To implement the program, it will be necessary to investigate the current condition of the community to be able to understand the lifestyles of the population.
The Happy Older Latinos Are Active: Health Promotion Program HOLA is the health promotion program which was developed for old Latinos with the purpose of prevention their mental disorders, including anxiety and depression.
Health Promotion Theories: An Ecological Approach Low access to healthcare, on the other hand, is a social environmental factor that can also affect the health of the population.
Health Promotion and Obesity Prevention The study conducted by Lovasi, Neckerman, Quinn, Weiss, and Rundle focuses on the effects of the walkability of the neighborhood and its influence on the condition of the population.
Community Health Promotion for Aged People in Warren The major purpose of the community health promotion is to make identification of the constructs of the planned behavior theory, which has the inclusion of behavioral beliefs, control beliefs based on an individual’s perception, and […]
Health Promotion Program Design The group selected for the health promotion program is the high school teenage group, ranging from fifteen to nineteen years of age.
Concepts of Health Promotion in Australia This should lead to changes in attitude and also organisation in health services, which make a new focus on the whole requirements of an individual as a complete person.
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Initiatives Healthy People initiative sets 10-year country-wide objectives for enhancing the health of all Americans and to address the current challenges in public health and provide support on various matters in the context of health issues.
Health Promotion in American and Alaskan Natives Due to some disparities linked to populations’ economic status, access to resources, and other factors, specific approaches to health promotion are needed to encourage the well-being of minorities.
Mobile Health Promotion Unit Project Goals and objectives for the present project are closely connected to the distinctive characteristics of the MHPU.”Hearty Bus” is a non-profit endeavor that needs significant initial investments to buy the vehicle, furnish it with necessary […]
Developing Leadership for Health Promotion The main goal of public health practitioners is to promote the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. As for Leadership in public health, Moodie defines it as maximizing personal potential, as well as the […]
The Necessity of Health Promotion During Pregnancy It is vital to provide examples of adverse outcomes related to drinking to help patients understand the threat that alcohol may pose.
Health Promotion and Nutrition During Pregnancy The leaflet also states that fat is a crucial part of the diet for pregnant women and that its increase is not a negative sign.
Role of Theory in Health Promotion In order to support the health goals of the targeted people, practitioners, social workers, and clinicians can embrace the use of an effective theory.
Medications and Physical Health Promotion in Psychiatric Nursing However, she continues to engage with treatment and is seen to be more active in her communication with friends and family. In this case, it is expected to help YW with nightmares.
Mental Health Promotion and Effective Interventions In their article “The Evidence of Effective Interventions for Mental Health Promotion,” Clemens Hosman and Eva Jane-Llopis state that to prove the effectiveness of the programs contributing to mental health, it is necessary to refer […]
Personal Career in Health Promotion She is a professional in the field of health promotion. In addition to community health, the organization is engaged in policy and research.
Public Health Promotion: Female Genital Mutilation Socialisation of sexuality is manifested in the assimilation of sexual and social norms, a culture conditioned by sexual education and, the development of attitudes, the kinetics and postures of sexual intercourse and the development of […]
Health Promotion and Sustainable Development The concept of sustainable development emerged as a guiding principle in the formulation of policies to address health and development issues around the world.
Health Promotion: Motivation and Skills for Changes For provider interventions, the key goals are to enhance screening levels and improve their knowledge of strategies to motivate and educate patients to enhance their lifestyle.
Youth Suicide Prevention: Health Promotion Plan In this paper, a proposed mental health initiative to meet the challenges of at-risk youth is discussed using the PDSA model and related evidence-based strategies based on IHI indicators included. Access to the program will […]
Population Health Promotion in Spartanburg The status of the public health of Spartanburg County is determined by a range of factors. In particular, the Road to Better Health coalition is one of the most prominent of them.
Australian Health Promotion Program’ Evaluation The sustainability of the programs designed to promote health in society depends on the feasibility of the holistic approaches used by the government and the private institutions.
Pender’s Health Promotion Model Application The model will be of great significance to nursing practice and the public at large. Consequently, one can conclude that a patient can be influenced to help in the prevention of diseases.
The Relationships Between Public Health and Health Promotion The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate how the society has responded to the issue of mental disorders and mental health.
Health Promotion Program HIV/AIDS in Kenya Studies have established that married couples and other people in more stable relationships have contributed to the highest number of new HIV/AIDS infection in Kenya.
Health Promotion Program in Kenya The spread of the disease was noted by Wachira, Naanyu, Genberg, Koech, Akinyi, Kamene, and Braitstein as being the direct result of a lack of sufficient education regarding the spread of HIV and other STDs […]
Public Health Promotion Program Evaluation This category of questions helps to understand how the process may influence the outcomes of the program and define who or what undergo the most considerable changes during the process under consideration.
Health Evaluation Plan for the ARTreach Health Promotion Program Evaluation Goals and Objectives The major objective of evaluating the project is to establish the effectiveness of ARTReach project in empowering women, who are the marginalised in the community.
STD/HIV Health Promotion Evaluation Plan Process evaluation will emphasize on quality and suitability of the interventions and approaches of the program. A critical aspect of process evaluation will be to determine and track the areach’ of the program.
Pricing and Promotional Strategies in Health Facilities Penetration Pricing The model advocates for a pricing method where an organisation sets its prices at a low rate than that offered by the competitor; the aim of the approach is attack a large mass […]
Important Initiatives in the Promotion of Public Health In addition, the task force recognised the importance of enhancing access to healthy foods in the country. Today, the initiative is one of the most comprehensive and well-funded programs that are effectively addressing the age […]
The Question of Abortion and the Women’s Health Promotion
Abstinence, Condom, and Health Promotion Related
Workplace Health Promotion for Improved Employee Well-Being and Organizational Behavior
Adolescent Health Promotion and Disease Treatment
Advocating for Health Promotion Policy in Norway: Role of the County Municipalities
African American Women, HIV, and Health Promotion
Analyzing Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Antismoking Approaches and Using Beattie’s 4 Quadrants Health Promotion Model
Applying the Health Promotion Model and Theory of Reasoned Action
Assessing, Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating a Health Promotion Activity
Association Between Attitudes Toward Health Promotion and Opinions Regarding Organ Transplants
Assets for Policy Making in Health Promotion
Clinical Family Health Promotion Outcomes Analysis
Coaches’ Health Promotion Activity and Substance Use in Youth Sports
Corporate Characteristics and Worksite Health Promotion Programs
How the Health Promotion Initiative Reflects the Recommendations of the Ottawa Charter
Depressive Symptoms and Health Promotion Behaviors
Domestic Violence and Health Promotion for Mildura
Early School Health Promotion Programs on Childhood Obesity
Effective Health Promotion and Prevention of Chlamydia
Evaluating Complex Community-Based Health Promotion: Addressing the Challenges
Examining Health Promotion and Nutritional Education Combat Ailments
Evidence-Based Interventions for Health Promotion and Prevention
Exploring and Applying the Theories of Health and Health Promotion
Factors Associated With the Implementation of Community-Based Peer-Led Health Promotion Programs
Exploring Health Promotion Prevention Levels
Factors Influencing Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Concerning Health Education
Family Assessment and Health Promotion Intervention Concerning Stress Overload
Fitness and Health Promotion in the United States
‘Holistic Health’ and Its Application in Health Promotion
Analysis of Oral Health Promotion in Australia
Health Promotion Among Asian American People
Importance of Health Promotion Among Diverse Populations
Improving Health Promotion Using Quality Improvement Techniques in Australian Indigenous Primary Health Care
Health Promotion Among Hispanics and Latino
Integrating Public Health and Health Promotion Practice in the Medical Curriculum
Health Promotion and Its Effects on the Wellbeing
Mass Media and Health Promotion in Indian Villages
Health Promotion and Its Necessity for Nursing Specialty of Maternity
Mental Health Promotion Amongst Healthcare Professionals
Abortion Paper Topics
Diabetes Questions
Health Topics
Childhood Obesity Research Ideas
Health Insurance Research Topics
Disease Questions
Healthcare Policy Essay Titles
Public Safety Research Ideas
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 27). 192 Health Promotion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/health-promotion-essay-topics/

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Bibliography

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Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research (2000)

Chapter: conclusions.

Recommendation 21: Greater attention should be paid to funding research on social determinants of health and on behavioral and social science intervention research addressing generic social determinants of disease.

Behavioral and social science research has provided many new advancements in the effort to improve population health, and offers promise for the development of new interventions with even greater utility and efficiency in the years to come. As summarized below, the committee finds that social and behavioral interventions can improve health outcomes across a range of developmental stages and levels of analysis (e.g., individual, interpersonal, and community levels). Further, coordination of intervention efforts across these levels may efficiently and effectively promote healthy individuals and environments.

The committee found compelling evidence that expectant mothers can deliver healthier children as we improve our understanding of the social, economic, and intrapersonal conditions that influence the mother's health status over her life course, not just in the period prior to conception and birth. The physical, cognitive, and emotional health of infants can be improved with comprehensive, high-quality services that address basic needs of children and families. These same interventions assist children to enter school ready to learn. Similarly, adolescents can enjoy healthier life-styles as researchers and public health officials pay greater attention to the social and environmental contexts in which youth operate. These interventions pay great dividends for later health, as poor health habits can be avoided and developmental risks averted.

The evidence also suggests that adolescents and adults can benefit from co-ordinated health promotion efforts that address the many sources of health influences (e.g., family, school, work settings). Opportunities for behavioral and social interventions to improve health do not end during adulthood, however; compelling data indicate that older adults can age more successfully as policies and institutions attend to their social, cognitive, and psychological needs, as well as their physical health needs.

While further research is needed, evidence is developing that elucidates the pathways through which behavioral and social interventions may mediate physiological processes and disease states. This evidence indicates that behavioral and social interventions can directly impact physiological functioning, and do not merely correlate with positive health outcomes due to improvements in health behavior or knowledge. Further refinements of this research will aid in the development of more efficient and effective interventions.

As interventions are developed, special consideration must be given to gender as well as to the needs of individuals of different socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. These attributes powerfully shape the contexts in which individuals gain access to health-promoting resources (e.g., education, income, social supports), the barriers that restrict more healthful life-styles (e.g., demands

of gender roles), and the ways in which individuals in these groups interpret and respond to interventions. Because socioeconomic status exerts direct effects on health, intervention efforts must attend to the broader social, economic, cultural, and political processes that determine and maintain these disparities.

Efforts to improve the health of communities can benefit from specific levers for public health intervention, such as enhancing social capital and enacting public policies that promote healthful environments. While further research is needed to better understand means of manipulating these levers, it is clear that these interventions are most effective when members of target communities participate in their planning, design, and implementation. Communities that are fully engaged as partners in this process are more likely to develop public health messages that are relevant, are more likely to fully “buy in” and commit to community change, and are more likely to sustain community change efforts after research and/or demonstration programs end.

All such interventions are likely to be more successful when applied in co-ordinated fashion across multiple levels of influence (i.e., at the individual level; within families and social support networks; within schools, work sites, churches, and other community settings; and at broader public policy levels). While more research is needed to ascertain how coordination is best achieved and the cost-effectiveness of each component of a multilevel intervention strategy, the evidence from the tobacco control effort suggests that such a multilevel strategy can reap benefits for broad segments of the public. This success can extend both to those individuals at greatest risk for poor health by virtue of their unhealthful behaviors or disadvantaged social, political, or economic status, as well as those at relatively low risk. Such efforts require, however, that funders, public health officials, and community leaders are patient and persist with intervention efforts over a longer period than the 3 to 5 years typically allotted for most demonstration or research efforts.

To best accomplish these goals, researchers must learn to work across traditional disciplinary boundaries, and adopt new methodologies to evaluate intervention efforts. A range of social, behavioral, and life scientists must collaborate to fully engage a biopsychosocial model of human health and development. Further, these researchers must be open to adopting less traditional evaluation approaches, such as qualitative methodologies, and combining these approaches with quantitative methodologies.

In summary, the committee concludes that serious effort to apply behavioral and social science research to improve health requires that we transcend perspectives that have, to this point, resulted in public health problems being defined in relatively narrow terms. Efforts to design and implement multipronged interventions will require the cooperation of public health officials, funding agencies, researchers, and community members. Evaluation efforts must transcend traditional models of randomized control trials and incorporate both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Models of intervention must consider individual behavior in a broader social context, with greater attention to the social construction of gender, race, and ethnicity, and to ways in which social

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Americans enjoyed better overall health than at any other time in the nation's history. Rapid advancements in medical technologies, breakthroughs in understanding the genetic underpinnings of health and ill health, improvements in the effectiveness and variety of pharmaceuticals, and other developments in biomedical research have helped develop cures for many illnesses and improve the lives of those with chronic diseases.

By itself, however, biomedical research cannot address the most significant challenges to improving public health. Approximately half of all causes of mortality in the United States are linked to social and behavioral factors such as smoking, diet, alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and accidents. Yet less than five percent of the money spent annually on U.S. health care is devoted to reducing the risks of these preventable conditions. Behavioral and social interventions offer great promise, but as yet their potential has been relatively poorly tapped. Promoting Health identifies those promising areas of social science and behavioral research that may address public health needs.

It includes 12 papers—commissioned from some of the nation's leading experts—that review these issues in detail, and serves to assess whether the knowledge base of social and behavioral interventions has been useful, or could be useful, in the development of broader public health interventions.

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‘Urgent action is needed to arrest the decline in nurses working in public health’

STEVE FORD, EDITOR

You are here: Students

Reflecting on health and wellbeing as a student nurse: a personal journey

09 August, 2021

One student nurse’s personal reflection and experience of the theoretical and lay understanding of the factors that contribute to health and wellbeing

This article presents a reflection of my personal health journey since starting university as a student nurse. Focusing on social, physical and psychological aspects of health, it explores the impact of stress and the cessation of exercise on my health and wellbeing. The similarities and differences of lay and theoretical definitions of health are examined, and a personal definition of health is presented. The discussion presents my understanding of health as a student nurse, and analyses how loneliness has impacted on my health and wellbeing during the first two terms of university.

Citation: Power C, Andrewes T (2021) Reflecting on health and wellbeing as a student nurse: a personal journey. Nursing Times [online]; 117: 8, 22-24.

Authors: Caela Power is student nurse, Tanya Andrewes is lecturer in adult nursing; both at Bournemouth University.

This article has been double-blind peer reviewed
Scroll down to read the article or download a print-friendly PDF here (if the PDF fails to fully download please try again using a different browser)

Introduction

My experience in the first two terms of university as a student nurse led me to reflect on our understanding of health and wellbeing from a theoretical and lay perspective. A better personal understanding of managing health and wellbeing can support student nurses in their role of helping patients to explore and improve their health.

Theoretical perspectives

Defining health is complex due to the high number of factors that contribute to it. The World Health Organization (1946) defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Yet, this definition has been criticised for being limited in its scope, on the basis that there are many other factors to consider beyond disease and infirmity: as discussed below (Warwick-Booth et al, 2012).

Theoretical models are developed and tested by experts through the collection of research evidence (Topolski, 2009), and enable us to understand different dimensions of health. As shown in Box 1, the four main models of health are medical, social, holistic and biopsychosocial, each of which explains the impact of different factors on health and wellbeing (Warwick-Booth et al, 2012).

Box 1. Four theoretical models of health

Medical – focuses on physiological aspects of health
Social – takes into account external factors such as those that are environmental, cultural and economic
Holistic – places the individual at the centre
Biopsychosocial – features an awareness of the balance between psychological, social, biological and spiritual influences

The medical model focuses on physiological aspects of health. The theory has developed from scientific evidence about the impact of illness on the systems of the body and the impact of medical/surgical interventions as a response to it. The emphasis in the medical model is on diagnosis and treatment from an expert (Warwick-Booth et al, 2012). If a medically defined illness is absent, then health is considered to be good.

The medical model focuses on biomedical influences on an individual’s health alone, without consideration of the social and psychological dimensions. Blaxter (2010) acknowledged that, while medicine has a place for supporting individuals to achieve their maximum physiological health potential, other theoretical models need to be considered if nurses are to support holistic health and wellbeing that takes into account social and psychological dimensions of health.

The social model of health takes a more holistic approach, viewing the individual as a social, complex being. In the social model, external factors such as environmental, cultural and economic influences are considered in terms of their impact on people’s health and wellbeing (Michaelson, 2013). According to the social model, how individuals perceive their life can affect their ability to cope with stresses (Blaxter, 2010). This internal capacity to cope and overcome adversity is known as resilience.

In contrast to both the medical and social models, the holistic and biopsychosocial models focus on the interplay between the psychological, social, biological and spiritual influences on individuals, reinforcing the need for a healthy balance between all these factors to achieve good health. The holistic and biopsychosocial models consider each person as a unique individual, subject to discrete circumstances, experiences and expectations (Lehman et al, 2017).

The holistic model places the individual at the centre, empowering them to enhance their own health and wellbeing through what Blaxter (2010) called alternative therapies. This approach is supported in the UK by a report from the Government Office for Science (GOS), which introduced the Five ways to Wellbeing model; individuals are encouraged to:

Connect with others;
Take notice;
Keep learning;
Give (GOS, 2008).

All these activities support holistic and/or biopsychosocial health and wellbeing.

Lay perspectives

The lay perspectives on health, some characteristics of which are summarised in Box 2, refer to informal definitions or a general understanding of what good health means, with a recognition that the understanding varies between individuals. Yuill et al (2010) highlighted that lay perspectives are informed by class-based, generational traditions and norms, often based on personal and familial experiences; Kolderup Hervik (2016) suggested that lay perspectives are gendered and contextual.

Box 2. Characteristics of lay perspectives on health

Informal definitions or an understanding of good health that varies between individuals
Informed by class-based, generational traditions and norms, and often based on personal and familial experiences
In the past, dismissed as being ill informed and subjective; now more likely to be seen as valid, even in the absence of an evidence base

Lay perspectives reflect a non-expert view, in which some beliefs and understandings about health and illness exist in the absence of research evidence. They inform people’s experiences of health, their interpretations of the causes and effects of illness, and their responses to it. One such example is the understanding in the Middle Ages that illness was caused by evil spirits, with the ‘treatment’ involving driving out the spirits by torturing the body (Yuill et al, 2010).

In the past, lay knowledge of good health has been dismissed as being ill informed and subjective; however, as it has developed over time, some individuals, including Warwick-Booth et al (2012), have proposed that lay perspectives are valid, even in the absence of an evidence base. This is because individuals have the best insight into their own health and wellbeing, factors that affect it and actions that help to support it.

For some, health is viewed as physical; for others, it is psychological or sociological and/or holistic (Yuill et al, 2010). Blaxter (2010) explored lay perspectives of health among participants from the UK and revealed five key areas of understanding – namely, that being healthy means being not ill and having vitality, physical fitness, social relationships and psychosocial wellbeing.

Similarities

Theoretical and lay perspectives share some similarities, in part because theoretical influences contribute to lay perspectives of health (Entwistle et al, 1998). Medicine has a powerful influence on a person’s perspective of health and the evidence base of the medical model offers a strong and reliable foundation for understanding physiological illness (Blaxter, 2010) – it is easy to understand the positive impact being physically fit has on health. Indeed, if individuals can maintain physical fitness, they can reduce their chances of developing some illnesses, for example, cardiac disease (Warwick-Booth et al, 2012).

The theory underpinning the social model is reflected in lay perspectives that link good health with a good social life, including the ability to maintain relationships, have a secure socioeconomic status and financial stability (GOS, 2008). Some lay beliefs are more holistic, incorporating aspects of the holistic and biopsychosocial models in which health is viewed as a balance between the biological, social and psychological.

Differences

There are some significant differences between theoretical and lay perspectives of health. Firstly, theoretical perspectives are grounded in evidence, whereas it is usual that lay beliefs are unconsciously developed as a result of individual life experiences and relationships, alongside social influences such as the media (Yuill et al, 2010).

Another key difference is that theoretical perspectives do not necessarily change significantly over time but, instead, evolve with the further collection of research data around their use. By contrast, lay perspectives commonly change in time due to individuals being exposed to varied life experiences, alongside factors such as increasing age (Rydstedt et al, 2004). Theoretical perspectives are used to underpin healthcare policies because they are based on evidence, but lay perspectives tend to be more informal (Blaxter, 2010).

A personal definition

My own definition of health is focused on achieving the maximum quality of life, emotionally, spiritually, physically and socially, and feeling a regular sense of contentedness in all four interlinked aspects. I believe this can, or should, be achieved by taking a natural, holistic approach, while also understanding the importance of biomedicine and its place in improving health.

My personal beliefs about health reflect the biopsychosocial model, as I believe in taking a person-centred approach to improving health with the consideration of one’s interlinking psychological, social and physical circumstances. In addition, I believe spirituality plays a vital role in a person’s health and deserves equal focus to physiological aspects.

Since moving far from my family home to study for an adult nursing degree, my health has become increasingly important to me. Moving to a new area was daunting and had many impacts on my health and wellbeing. Initially, I stayed with family friends, life was exciting and I felt positive about my prospects as a university student and a nurse. I was happy, I socialised regularly and had an exercise routine.

As time passed, however, I began to feel the pressures of academic expectation and I socialised less. I lacked motivation to complete academic work, leading to assignments being submitted late. The resulting high levels of stress and anxiety had an impact on my psychological wellbeing: I felt socially isolated, began to feel extremely low in confidence and lonely, and lacked the motivation to exercise. I was also beginning to make unhealthy food choices. All these changes had a negative impact on my physical state.

I was worried I wouldn’t cope with being on placement; conversely, however, the placement provided a sense of purpose and confirmed my passion for nursing, as well as teaching me some coping strategies to enhance my wellbeing.

Dealing with loneliness

Making new friends is a challenging and sometimes difficult experience. I rely on connecting with others – a feature of the Five Ways to Wellbeing model – to help maintain my wellbeing and maximise life enjoyment. However, after starting university I found it difficult to make friends and connect with people, which reduced my self-confidence and created feelings of insecurity. Loneliness had a negative impact on my psychological state and mental health, causing some anxiety and a depressive mood.

Vasileiou et al (2019) have pointed out that loneliness among university students is a recognised problem, with 64% of students admitting to feeling lonely during their studies; loneliness and social isolation has also been closely linked to poor mental health and a reduced sense of wellbeing while studying at university.

The low levels of confidence I had because of loneliness led to depressive feelings and my increasingly unhealthy diet, as well as significantly reducing my physical activity. Despite understanding the situation, I found it extremely difficult to change my mindset and lifestyle. My motivation to study and my potential to enjoy being a nursing student were severely compromised. I recognised the imperative to change, so I was well enough to care for others in my student nursing role.

Once I understood that I was lonely, I worked to overcome this. I explored my spirituality and began to meditate, which helped me to appreciate solitude, and worked to identify how I could improve my health and wellbeing through deep exploration of my feelings/thoughts. Zollars et al (2019) have promoted the use of meditation to reduce stress and increase overall good health and, as my mental health improved, I began to socialise and connect with others.

My self-confidence and mood improved and I exercised again, setting myself challenges; this gave me purpose, a sense of self-fulfilment and self-confidence. My positive experience of physical activity supports Herbert et al’s (2020) finding that it improves the mental health, wellbeing and physiological health of university students.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced several lockdowns, with significant restrictions on social activities, a factor known to increase mental ill health and reduce wellbeing (Dawson and Golijani-Moghaddam, 2020). I knew lockdown would interfere with the coping techniques I was using to overcome my loneliness, such as exercising with others and social interactions in the workplace. Not only did all social activities stop, I was removed from practical placement. I turned to meditation and lengthy outdoor exercise to cope, which helped preserve my resolve to maintain a healthy mindset and lifestyle.

Although my wellbeing has fluctuated over the past year, my increased self-awareness has led to me to take prompt action at the early signs of decline, such as feeling withdrawn and unsociable, under increasing pressure from academic assignments and having a general sense of unease that I am not managing.

Individuals who engage in wellness programmes experience reduced stress and increased functionality at work (Couch, 2014). My self-led meditation practice reduced my stress and increased my engagement in my university course. It has enabled me to analyse links between my physiological and psychological health, and understand the multifaceted influences on health and wellbeing. The importance of maintaining a balance between physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects is clear.

Without analysing my situation in the context of theoretical and lay perspectives of health, I could not have developed the self-awareness about my loneliness, or my purposeful actions to overcome it. This understanding has implications for my nursing practice as I can draw on my experience to empathise with my patients and ask them questions to help them analyse what is happening and how it affects their health and wellbeing and what small positive changes they can make to bring improvement.

Analysing theoretical and lay perspectives of health, in the context of my personal experience of health and wellbeing since starting university, has enabled me to explore how the different dimensions of health are fundamentally linked and affect each other. I have realised how complex the meaning of good health is, and that it means different things to different people. As such, I appreciate the importance of understanding what health means for me and for those people I will support as a nurse.

Theoretical and lay perspectives of health enable analysis of the impact of a range of factors on health and wellbeing
Developing self-awareness allows individuals to identify factors that have a negative impact on health and wellbeing
Self-awareness of personal health and wellbeing status can help identify coping strategies
Personal reflection can help guide student nurses’ understanding of health and wellbeing and how it can be improved in those for whom they care

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103 Health Promotion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Health promotion is a crucial aspect of public health that aims to improve the overall well-being and health of individuals and communities. This can be achieved through various strategies, such as education, advocacy, and policy changes. If you are tasked with writing an essay on health promotion, you may be looking for some inspiration on potential topics. To help you get started, here are 103 health promotion essay topic ideas and examples:

The impact of social determinants of health on health promotion efforts
Strategies for promoting physical activity in children
The role of the healthcare system in health promotion
The effectiveness of workplace wellness programs
Promoting healthy eating habits in schools
Addressing mental health stigma through education and advocacy
The importance of community partnerships in health promotion
Promoting smoking cessation programs in underserved communities
The impact of social media on health promotion campaigns
Promoting sexual health education in schools
Strategies for addressing obesity in children and adolescents
Promoting healthy aging through exercise and nutrition programs
The role of technology in health promotion efforts
Promoting vaccination campaigns to prevent infectious diseases
Addressing substance abuse through education and prevention programs
The impact of environmental factors on health promotion
Promoting healthy sleep habits in adolescents
Strategies for promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace
The role of policy changes in promoting public health
Promoting access to healthcare services for underserved populations
Addressing disparities in healthcare access through health promotion efforts
Promoting healthy lifestyle choices in college students
The impact of stress on health and strategies for stress management
Promoting mindfulness and meditation as tools for improving mental health
Strategies for promoting physical activity in older adults
Addressing food insecurity through community-based interventions
Promoting reproductive health education in schools
The impact of cultural beliefs on health promotion efforts
Promoting health literacy in vulnerable populations
Addressing the opioid epidemic through education and prevention programs
Promoting access to mental health services in rural communities
Strategies for promoting healthy relationships and preventing domestic violence
The impact of social isolation on health and well-being
Promoting nutrition education in low-income communities
Addressing the impact of climate change on public health through health promotion efforts
Promoting smoking cessation programs in pregnant women
Strategies for promoting physical activity in individuals with disabilities
The role of peer support in promoting mental health and well-being
Promoting access to reproductive health services for LGBTQ+ individuals
Addressing the impact of trauma on health through trauma-informed care
Promoting access to mental health services for veterans
Strategies for promoting healthy eating habits in low-income communities
The impact of social media influencers on health promotion campaigns
Promoting access to healthcare for homeless populations
Addressing the impact of food deserts on nutrition and health
Promoting access to mental health services for immigrant populations
Strategies for promoting physical activity in individuals with chronic illnesses
The impact of peer pressure on health behaviors and strategies for resistance
Promoting access to reproductive health services for incarcerated individuals
Addressing the impact of social isolation on older adults through community programs
Promoting healthy aging through social engagement and support networks
Strategies for promoting mental health and well-being in the LGBTQ+ community
The impact of trauma on health outcomes and strategies for healing
Promoting access to mental health services for individuals with substance use disorders
Addressing the impact of poverty on health through social determinants
Promoting healthy eating habits in refugee communities
Strategies for promoting physical activity in children with autism
The impact of social support on health and well-being
Promoting access to healthcare for individuals experiencing homelessness
Addressing the impact of racism on health outcomes through anti-racism efforts
Promoting mental health awareness and reducing stigma in communities of color
Strategies for promoting physical activity in individuals with intellectual disabilities
The impact of trauma on mental health and strategies for healing and recovery
Promoting access to mental health services for survivors of domestic violence
Addressing the impact of childhood adversity on health through trauma-informed care
Promoting reproductive health education in communities with high rates of teen pregnancy
Strategies for promoting physical activity in individuals with chronic pain
The impact of social support on mental health outcomes
Promoting access to mental health services for individuals with eating disorders
Addressing the impact of discrimination on health through anti-discrimination efforts
Promoting healthy eating habits in communities with limited access

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People Create Health: Effective Health Promotion is a Creative Process

C. robert cloninger.

a Genetics, and Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Kevin M. Cloninger

b Anthropedia Foundation, St. Louis, USA

Effective health promotion involves the creative cultivation of physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Efforts at health promotion produce weak and inconsistent benefits when it does not engage people to express their own goals and values. Likewise, health promotion has been ineffective when it relies only on instruction about facts regarding a healthy lifestyle, or focuses on reduction of disease rather than the cultivation of well-being. Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and experimental interventions shows that improvements in subjective well-being lead to short-term and long-term reductions in medical morbidity and mortality, as well as to healthier functioning and longevity. However, these effects are inconsistent and weak (correlations of about 0.15). The most consistent and strong predictor of both subjective well-being and objective health status in longitudinal studies is a creative personality profile characterized by being highly self-directed, cooperative, and self-transcendent. There is a synergy among these personality traits that enhances all aspects of the health and happiness of people. Experimental interventions to cultivate this natural creative potential of people are now just beginning, but available exploratory research has shown that creativity can be enhanced and the changes are associated with widespread and profound benefits, including greater physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. In addition to benefits mediated by choice of diet, physical activity, and health care utilization, the effect of a creative personality on health may be partly mediated by effects on the regulation of heart rate variability. Creativity promotes autonomic balance with parasympathetic dominance leading to a calm alert state that promotes an awakening of plasticities and intelligences that stress inhibits. We suggest that health, happiness, and meaning can be cultivated by a complex adaptive process that enhances healthy functioning, plasticity and self-transcendent values. Health promotion is likely to have only weak and consistent benefits unless it is person-centered and thereby helps people to learn to live more creatively.

The Indispensable Components of Health Promotion

Prior efforts have helped us to identify four indispensable pathways to effective health promotion. Each of these pathways emphasizes one aspect of person-centered health care. As described by Juan Mezzich, effective health promotion needs to be “for the person, with the person, by the person, and of the person” [ 1 ].

First, college educated adults are often healthier than others [ 2 ], but the association is not consistent, suggesting that the protective effect of education is heterogeneous and depends mostly on deprived childhood experiences that reduce the probability of graduating from college [ 3 ]. The benefits of health education interventions are largely mediated by individual differences in social-cognitive variables, particularly self-efficacy (i.e., the conviction that a person will be successful in changing to a healthier lifestyle), descriptive social norms (i.e., what others do), and injunctive norms (i.e., what important people tell us we should do) [ 4 – 6 ]. It has long been recognized that knowledge of healthy practices and good intentions are rarely adequate to result in health change [ 6 ]. People often make resolutions to change unhealthy lifestyle practices but seldom maintain their commitment if they don't engage in more comprehensive multi-modal interventions [ 7 ]. Education to increase awareness of what is healthy is a necessary component of the care and promotion of the health “ of the person ”, but alone it is a weak and inconsistent way to promote health.

Second, when experts or authorities attempt to regulate the lives of others or tell them what to do, they often provoke resistance or dependencies that are counterproductive, as occurred with public health efforts to prohibit use of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs [ 8 , 9 ]. Rather, health care and promotion is more effective when it involves respectful co-active communication “ with the person ” [ 10 , 11 ]. Such coactive communication provides the opportunity to teach skills for self-regulation, thereby enhancing self-efficacy and instilling values for healthy living [ 8 ].

Third, efforts to promote health are likely to be ineffective if they ignore what a person values, which influences the appraisal of the risk-benefit ratio for different treatments or lifestyle practices [ 12 , 13 ]. Personal values must be considered along with factual evidence of treatment efficacy in order to facilitate health promotion “ by the person ”. The effectiveness of health care is enhanced by joint consideration of facts and values in decision aids for patients, but even then effects remain moderate and inconsistent [ 14 ].

Fourth, efforts to promote health are ineffective when they focus only on the reduction of the symptoms of disease and neglect ways to facilitate growth in well-being. Consequently, public health programs have begun to recognize the need for measuring physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being in order to promote health effectively [ 15 ]. Fear of disease is often insufficient to motivate change in lifestyle. Health promotion needs to point the way toward the satisfactions of positive health in order to cultivate well-being “ for the person .”

There is evidence that each of these four components of health promotion are beneficial when used in synergy, even though their benefits are weak and inconsistent when employed individually [ 16 ]. First, instruction of people who are not motivated to change is ineffective if they are not engaged from an outlook of unity as a respected person. Extensive research has been carried out with the stages of change model that distinguishes between pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, and commitment to change [ 17 ]. Even when people are not initially even contemplating actions to become healthier, they can be engaged and encouraged to become more aware and motivated to take effective action [ 17 , 18 ]. There are multiple stages along the personal journey to change of the person, and each stage is most effectively approached as a respectful negotiation with the person with an understanding of their goals and values [ 19 ]. These findings illustrate activation of awareness, preparation for action, and commitment of the person .

Second, the effectiveness of health promotion is increased by a therapeutic alliance involving co-active communication with the person . Person-centered communication involves mutual respect, empathy, and authenticity, rather than one person dominating the other, so that health is promoted by fostering self-directedness and cooperation [ 11 , 20 , 21 ]. Such common factors of the therapeutic alliance are important in health care regardless of technical skill and knowledge, but are not sufficient for strong and consistent improvement in health [ 22 , 23 ].

Third, health promotion is enhanced when both facts and values are integrated in health care decisions by the person [ 12 , 14 ]. Extensive experimental work has shown that people can learn to accept unpleasant facts and commit to action toward goals that they personally value, as is done in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) [ 24 , 25 ]. Encouraging commitment to valued action and letting go of defensiveness (i.e., fighting or avoidance) leads to improvements in a wide range of disorders, including anxiety [ 26 ], depression [ 27 , 28 ], psychosis [ 29 , 30 ], and chronic pain in primary care [ 31 ]. Acceptance can be facilitated by relaxation exercises, providing a foundation for mindfulness and contemplation [ 32 – 34 ]. Values-based medicine (VBM) is an important component of effective care and promotion of health when integrated with the other necessary components [ 12 , 35 ].

Fourth, health promotion is more effective when efforts to reduce disease are integrated with efforts to enhance positive health, including improved physical fitness and vitality, subjective well-being (life satisfaction and positive emotionality), and an enduring sense of meaning [ 15 , 34 , 36 , 37 ]. Experimental work shows that people can learn to self-regulate their breathing and improve their physical, mental, and social well-being through natural methods that optimize heart rate variability, which is a strong predictor of overall health and longevity [ 38 , 39 ]. People can learn to become more resilient by broadening their outlook to be more optimistic and tolerant of themselves and others [ 40 , 41 ].

Essentially, health promotion of the person increases knowledge and awareness of how to live and function well. Health promotion with the person helps a person to identify and accept valued goals. It teaches self-regulatory skills that enhance self-efficacy in functioning. Health promotion by the person supports the integration of this factual knowledge and personal values to support a commitment to change that cultivates plasticity. Health promotion for the person assures that values are directed toward enhanced personal and collective well-being. Values that are optimally healthy and prosocial are self-transcendent and virtuous because social inequality and personal vices are unhealthy for individuals and the social groups in which they live [ 42 ]. Thus person-centered health promotion works by activation of synergy among healthy functioning, plasticity, and virtue [ 20 , 43 ].

Why are the Individual Components of Health Promotion Only Weakly Effective?

Self-transcendent values (i.e., virtue) guide a person to function in ways that promote both individual and collective well-being [ 20 ]. In turn, healthy functioning promotes a person's plasticity, which allows him or her to be resilient, flexible, and free in the choice of valued actions to which they commit. Plasticity allows the flourishing of the “good life” that is healthy, happy, and virtuous. Thus person-centered medicine promotes healthy functioning, plasticity, and virtue, which are synergistic in their promotion of well-being with strong and consistent effects [ 16 ]. If any one of these crucial components of health care promotion is blocked, a person's health is vulnerable, does not flourish and begins to deteriorate in the face of daily life challenges [ 16 ]. When health promotion efforts address only individual components of well-being, then the other indispensable components may be unhealthy, resulting in interventions and treatments that are weak and inconsistent in their efficacy. Treatments and interventions may work weakly or sometimes in those people in whom the other neglected components already happen to be healthy.

Effective health promotion requires growth in the complete health of the whole person [ 44 ]. A whole person is an inseparable component of a much larger psychosocial context, including the person's community, planet, and ultimately the universe as a whole [ 32 ]. In practice, the assessment of the healthy functioning of a person is most thoroughly based on a comprehensive description of their personality, as can be done with the Temperament and Character Inventory [ 20 , 34 , 45 ]. It is also possible to describe the state of their functioning using measures of subjective well-being [ 46 – 49 ], but all such subjective measures are largely expressions of how happy or satisfied a person is and do not describe the components of the developmental processes leading to health and happiness [ 50 , 51 ].

Physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being are all strongly dependent on the TCI character traits of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence [ 36 , 52 ]. The development of these personality traits over the life course is a complex adaptive process that allows a person to adapt one's outlook, goals, and values to social norms and individual life experiences in a meaningful and satisfying way [ 32 , 50 ].

Personality provides a reliable way to assess the quality of a person's functioning in the general population as well as with psychiatric and other medical patients with physical disorders [ 45 , 53 ]. In order to promote physical, mental, and social well-being, it is necessary to promote the healthy personality development that underlies healthy living. Perhaps the inadequacies of past efforts at health promotion can be explained by the need to more fully accept the fact that the well-being depends on the development and maintenance of a healthy personality, not just knowledge, external support, and encouragement although those things represent part of the necessary resources. So we need to know what is a healthy personality?

What is a Healthy Personality?

Three key practices have consistently been shown to lead to the development of well-being: (1) letting go, (2) working in the service of others, and (3) growing in awareness [ 32 , 33 ]. Letting go involves acceptance of who you really are so that you can develop realistically and calmly without fighting or worry. Acceptance and letting go are expressions of hope, rather than giving in to excessive or insatiable desires. Working in the service of others is expressed as genuine acts of kindness, which are satisfying even when it involves personal sacrifice. Serving others is an expression of love, rather than giving into fear and selfishness. Growing in awareness is the result of using our intelligences to listen to all aspects of our being. Through reflection, meditation, and contemplation a person can discover more about one's self and the mysteries of one's inseparable relations to others and the world as a whole. Awareness is the actualization of the benefits of faith. Such faith is based on the insight and conviction that comes from intuitive understanding, rather than blind acceptance of dogmatic assertions by external authorities.

Each of the practices that lead to well-being are functional expressions of the character traits of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence. Self-directedness (i.e., being resourceful, purposeful, self-accepting, responsible, and foresighted) leads to confidence about one's ability to accomplish valued goals, and such self-confidence is a way of describing hopefulness. Consequently people who are highly self-directed are accept who they are really and can admit to faults and weaknesses, whereas others are too proud or ashamed to admit their faults [ 32 ].

Cooperativeness (i.e. being tolerant, helpful, empathic, principled, and compassionate) is an indicator of a person's disposition toward kindness and compassion for one's fellow human beings. Such loving kindness and compassion motivates a person to work in the service of others, rather than for personal gain [ 32 ]. Acts of kindness are satisfying and enhance physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being [ 54 – 56 ]. Acts of kindness make people happy [ 55 ], and happy people experience less pain [ 54 ], have improved cardiovascular health and resilience [ 56 ], fewer accidents and suicides, and live longer [ 57 ].

Self-transcendence (i.e., being intuitive, imaginative, easily absorbed and engaged in what is valued, and spiritually accepting) indicates capacity for insight from meditation and contemplation. Such contemplation leads to enhanced awareness, self-knowledge, and peak experiences of the inseparability of all things [ 32 ]. Mindful meditation has been shown experimentally to reduce stress and enhance objective indicators of well-being [ 58 , 59 ].

Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and experimental interventions show that increases in subjective well-being are predictive of reduced morbidity and mortality and of improved objective health and longevity [ 58 , 59 ]. The effect size of the correlation between changes in subjective well-being with changes in objective physical health is weak (r = 0.14 to 0.16) in both longitudinal studies and in experimental interventions [ 59 ]. An effect size of 0.15 corresponds to an odds ratio around 1.3 for improvement, which indicates that most people are not substantially improved in objective measures of physical health from changes in subjective well-being [ 60 ]. Medical morbidity and mortality in 7-year follow-up is more strongly predicted by the absence of positive well-being than by the presence of negative well-being, but the effects are still weak and inconsistent [ 61 ].

Personality traits are predictive of later health status and mortality in longitudinal studies using the personality questionnaires measuring three and five factor models [ 62 , 63 ]. High Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness are often predictive of higher mortality, but the results have been weak and inconsistent [ 63 , 64 ]. More consistent predictors of health outcomes can be identified using Ryff's measures of psychological well-being (such as autonomy and self-control) [ 65 , 66 ] and the character measures from the TCI previously described here [ 36 , 52 , 67 ]. The TCI was the strongest predictor of clinical health outcomes among all 14 multidimensional personality inventories tested in a longitudinal study in the USA [ 68 ]. The average of the TCI's multiple correlation with six clinical indicators of psychopathology was r = 0.53 compared to the averages for other personality tests (r = 0.27 to 0.45). Hence the linear prediction of mental health outcomes by antecedent personality traits is moderate in strength.

Multidimensional personality profiles are the most consistent predictors of well-being because they specify synergistic non-linear interactions. Specifically, the combination of all three TCI character dimensions (i.e., high Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence) predicts greater physical, mental, and social well-being than any other profile or individual trait [ 36 ]. The profiles are more informative than the average (linear) effects of the same traits for both mental health and physical health outcomes [ 36 , 67 ].

The synergistic quality of all three character dimensions is called creativity and the healthy personality configuration is called the creative character profile [ 20 ]. Creativity can be defined as the original, adaptive, and beneficial innovation that emerges from the combination of high self-directedness (i.e., resourceful, realistic, and self-accepting), cooperativeness (i.e., tolerant, helpful, and empathic), and self-transcendent (i.e., intuitive, imaginative, and spiritual). Creativity depends on all three of these components of character because it must be (1) original (i.e., using imagination or innovative ideas to solve problems or to invent new and better solutions to traditional approaches, as is characteristic of highly self-transcendent people), (2) adaptive (i.e., a realistic way to use available resources to make something suitable for a new use or purpose, as is characteristic of highly self-directed people), and (3) beneficial (i.e., being favorable, helpful, or advantageous for others so that it becomes adopted by the culture or social group, as is characteristic of highly cooperative people). There is no consensus about a single definition or test for measuring creativity despite much study of the topic, but there is agreement that creative processes are original, adaptive, and beneficial for one's self or others [ 69 – 71 ]. Sometimes the word “adaptive” is taken broadly to imply both realistic and beneficial. In any case, the importance of creative products being socially valued and benefiting others has been well-documented in studies of creative achievement [ 72 – 74 ]. Creativity has been shown to be strongly related to three facets of individual differences: differences in (1) intellectual abilities (e.g., divergent thinking, imagination, aesthetic sensibility), (2) personality traits (e.g., tolerance of ambiguity, desire to grow, desire to work for recognition, willingness to take risks and try to overcome obstacles), and (3) character style or style of mental self-government (e.g., a progressive legislative style, which finds enjoyment in creating one's own rules and ways of doing things, looking for new things to do and for new ways to do old things), and [ 70 , 75 , 76 ].

Overall, creativity is a process that occurs within creative people in particular states of mind in a particular psychosocial context [ 32 , 72 ]. Specifically, the creative character profile (i.e., the combination of being highly self-directed, cooperative, and self-transcendent) facilitates a person getting in a creative state of mind (i.e., calm alertness with a flowing intuitive awareness that awakens automatic intelligences), thereby helping a person to discover original solutions that are adaptive for one's self and others.

Each of the three TCI character traits contributes to positive affect and life satisfaction regardless of the level of the other two traits, and the combination of all three has a stronger correlation with subjective well-being than expected from the sum of the three individual contributions [ 36 ]. In other words, the dynamic non-linear interaction among these dimensions has a synergistic effect to enhance physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being.

The creative process emerging from the healthy character configuration has concrete and practical benefits. People with high Self-transcendence have a vivid imagination, and this leads to creativity when combined with realistic thinking typical of high Self-directedness and with schizotypal or magical thinking when combined with low Self-directedness [ 77 ]. In contrast, people who are high in Self-directedness and Self-transcendence, but low in Cooperativeness, are generally regarded as “fanatics” and often act with hostility or in ways that are destructive for themselves and others, so they are not regarded as creative despite their ingenuity. People who are “organized” (i.e., high in Self-directedness and Cooperativeness, but low in Self-transcendence) have often been considered to have healthy personalities, but they are still vulnerable to being self-centered, materialistic, and conventional unless they are also high in Self-transcendence [ 78 ]. Creative processes require a freedom of will and thought that is not constrained by past conditioning and traditional beliefs [ 79 , 80 ].

Creativity must not be regarded as a rare capacity of exceptional individuals. Existential and phenomenological approaches to medicine recognize that each moment in life is a creative process in which all people are transforming their past experiences and future hopes into the more-or-less adaptive actualization of the present moment. Illness provides the opportunity for creative development by increased awareness of our all three aspects of our being (i.e., body, thoughts, and soul), but only if we allow ourselves to accept reality and to grow in its understanding [ 81 ]. Our pains and fears force us to enlarge our consciousness if we are to adapt adequately. From this adaptive perspective, health is adequate creativity and an illness is inadequate adaptation [ 82 ]. From this person-centered perspective, Victor von Weizsaecker, observed that illnesses revealed meaningful information about reciprocal psychosomatic interactions that create health. From his clinical observations in psychosomatic medicine and his experimental observations about the phenomenology of perception, thought, and movement, he suggested that we become sick when we are not in a creative dynamic state:

“The health of a human being is not just capital to be consumed; rather health is actually present only when it is created in each moment of life. If health is not being created, then a person is already sick [ 83 ].”

Essentially, when we are not growing creatively, we are consuming what health we have until we become ill, unhappy, and empty. When we are healthy, we are energetic, happy, and fulfilled because we are living creatively in each moment.

The Range of the Benefits from Creative Living

Mental well-being.

It is well established that a creative way of living (measured by a creative TCI character profile) is linked with greater subjective well-being, including greater life satisfaction (cognitive aspect of subjective well-being) and a more positive balance between positive and negative affect (the emotional aspect of subjective well-being) [ 36 , 52 ]. However, higher self-transcendence can also lead to increases in negative emotions, particularly in secular societies where self-transcendent attitudes are in disfavor, but even then positive affect is greater than negative effect in adults [ 52 ]. During adolescence, the roles of self-directedness, cooperativeness, and persistence appear to be more important than self-transcendence [ 84 , 85 ]. The role of self-transcendence becomes clear only when individuals must cope with ultimate situations, like suffering, personal death, or mass extinction, which may occur at any age but only are recognized fully in older adults [ 50 , 51 , 78 , 86 ].

Physical Well-Being

Both personality profiles and heart rate variability are predictive of physical morbidity and mortality [ 87 , 88 ]. The impact of personality is not fully explained by people's choice of healthy lifestyles, such as habits about diet, physical exercise, and health care utilization [ 89 ]. In order to explore the physiological pathways by which personality influences physical health, we have studied relations between personality profiles and heart rate variability, which is sensitive to a variety of emotional and physiological stressors. We found that creativity, measured as the product of the three character scores in the TCI, was significantly correlated (r = − 0.3) with healthy autonomic balance with predominance of parasympathetic activity, as measured by the ratio of high frequency (sympathetic) activity to low frequency (parasympathetic activity) [ 89 ]. In contrast, other character profiles (in which any one of the character dimensions was low) were not significantly correlated with healthy autonomic balance [ 89 ]. Agreeability is associated with greater parasympathetic activity but does not reduce sympathetic activity, whereas forgiveness reduces sympathetic activity but does not increase parasympathetic activity [ 89 ].

Greater parasympathetic balance is characterized by a state of calm alertness; it is facilitated by slow, deep breathing and is disrupted by stress or defensiveness. Defensiveness (i.e., fight or flight responses, including both aggression or avoidance) is characterized by sympathetic hyperactivity. All three TCI character traits are correlated with greater parasympathetic activity individually, and the product of the three together was greater than their individual association, indicating that there is synergy among these traits that leads to autonomic balance. Experimental interventions show that psychophysiological training with slow, deep breathing and cultivation of positive affect can enhance heart rate variability and thereby promote healthier outcomes [ 38 , 90 ].

Dean Ornish has developed multi-modal training programs including diet, emotional self-regulation, and meditation to prevent or reverse coronary heart disease. Ornish has found in longitudinal studies that they lead to improved well-being, including longer telomeres (a predictor of longevity) compared to others who do not change their lifestyle [ 91 – 93 ]. Nevertheless, personality has not been measured with the TCI in Dean Ornish's program of lifestyle change, and the directions of influence among the several changing processes involved in comprehensive lifestyle change remain uncertain. The interactions among the multifactorial processes will need to be considered as components of a complex adaptive system [ 16 ].

Social Well-Being

Creativity is associated with perception of warm and satisfying social relationships [ 36 ]. The processes underlying the prosocial benefits of creativity have been studied in detail in negotiation and conflict resolution [ 94 , 95 ]. Stable and satisfying social relationships depend on emotional communication that combines assertiveness with mutual respect, thereby leading to innovative and non-violent resolution of disagreements. Non-violent communication must begin with establishing a context of mutual respect and shared goals. In order to be authentic, there must be the opportunity to express and assert what each person feels and thinks candidly. Yet to avoid violence and resistance, there must be a freedom and openness to change that involves innovative solutions emerging from respectful dialogue. The same principles of non-violent communication can be applied to negotiation generally. Again in social aspects of health we can recognize a complex adaptive system involving multiple reciprocal feedback systems, in which trust stimulates openness, which in turn reinforces change with increases in trust. Similar mechanisms are involved in the formation and maintenance of a helping therapeutic alliance [ 96 , 97 ].

Spiritual Well-being

Studies of the benefits of spirituality show that there are positive benefits from spiritual acceptance that there is a divine order like justice in the cosmos [ 30 , 98 ] because this conviction is a basis for hope and other self-transcendent virtues that are characteristic of people who recover from physical and mental disorders [ 10 ]. Meta-analyses show that intrinsic motivations like love, hope, and faith led to positive psychological adjustments, whereas extrinsic motivation (doing outwardly pious acts to be seen by others) and avoidance of dealing with one's problems by withdrawing into religious activities led to negative mental and physical outcomes [ 99 – 103 ]. Religious struggles (like feeling God had abandoned you) has been associated with slightly increased mortality [ 103 ]. The effect of spiritual acceptance as a single variable to reduce mental distress or to improve health is weak in large-scale meta-analyses (r = 0.09) [ 100 , 101 ].

Intrinsic motivation is based in inner awareness of a connection with something, something beyond one's self, which inspires a sense of meaning and commitment to valued action [ 104 ]. Creativity is consistently characterized by intrinsic motivation and a sense of meaning in life. Self-transcendence involves awareness of what gives meaning and purpose to a person beyond the selfish acquisition of pleasure, power, and possessions [ 86 , 105 ]. The spiritual aspects of health are often discussed in secular cultures by reference to the strong human needs for engagement and meaning, as emphasized in Seligman's model of psychological health based on Positive Emotions (i.e., feeling good), Engagement (i.e., being completely absorbed in valued actions), Positive Relationships (i.e., being authentically connected to others), Meaning (i.e., feeling your existence has a significant purpose), and Accomplishments (i.e., feeling successful in what you have done) (PERMA) [ 37 ]. Engagement is one of the facets of TCI Self-transcendence; people frequently become so absorbed in doing something they value, that they lose track of time and place for a while, so it is labeled as “self-forgetfulness” in the TCI [ 32 , 104 ]. When people are asked what has given them the most lasting satisfaction in their life, the feeling of accomplishment is one of the three most common experiences they report, along with satisfaction with warm social relations and discovery of what gives them meaning [ 15 , 32 ]. All of these aspects of the good life arise from using intuition to grow in awareness of who you really are and what you truly value so that you can flourish (i.e., function with happiness, plasticity and virtue).

In psychoanalytic terms, healthy and wise people function using the mature defenses of sublimation (i.e., letting go of desire for personal pleasure to accomplish something meaningful or beautiful, like an artistic creation), altruism (i.e., serving others unselfishly), hopeful anticipation (i.e., anticipating and preparing for possible future adversity by living moderately) with a sense of humor and humility [ 106 ]. People with creative characters are the individuals who are most aware of their need for coherence and self-actualization, which leads them to work on the development of wisdom and integrity [ 32 ]. Hence the healthy life is good life, and the good life is also the happy life. Lives that are healthy, happy, and good all involve doing what you value with flexibility, integrity, and wisdom.

Conclusion – People Create Health

Positive development of all three aspects of character are needed to promote healthy functioning, plasticity, and virtue [ 20 , 78 ]. Unfortunately, most contemporary measures of well-being and resilience are largely explained by only Self-directedness and Cooperativeness; such measures fail to recognize the critical contribution of Self-transcendence [ 107 – 109 ].

Current research has clearly established that the components of health care and health promotion have only weak and inconsistent effects when experimental interventions apply them individually [ 58 , 59 ]. More recently we have show that the combination of these components is strongly related to all aspects of health in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies [ 36 , 67 , 110 ]. Developmental studies have made clear that health-related variables like personality and emotionality develop as complex adaptive systems with non-linear dynamics and many reciprocal feedback relationships, so that the same antecedent variables can have multiple clinical outcomes (i.e., multifinality) and different antecedent variables can have the same outcome (i.e., equifinality) [ 111 , 112 ].

Now it will be important to show that experimental interventions to change personality cause changes in health outcomes. Only when we can show strong and consistent improvements in health will we be justified in concluding that we have an well-informed understanding of the causes of health and the mechanisms of effective health promotion. Experimental trials of health promotion directed to cultivating creativity and well-being are underway under the auspices of the Anthropedia Foundation (see http://anthropedia.org ).

All data that is currently available do suggest that the optimization of the efficacy of health promotion requires the cultivation of the creative character profile in one's self and in others. We cannot effectively encourage others to do what we neglect to do ourselves. As Gandhi is reputed to have said [ 113 , 114 ], “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Acknowledgements

This article was supported in part with private non-government funding from the Wallace & Lucille Renard Professorship and the Sansone Family Center for Well-being at Washington University in St. Louis, and in part by dbGaP project #2358: “Genetic and non-genetic factors in the genesis of schizophrenia” and NIH grant R01MH060879 to C.R.C. Dr. CR Cloninger also serves without payment as Director of Anthropedia Institute, the research branch of the non-profit Anthropedia Foundation. Dr. KM Cloninger is President of the Anthropedia Foundation.

Disclosures They report no financial conflicts.

Health Improvement and Promoting Well-Being

Executive summary.

This paper presents a report that focuses on the approaches and initiatives that aim to promote health and improve the wellness of individuals and society as a whole. This report comprises two main sections: a comprehensive report on the approaches to health promotion and improvement of well-being and a campaign report on the initiatives for health improvement and health promotion. Health promotion is enhancing people to improve and increase their control over their health. In contrast, wellness is aimed at disease prevention and health promotion. Social mobilization and motivation motivate people to change their attitudes concerning their health and adopt active health decisions. As such, health improvement and the promotion of well-being are the leading precursors to disease prevention for both communicable and non-communicable diseases. The best way for people to improve their health and achieve promotions in their well-being is to adopt a positive attitude, behavioral change, and overall lifestyle changes.

1.0 Introduction

Value in healthcare means that stakeholders in the healthcare service have improved the health outcomes for both individuals and families. Mead and Irish (2020) indicate that health promotion measures often target or focus on some priority diseases, both non-communicable and communicable. This paper presents a report that focuses on the approaches and initiatives that aim to promote health and improve the wellness of individuals and society as a whole. Health promotion enhances people’s improvement and increases their control over their health (Golden et al., 2017). In contrast, wellness is aimed at disease prevention and health promotion. Social mobilization and motivation motivate people to change their attitudes concerning their health and adopt active health decisions (De Toledo et al., 2019). The analysis of health improvement and promoting well-being approaches is that they focus on advancing the health system of a person, and the individual has to include these approaches in their daily routine and change their behaviors holistically to get the best on their health from these methods.

2.0 Task 1- A Comprehensive Report on Approaches for Health Improvement and Promotion of Well-being

Friedman, Rubin, and Sullivan (2017) state that the main health improvement and promotion approaches focus on five health dimensions: educational, medical, societal change, behavioral change, and client-centered activities. Adopting a positive lifestyle like diet changes and incorporating physical exercises into one routine are some of the basic methods of promoting and improving one’s health (Cardoso et al., 2019). These methods have an overall impact on advancing one’s health system. Health improvement and the promotion of well-being are the leading precursors to disease prevention for both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The social change approach and other perspectives meant to promote health effectively focus on enhancing the health-promoting capacity of people and society as a whole (Turunen et al., 2017). Other strategies include creating supportive environments, developing personal skills, strengthening community action, building healthy public policy, and reorienting health services (Gourevitc et al., 2019). It is worth underscoring that the best way to achieve the goals of health improvement and promotion of well-being is to start with the intrinsic changes and move to extrinsic changes or modifications (Fry et al., 2018). This idea is necessary to have a wholesome achievement concerning the advancement of one healthcare needs and health system.

2.1 Evaluating the Concept of Health and Ill Health

The World Health Organization identifies health as achieving different interlinked factors and actions. Vasquez et al. (2017) state that health is a state of social, mental, and complete physical well-being and not just the absence of infirmity or disease. Therefore, the leading concepts of health include physical, capacity, psychosocial, and control as they continue to emerge following different evaluations of the health statuses of individuals (Mackenzie, Skivington, and Fergie, 2020). The concept of health articulates that health is achieved when a dynamic equilibrium exists between the environment and the people. According to their organism components, the disease is just a kind of maladjustment of humans to the environment (Chandan et al., 2019). To this end, health and well-being can be defined as the achievement and maintenance of mental stability and physical fitness, even though the ideas concerning well-being and health could change over time and continue to vary between different periods and cultures (Kabisch and Bosch, 2017). People, therefore, need to adopt environmental-friendly measures as these are key determinants of their health.

People’s health becomes stable when they maintain their environmental-friendly objectives and achieve other health outcomes. These positive outcomes indicate that the people are healthy. This outcome is characterized by their physiologic, anatomic, and psychological integrity to perform personal value improvements on their well-being or health (Crowe et al., 2019). The ability of the human body to function well means that a person is healthy, even though this concept has changed to indicate that the maintenance of a good lifestyle leads to better health that is incorporated or integrated into six other components.

These six other components of health include cultural health, cognitive, spiritual, emotional, physical, and social health. The people or health professionals who embrace all these components of health can overcome different forms of ill health and lead more complete lives (Jackman, Boyd, and Elrod, 2020). When one maintains good health, everything else comes into place.

On the other hand, ill-health is a condition whereby a person has a recurrent medical condition that bothers them for a long time as it is only manageable and not fully treatable (Crowe et al., 2019). Therefore, a person who keeps ill or has an illness suffers from ill-health. For instance, an individual working in a company is retrenched or forced to retire because they have recurrent disease or illnesses or simply ill health (Jackman et al., 2020). Also, children who suffer regular bouts are said to have ill health. Some main examples of ill health include asthma, diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease. And heart disease (Trunen et al., 2017). These diseases are not treatable but are only manageable.

2.2 Comparing and Contrasting Models of Health

Every human possesses the fundamental right to enjoy the highest attainable health standard. Grumbach et al. (2017) indicate that this attainment has to be without distinction or discrimination based on social and economic conditions, political beliefs, religion, and race. Ideally, the models of health include the social, medical, biopsychosocial, salutogenic, and ecosystem health models (World Health Organization, 2022). The comparison and contrasting of these health models are as follows;

Comparisons

All the models of health are the social, medical, biopsychosocial, salutogenic, and ecosystem health models, underscore the fact that human health is achieved through a combination of a person’s lifestyle, attitude, and environmental influences (Murphy et al., 2021). When a person maintains good health, other positive things follow. Examples of such things include the prevention of disease and mostly non-communicable diseases and infectious diseases, but to some extent, peaceful coexistence in the society and increased economic growth and development.

Other positive outcomes include increased reproduction rates, low mortality rates, and burden reduction caused by disease, among other positive outcomes (Singh, Tiwari, and Singh, 2021). Again, the introduction or discovery of these health models is linked with the uprising of human rights movements in the 19 th century and the great scientific inventions and innovations that happened during the enlightenment period or from the 18 th century and beyond (Sharma, 2021). The focus of all these models of health is to advocate for human maintenance of good health and accrue the positive outcomes related to good health.

Contrasting

Each one of these models of health has its foundations or basic arguments. The social model of health came about due to the social model of disability as it was advocated for by the disability rights movement (Murphy et al., 2021). This model then emerged as a reaction to the conventional medical model. Notably, this model advocates or examines all the factors that influence health like political, cultural, social, and environmental factors (Barry et al., 2019). For instance, the problem of poor housing causes stress and depression amongst the residents as the place is becoming inhabitable day by day. Also, low self-esteem harms health.

On the other hand, the medical model believes that science alone can cure all diseases and illnesses and remains a core factor of modern medicine (O’Reilly et al., 2019). According to this model, disease means that a person is unhealthy. In contrast, the absence of disease indicates that a person is healthy. This model ignores the power of other health influences other than science and medicine.

On the hand, the biopsychosocial model of health indicates that health results from many other factors. This model mostly focuses on humanness, thereby viewing health as a scientific outcome or construct given the social phenomena (Nutbeam, 2019). This framework considers the biological and psychological factors affecting health (Edelman and KUdzma, 2021). Examples of these factors include age, illness, gender, perceptions, and other cognitive influences on health. The social component of this model is that the presence or absence of relationships determines a person’s health.

Another model of health that is critically significant is the salutogenic model. Fleming and Parke (2020) indicate that this model focuses on increasing the understanding between coping, health, and other stressors. Understanding the influence of these factors is crucially important when undertaking actions that will influence positive health outcomes of a person.

The fifth model, which happens to be the ecosystem model of health, argues that the more there is increased climate change, population growth, land use, resource depletion, urbanization, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity, amongst other factors, disrupt the natural self-regulation mechanism of the biosphere thereby affecting health negatively (Leitch et al., 2021). In the long run, these changes will become crucial and consistently harm people and other components of the ecosystem, such as the forests and the water bodies.

2.3 Analyzing Factors Affecting Health and Well-being

Several factors influence health. Haber (2019) indicates that these factors may generally be categorized into five broad categories called the influencers or the determinants of health. These factors include physical influences, genetics, environmental, behavior, social, and medical care factors (Corbin, Jones, and Barry, 2018). There is an interconnection between these factors.

Therefore, the specifics of these influencers include health care, heredity, random events, quality of the environment, person’s behaviors, the decisions that a person makes, and the quality of their relationships (Hubley and Copeman, 2018). Therefore, our health is also determined by the state of our environment, the place where we live, income and educational level, and our genetic composition or makeup. All these factors have considerable impacts on health (Schillinger, Chittamuru, and Ramírez, 2020). The other factors include access to health and the use of health care services often have less influence than these other factors (Corbin et al., 2018). All these factors determine our health, and the outcome is either positive or negative outcomes on our health statuses.

The influence of these factors on our health is the key factor that determines whether there will be health inequalities in a country or there will be fairness in healthcare promotions and services. Haber (2019) says that health inequalities are the inevitable, unfair, and unavoidable differences in the health status of individuals between groups of people or the society as a whole.

The well-being of an individual is incomplete if their health has deteriorated. Having physical well-being does not necessarily mean that a person has good health (Hubley and Copeman, 2018). Instead, a person’s well-being comes from the interconnection and interdependent function of the factors identified above. The person’s health will enhance their cognitive abilities and other areas of benefit and henceforth overcome diseases, including mental ailments and other psychological problems.

2.4 Analyzing the Connection Between Diet, Health, and Exercise

The components of a good lifestyle include exercise, health, and diet. Jones (2019) indicates that the combination or the connection of healthy eating and exercise will always result in fewer illnesses or diseases. Ideally, the people who exercise regularly and eat right enjoy having a stronger immune system and a higher likelihood of subduing diseases or illnesses. A stronger immune system means working consistently without any sick offs.

The world health organization points out that more than half of the adults in the USA have one or more diseases that are more preventable even though chronic. This negative health outcome is associated with poor dietary plans and patterns and physical inactivity (Laverack, 2017). This adverse impact will then disproportionately affect the underserved and the loc-income communities. Arguably, a good diet and regular exercises help people overcome premature deaths due to chronic diseases that could have been avoided by having a good diet and making exercise a regular schedule.

Good physical activity, good nutrition, and healthy body weight (no obese s per BMI) are the essential components of an individual’s overall well-being and health (Luquis and Pérez, 2021). Markedly, when these factors work together, there is a high chance of the individual overcoming or reducing their risks of developing further serious complications or health conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke, amongst other medical conditions .

2.5 Evaluating Media’s Role in Influencing Attitudes to Health

Verra et al. (2019) indicate that the media influences health from different dimensions, including public health and individual health. The mass media has a substantial potential for enhancing health behavior. Huang (2019) suggests that the mass media may be a significant and crucial source of information concerning a relevant socialization force and health in line with a person’s behavior and attitudes.

The media, therefore, needs to promote health behavior change by influencing health behaviors and behavior change amongst individuals and groups of people. Holden and Valdez (2019) say that the type and the amount of information that the media presents, like in their documentaries or classified commercials, may include methods of shaping the peoples’ beliefs, perceived norms, and attitudes that, in turn, will lead to total behavior change.

Also, the media can indirectly influence people’s behavior by facilitating other trainers and presenters to train society on the need to change their attitude and make lifestyle changes, including their diet and exercise plans and drug use, including alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

Further, the media has a crucial role in today’s world by providing a platform to unify all public health communications, robust social relationship strategies, and comprehensive healthcare education guidelines (Fortune et al., 2018). It is expected that the knowledge that the media instills upon people will then be included in their new insights and trends and used to enhance their lifestyles and also share the experiences with their cohorts so that behavioral change takes place throughout the entire community (Kim and Kim, 2018). The result will be total social change and improvement of the health of a society.

2.6 Explain the Terms

2.6.1 Health Education

Health education focuses on promoting people’s understanding of maintaining personal health. The World Health Organization (2022) says that this type of education concerns familiarizing or communicating with people about the underlying environmental, economic, and social conditions that impact their health and individual risk behaviors and risk factors. Health education aims to show people how to utilize the health system to enhance their health, overcome unnecessary ailments, and improve health literacy, life skills, and knowledge conducive to personal and community health.

2.6.2 Health Protection

Health protection encompasses activities that lie or fall within public health. The World Health Organization (2022) defines health protection as protecting people from individual cases of contagious disease, outbreaks, and incidents. This plan also focuses on protecting people against environmental hazards such as radiation and chemicals that are non-infectious. Huang (2019) says that another form of health protection includes emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR), and environmental health.

2.6.3 Disease Prevention

The World Health Organization (2022) indicates that disease prevention is the procedure by which people with risk factors for particular diseases are treated and prevented from the occurrence of the disease. The treatment usually begins either before or shortly after the first signs and symptoms of the disease. The interventions used in disease prevention are either individual-based, population-based, or specific to ensure the early detection of disease and apply primary, secondary, or tertiary methods to prevent the disease from occurring.

2.7 Explaining the Approaches to Health Promotion

According to Turunen et al. (2017), there are five different approaches to health promotion as identified by Ewles and Simnett. These approaches apply different activities, including behavioral, medical, educational, societal change, and client-centered perspectives. The health practitioner works with the clients to facilitate their health and behavioral changes with the client-centered approach. Cardoso et al. (2019) indicate that the medical approach focuses on overcoming infectious and non-infectious diseases by using medical sciences to treat and prevent diseases.

On the other hand, the behavioral change approach focuses on changing the attitudes and behaviors of people so that they can adopt a healthy lifestyle and minimize the chances of having lifestyle diseases and enhance their immunity. On the other hand, the education approach focuses on changing people’s knowledge levels by using information and communication to sensitize them to new methods of promoting their health (Golden et al., 2017). On the other hand, the societal change approach focuses on changing the physical and social environment so that society lives in a conducive environment with fewer risks for diseases.

2.8 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Models of Behaviour Change

Friedman et al. (2017) indicate three main models of behavior change: the social cognitive theory, the transtheoretical model, and the theory of planned behavior. Fry et al. (2018) say that the TBP (theory of planned behavior) has been applied effectively to different dietary and physical interventions. The effectiveness of these models is as follows;

The transtheoretical model prevents different stages of change, including pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination (Crowe et al., 2019). This framework seems to be the least effective model of behavior change
The social cognitive theory focuses on the role of observing and learning from other people and getting behavioral reinforcements that are positive (Jackman et al., 2020). This theory seems to be the second most effective model of behavior change.
The theory of planned behavior (TBP) assumes that people’s behavior is influenced by their intention as predicated by their subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control (Sharma, 2021). TBP seems to be the most effective model of behavior change.

3.0 Task 2- Campaign Report and Support Materials Relating to a Health Promotion Initiative Selected

This health promotion campaign targets overcoming obesity as this has increasingly become a major health challenge in our country, especially amongst the youth. It will be a rigorous campaign. The focus is on promoting the well-being of our youths so that they can adopt healthy lifestyles like diet, exercise, or physical fitness, and reduce uptake of alcoholic beverages for those who imbibe alcohol of any kind, be it beer or wines. The main strategies to apply in the facilitation of this campaign program for overcoming obesity include preventative, lifestyle, and public health approaches.

3.1 Defining the Rationale of a Health Promotion Project

This health promotion campaign will significantly impact reducing the rates of obesity in our country amongst the youths. The World Health Organization (2022) indicates that health promotion measures often target or focus on several priority diseases, both non-communicable and communicable.

This campaign will use approaches and initiatives that aim to promote health and improve the wellness of individuals and society as a whole. Health promotion is enhancing people to improve and increase their control over their health.

This campaign also focuses on the wellness of the youths in our country. This idea is aimed at disease prevention and health promotion through social mobilization and motivation for people to change their attitudes concerning their health and adopt active health decisions.

This health promotion report will be of much significance in that it will adopt a holistic approach aimed at health improvement and promoting well-being, and advancing the health system of the youths by showing the need to change their daily routine and behaviors and ultimately improve their health by avoiding obesity.

The main approaches to health improvement and promotion to be included in this campaign report will utilize the five main dimensions of health: educational, medical, societal change, behavioral change, and client-centered activities.

Adopting a positive lifestyle like diet changes and incorporating physical exercises into one routine are some of the basic methods of promoting and improving one’s health (Golden et al., 2019). These methods will have an overall impact on advancing the health system of our youths as they are the leading precursors to disease prevention, mostly for obesity and the rest of the communicable and non-communicable diseases.

3.2 Seeking Approval or Permission to Proceed with the Project

This Project touches on public health matters since obesity amongst the youth is a nationwide problem and is an issue of public health. Therefore, the facilitators will seek the approval from the government’s departments of public health, from the world health organization, if possible, from the authority for disease prevention and control in our country, and also from the associations of medical professionals since some of the facilitators to run this campaign will be medical professionals serving in various hospitals in our country.

3.3 Designing Materials for the Project

The materials for this campaign project will include visualizations or pictorials, food items, cooking items, and gym equipment just to illustrate to the affected youths and the nob-affected how to adopt good lifestyles and change their eating and exercise habits to burn calories, lower cholesterol levels, and ultimately shed weight. The focus is to have a BMI of between 20 and 25 amongst most of the targeted youths, which is a safe one and indicates good and non-obese weight levels.

3.4 Carrying out A Health Promotion Project

This Project will be a year-long activity done in three phases of four months each. The theme will be adopting a total lifestyle change to overcome obesity and being able to shed weight up to acceptable and healthy levels. The main approaches to health improvement and promotion to be included in this campaign report will utilize the five main dimensions of health: educational, medical, societal change, behavioral change, and client-centered activities. Other health promotion methods to apply in this campaign include communication, social mobilization, lobbying, mediation, and advocacy.

3.5 Evaluating the Effectiveness and Impact of the Project

This campaign will be relevant and effective in that it uses the appropriate approaches to health promotion (educational, medical, societal change, behavioral change, and client-centered activities) and also that its facilitation is done in a way that will mobilize the youths to change their behaviors and change their lifestyles to overcome obesity and to enhance both health, social, and economic development in our country. Besides, this campaign program for overcoming obesity is effective in that it includes preventative, lifestyle, and public health approaches. Also, this campaign project is effective because there are three main models of behavior change to be applied in the facilitation: the social cognitive theory, the transtheoretical model, and the theory of planned behavior. These models will be applied effectively to different dietary and physical interventions

4.0 Conclusion/Summary

In summation, the analysis of health improvement and promoting well-being approaches is that they focus on advancing the health system of a person, and the individual has to include these approaches in their daily routine and change their behaviors holistically to get the best in their health from these methods. Health promotion is enhancing people to improve and increase their control over their health. In comparison, wellness is aimed at disease prevention and health promotion. Social mobilization and motivation motivate people to change their attitudes concerning their health and adopt active health decisions. The best way for people to improve their health and achieve promotions in their well-being is to adopt a positive attitude, behavioral change, and overall lifestyle changes. These ideas are the basics or foundations for achieving the targets concerning advancing one’s health system. Health promotion measures often target or focus on some priority diseases, both non-communicable and communicable. It is appropriate to use the approaches and initiatives that aim to promote health and improve the wellness of individuals and society as a whole. Health promotion enhances people’s improvement and increases their control over their health

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Statewide Office of Advance Care Planning

The Statewide Office of Advance Care Planning is a statewide service (funded by Queensland Health) that helps to promote the important processes of advance care planning. We:

provide information and resources about advance care planning (ACP)
receive and review copies of ACP documents from people across Queensland
upload ACP documents to a person’s Queensland Health electronic hospital record
share health care wishes with clinicians involved in a person’s care
connect people to ACP services in their local area (where available)
manage a central database of Queenslander’s end-of-life care preferences.

Queensland is the first State/Territory in Australia to have a statewide, standardised clinical approach to receive, review and upload advance care planning documents.

Recording your decisions

The Statewide Office of ACP receives Statement of Choices (SoC), Advance Health Directive (AHD), Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA), Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) Orders and revocation documents from individuals, hospitals, health services, GPs and residential aged care facilities across Queensland. We review the documents we receive and if they are complete, we upload them to the person's Queensland Health hospital record (the ACP tracker in The Viewer). This provides:

peace of mind for individuals, knowing their ACP documents can be accessed by clinicians when needed
direct, real-time access for clinician to a person's ACP documents to guide care decisions
confidence for clinicians in the quality of the information contained within the ACP document.

To inform health service planning, the Statewide Office of Advance Care Planning manages a de-identified central database of Queenslanders’ preferences for end-of-life care (end-of-life preferences database), as they appear on the Statement of Choices and Advance Health Directive. Learn more about the privacy and confidentiality policies that protect the de-identified data.

Add your wishes to The Viewer

Send us a copy of your advance care planning documents to have them included in The Viewer database. Your wishes will then be available to authorised clinicians involved in your care when they are required.

The Viewer is a web-based application that provides consolidated clinical information about each patient who receives treatment or care at a Queensland Health facility. The Viewer ensures authorised Queensland Health clinical staff, including Queensland Ambulance Service, GPs and pharmacists have timely access to a patient’s public healthcare information.

Watch a video about the ACP Tracker app (in The Viewer) and how it supports quality end-of-life care.

Send a copy of completed advance care planning documents to the Statewide Office of Advance Care Planning, for review and upload to the person’s Queensland Health electronic hospital record (The Viewer) via:

Email: [email protected] Fax: 1300 008 227 Post: PO Box 2274, Runcorn Qld 4113

If you wish your document/s to be in My Health Record you can upload them via the My Health Record website .

This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Published on 22.7.2024 in Vol 10 (2024)

This is a member publication of University of California, Irvine, Emergency Medicine, Orange, California

Can an Online Course, Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care , Improve the Well-Being of College Students?

Can an online course, life101: mental and physical self-care, improve the well-being of college students.

Authors of this article:

Mahtab Jafari, PharmD

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States

Corresponding Author:

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health of college students worldwide. As colleges shifted to online instruction, students faced disruptions and increased stressors, leading to a decline in mental health that appears to continue in the postpandemic era. To alleviate this problem, academic institutions have implemented various interventions to address mental health issues; however, many of these interventions focus on a single approach and lack diverse delivery methods. This viewpoint introduces the concept of a multimodal self-care online course, Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care , and discusses the potential effectiveness of such an intervention in improving students’ well-being. The course combines evidence-based interventions and incorporates interactive lectures, workshops, and guest speakers. Pre- and postcourse surveys were conducted over a span of 4 academic terms to evaluate the impact of this course on the well-being and self-care practices of students. The survey data suggest positive outcomes in students taking Life101 , including the adoption of healthier habits, reduced stress levels, and increased knowledge and practice of self-care techniques. Life101 represents a novel multimodality intervention to address the epidemic of mental health issues faced by students today. By implementing similar evidence-based multimodal didactic curricula across campuses, academic institutions may be able to better equip students to navigate challenges and promote their overall well-being.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous challenges for college students worldwide [ 1 ]. As universities transitioned to online instruction in response to the pandemic, students faced significant disruptions in their lives [ 2 ]. These changes have tested students’ ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and underscored the importance of robust mental health resources within academic institutions [ 3 , 4 ]. Surveys conducted within 2 months of the pandemic indicated a substantial decline in college students’ mental health [ 1 , 4 ]. New stressors emerged, creating uncertainty about students’ academic futures. Unfamiliar learning environments, loss of access to academic resources, limited social interaction, and sudden lifestyle changes led to increased rates of mental disorders, including anxiety, alcohol/substance abuse, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, self-injury, and even suicidal ideation [ 5 ]. Marginalized communities such as first-generation college students, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities were disproportionately affected [ 4 ]. Consequently, it is crucial for academic institutions to develop evidence-based resources that address the mental and physical health needs of their students.

While the impact of COVID-19 on physical health may diminish over time, its effects on mental health may lead to a new concern: an epidemic of mental illnesses [ 6 ]. To combat the rising prevalence of mental health issues and psychological stress among students, academic institutions have adopted various solutions. Many campuses have introduced mindfulness-based interventions to assist students in managing stress, while others have implemented positive psychology practices aimed at enhancing self-confidence and happiness [ 3 , 7 ]. However, institutional approaches often focus on a single intervention rather than equipping students with a range of evidence-based stress management techniques. A study that exposed college students to a combination of evidence-based multimodal strategies demonstrated enhanced mental well-being compared to that observed in studies testing a single intervention [ 8 ]. Moreover, institutional approaches are often delivered through a singular mode that may not cater to students’ diverse learning styles. Therefore, evidence-based multimodal approaches, incorporating multiple stress management techniques and healthy lifestyle habits, may hold greater potential for addressing the complex and diverse demands of college students. This viewpoint describes the impact of one such approach, a course titled Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care (hereafter referred to as Life101 ), on students’ lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explores strategies for further improving this course and similar modalities to help students manage stress.

Course History, Structure, Content, and Assessment

Life101 is a 10-week course that uses a combination of asynchronous and synchronous components to fulfill various learning outcomes related to self-care. The first online version of Life101 was offered in 2013. Students watched a 1-hour video lecture on their own and then took a quiz at the end of the lecture. During the summer of 2020, with the help of a grant from the University of California Office of the President, an updated version of Life101 was developed with new lectures and new educational modalities. This new multimodal course incorporated interactive video lectures with evidence-based content, online group discussions, workshops, quizzes, and practical exercises to facilitate student learning and encourage lifestyle changes. This version was adopted by the University of California system to be offered to students on all 10 University of California campuses. The course also became available to the general public through Coursera and has garnered significant popularity, with current enrollment exceeding 16,500 students and an impressive rating of 4.9 stars out of 5 (as of January 1, 2024) [ 9 ]. The primary objective of Life101 is to enhance college students’ academic and personal successes by equipping them with the necessary lifestyle skills to navigate the numerous stressors typical of college life. While the specific content of self-care courses may vary across institutions, they have consistently demonstrated a significant influence on retention rates and other measures of academic success [ 10 ].

The course is divided into 10 modules, each focusing on a distinct self-care topic (outlined in Table 1 ). Every module includes 3-4 short lecture videos ranging from 10 to 15 minutes in length, and reflective questions and exercises are interspersed throughout the videos to encourage student introspection and active learning. After watching the videos, students participate in an online discussion forum in small groups and share what they have learned in the lectures and how they have practiced what they have learned. For each module, supplemental online resources are also made available, such as reading lists of the relevant scientific literature and motivational videos. At the end of each module, students take an online quiz to assess their understanding of the content presented in the module.

Week	Module topic	Content summary
1	The Science of Adopting Good Habits for Self-care	Importance of developing healthy lifestyle habits, how to develop and maintain healthy habits, developing SMART habits
2	The Etiology, Physiology, Symptoms, and Health Outcomes of Stress	Stress response and relaxation response, how to identify symptoms of stress, impact of stress on health, how to manage stress
3	Nutrition & Wellness	How to read food labels, physiological effects of sugar consumption on health, strategies to avoid harmful foods, the importance of cooking your own meals
4	Mindfulness & Emotional Intelligence	Importance of mindfulness for optimal self-care, practicing mindfulness and relaxation through breathing exercises, definition of emotional intelligence (EI) and how to use it to manage stress
5	The Many Mental and Physical Health Benefits of Exercise	Role of exercise in chronic disease prevention, mental and physical health outcomes of exercise, developing an exercise plan
6	The Impact of Sleep on Mental & Physical Wellness	Importance of sleep for mental and physical health, cognitive impairments caused by sleep deprivation, how to implement good sleep hygiene habits
7	The Health Benefits of Volunteering & Gratitude	Health benefits of volunteering and gratitude, definition of “helper’s high,” how to develop a habit for a gratitude journal
8	Bad Drugs on College Campus	Commonly used substances with high abuse potential, negative health effects of substances of abuse, impact of energy drink consumption on health outcomes
9	Managing Personal Finances	Importance of managing personal finances, how to develop a monthly budget and pay attention to personal finances, 5 money principles to manage personal finances
10	The Impact of Nature Therapy on Stress Management	Definition of nature therapy and its role in stress management, methods to practice nature therapy

a SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Survey Project

Survey design.

At the beginning and following the conclusion of the course, a self-assessment survey was conducted to evaluate students’ understanding of the topics presented and their own self-care practices, as well as to gain qualitative insight into the impact of Life101 on these parameters. Together with some requests for narrative answers, the survey posed 67 statements with responses provided on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (eg, “never” or “strongly disagree”) to 7 (eg, “always” or “strongly agree”). As an aggregate measure of the impact of the course on student beliefs and practices across different self-care areas, the proportion of students who responded positively (ie, selected responses 5‐7) to questions with a scalar answer was compared between the precourse and postcourse surveys. Because the responses of individual students on the two surveys were not tracked for reasons of confidentiality, formal statistical analysis of the results was not possible.

Ethical Considerations

As outlined by the guidelines of its Office of Research [ 11 ], the Institutional Review Board of the University of California, Irvine did not require a formal review of this survey project since the research was conducted in an educational setting, involving normal educational practices.

Impact of Life101 on Self-Care Knowledge and Practices

The impact of the original version of the Life101 course (offered from 2013 to 2020) on the self-care knowledge and practices of prehealth care undergraduate students has been reported previously in a descriptive fashion [ 12 ]. Given the context of the pandemic, an objective evaluation of the revised course appeared to be necessary. Pre- and postcourse surveys were conducted over 4 academic quarters (summer 2020, winter 2021, spring 2021, and summer 2021). Out of 1548 students surveyed, 71% (n=1099) reported a negative impact of the pandemic on their mental health.

As presented in Table 2 , upon completing the course, the proportion of students who were able to replace unhealthy habits with healthier habits increased by 14% when compared to the precourse responses. Those who took the course during the winter 2021 quarter reported an even greater impact, with an increase of 27%. Many students with high baseline stress levels (68% of respondents) experienced a decrease in their stress levels after completing Life101 . The survey also provided deeper insights into students’ success in learning and practicing new self-care techniques. For example, as students’ overall knowledge about mindfulness increased by 12%, their practice of mindfulness also increased by 18%. Similarly, as students learned about stress management techniques, they not only demonstrated an increase (+27%) in knowledge of these strategies but also reported substantial changes in their practice of specific stress management techniques. There were decreases in the proportion of students who relied on alcohol consumption (−3%) or on the use of various types of media (eg, social media and TV) as means of destressing. Conversely, there were increases in the practice of the destressing techniques emphasized by Life101 , such as exercise (+10%), nature therapy (+25%), and meditation (+5%). While self-reporting does not necessarily translate directly into an actual change of behavior, the collected data nevertheless depict an overall beneficial outcome of Life101 on the self-care practices of students.

Survey question		Positive answers in precourse survey, n	Positive answers in postcourse survey, n	Change to positive, %	Mean change %
					13.5
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	195	272	23.5
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	173	302	26.5
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	89	113	5.4
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	154	152	−1.3
					−10.4
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	187	140	−14.3
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	381	267	−23.4
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	309	222	−19.5
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	89	113	15.5
					27.4
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	224	305	24.7
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	310	425	23.6
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	262	397	30.2
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	99	147	31.0
					−3.2
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	41	15	−7.9
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	7	1	−1.2
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	6	1	−1.1
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	5	1	−2.6
					10.4
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	201	270	21.0
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	78	97	3.9
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	71	108	8.3
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	39	52	8.4
					5.3
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	67	121	16.5
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	16	21	1.0
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	7	23	3.6
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	3	3	0.0
					−3.8
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	199	165	−10.4
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	85	56	−6.0
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	70	58	−2.7
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	11	17	3.9
					−3.3
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	179	166	−4.0
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	69	49	−4.1
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	52	29	−5.1
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	12	12	0.0
					11.7
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	270	324	16.5
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	451	482	6.4
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	368	440	16.1
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	136	148	7.7
					17.7
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	185	289	31.7
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	279	422	29.4
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	34	92	13.0
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	151	146	−3.2
					24.8
	Summer 2020 (n=328)	—	—	—
	Winter 2021 (n=487)	60	299	49.1
	Spring 2021 (n=447)	203	192	−2.5
	Summer 2021 (n=155)	18	61	27.7

a Percent of students changing to a positive response to this statement between the pre- and postcourse surveys, normalized based on the total number of students per semester.

b Calculated as sum of normalized percent changes of students changing to a positive response to this statement between the pre- and postcourse surveys for each semester/number of semesters.

c n values represent the total number of students responding to both pre-and postcourse surveys for that term.

d This measure was not collected for the summer 2020 course offering.

Life101 as a Model to Address Mental Health Challenges in College Students

Life101 was developed and launched a decade ago to attempt to address the plethora of challenges college students face with regard to personal and mental health, which have only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. The course has been modified and refined every year based on student feedback. The data from pre- and postcourse surveys conducted during the COVID-29 pandemic suggest that the current version of Life101 has the potential to improve the mental and physical well-being of college students. Two studies examining similar approaches to Life101 have also reported positive outcomes [ 8 , 13 ]. Morton et al [ 8 ] found that students participating in a 10-week multimodal program with multiple strategies to improve their mental health experienced greater improvements in mental health compared to those focusing solely on a single strategy. Similarly, a recent study evaluating an 8-week multimodal stress management program demonstrated positive effects of the program on college students’ psychological distress during the pandemic [ 13 ]. Although the published literature regarding programs and courses similar to Life101 is limited, the favorable outcomes obtained are likely attributed to the multimodal nature and multi-interventional design of the course, which equip students with a repertoire of stress-coping strategies for different situations. Similarly, the overall positive impact of Life101 might in part be attributed to its incorporation of multiple pedagogical methods, including interactive video lectures, embedded reflective questions and activities in the videos, assigned scientific readings, workshops, discussion forums, practical exercises, and quizzes. By using various modes of content delivery and assessment, the course can enhance student comprehension and retention while accommodating diverse learning styles. In addition, the comprehensive range of topics covered in Life101 empowers students to address the typical stressors of college life. Definitive proof of the superiority of multimodality approaches to addressing student mental health and well-being will require larger comparative studies of different teaching approaches.

Future Directions

While self-care courses such as Life101 have the potential to benefit students’ psychological and physical health, it is important to continually improve these courses to meet the evolving mental health needs of students. In addition to the typical stressors faced by college students, such as academic pressure and financial burdens, research has highlighted the link between psychological stress and excessive use of social media platforms [ 14 - 17 ]. Excessive use of social media has been associated with declining mental health [ 15 , 16 ]. Today’s college students, often referred to as “digital natives,” heavily rely on their mobile devices for various purposes, including accessing health information, entertainment, and maintaining social connections [ 18 ]. To take advantage of this fact, the practice of mindfulness, as introduced in Life101 , should be expanded to include its application during the use of social media apps. Studies have shown that mindful use of social media can lead to reduced stress and increased well-being compared to passive scrolling [ 16 , 19 , 20 ]. By incorporating mindfulness into social media use, self-care courses can promote intentional engagement with digital platforms and address the mental health issues associated with excessive social media use and exposure.

Another area of opportunity for institutions developing self-care programs is the prevention of online misinformation among college students. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of social media in the dissemination of health-related information [ 21 ], resulting in a flood of both reliable and unreliable content online. Since college students often rely on online sources for obtaining and sharing health-related information, it is crucial for them to be able to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources [ 18 , 21 , 22 ]. A study on the information-seeking behavior of college students found that nearly half of the students (50%) found it challenging to evaluate the credibility of information [ 23 ]. Recognizing the importance of addressing this issue, the Department of Health and Human Services released an advisory on “Confronting Health Misinformation” in 2021, emphasizing the need for individuals to develop skills in assessing the credibility of online sources [ 24 ]. In addition, according to a systematic review conducted in 2021 on the prevalence of health misinformation on social media, misinformation in various social media platforms had a high prevalence, especially for vaccines and diseases [ 25 ]. Although the importance of evidence-based health information is discussed in all of the Life101 modules, we are considering incorporating a module in this course that covers the basics of evaluating source credibility. This new module can empower students to make informed choices and safeguard their mental and physical well-being.

In addition to the aforementioned recommendations, delivering self-care programs such as Life101 through mobile apps can be beneficial. Given that most college students own a mobile phone, rely on online resources for support, and spend a significant amount of time using apps, delivering a self-care course through a smartphone-based app aligns with their preferences [ 26 , 27 ]. A systematic literature review conducted in 2021 demonstrated the effectiveness of mental health apps in preventing stress, anxiety, and depression, and recommended that universities adopt mobile apps designed to benefit student mental health [ 28 ]. By delivering self-care courses through a mobile app, institutions can increase accessibility among a wider student population and gather real-time data on students’ stress levels, sleep patterns, mood changes, and physical activity levels. These data can be used to track and analyze students’ well-being and provide tailored and personalized recommendations through in-app notifications. Delivering self-care courses such as Life101 via a mobile app can be a transformative step in empowering students to actively engage in their own health.

Given the individual needs and diverse challenges students face, the incorporation of diverse evidence-based educational strategies in Life101 provides students with opportunities to practice self-care and take greater personal responsibility, which are essential aspects of early adulthood [ 3 ]. If colleges adopt a multimodal approach in self-care courses across all campuses nationwide, students would be better equipped to navigate challenges, both during and outside of a pandemic period. Furthermore, colleges can develop targeted resources that focus on the mindful use of social media, identification of accurate health misinformation, and the creation of mobile phone apps that deliver self-care content tailored specifically to students’ needs.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge an Innovation Learning Technology (ILTI) University of California Online grant from the University of California, Office of The President, that supported the design of the revised online Life101 course.

Data Availability

The complete survey data summarized in Table 2 are available upon request to the corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

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Edited by Taiane de Azevedo Cardoso; submitted 19.06.23; peer-reviewed by Pavan Kadandale, Robyn Bluhm, Savita Arya; final revised version received 16.05.24; accepted 29.05.24; published 22.07.24.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Education, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://mededu.jmir.org/ , as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

July 23, 2024

Spring 2023 Tier 3 pilot awardees report midpoint project updates

Project team engaging with members of the community

These projects include researchers from five different UW schools and colleges, as well as several community-based partners, and address topics such as noise pollution, children’s health and healthcare disparities.

Each project has now reached its respective midpoint and are reporting progress in the following areas:

Evaluating the impacts of military aircraft noise pollution on human health and well-being: a community-based inquiry

Investigators Julian Olden, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Edmund Seto, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Anne Harvey, Sound Defense Alliance Bob Wilbur, Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve Brian Silverstein, Quiet Skies over San Juan County Lauren Kuehne, Omfishient Consulting

Project update The three primary goals of this project are to characterize the impacts of military aircraft noise exposure on human health and well-being by leveraging long-term sources of noise complaint data, quantify relationships between noise exposure, human health and quality of life outcomes in local communities, and refine existing community tools and create a framework for ongoing impact assessment that can be shared with other communities. This research project is implemented in close coordination with community partners with years of experience in advocacy related to noise pollution through legislative and legal actions, as well as community organizing.

Since the project was initiated in December 2023, the project team has met at least monthly to coordinate, plan, and carry out project activities. Sub-groups of the project team have also met to focus on sub-tasks including acquisition and analysis of noise complaint data sources, creating and implementing a social-acoustic survey, and planning a meeting with key stakeholders. One critical project activity was recruitment and hiring of a research scientist (Angella Kim) to support implementation and analysis of the social-acoustic survey and spatial mapping components. Angella has been part of the project since December 2023 and initiated research activities in January 2024. Since January, a sub-team (PIs Olden and Seto, and researcher Angella Kim) have focused on creation, implementation, and analysis of the social-acoustic survey. Development of the survey instrument took place between January and mid-April, with feedback from community partners. Surveys were implemented in selected communities in late April through mailed postcards. Letters were sent out to relevant stakeholders about the implementation of the survey. Data collection is currently on-going. Good progress has been made toward developing the analytical pipeline to conduct the analysis of survey results, including programming scripts in the open-source R language, which ensures transparency and reproducibility.

Additionally, a sub-team led by Lauren Kuehne (Co-PI) and PhD researcher in DEOHS (Shirley Huang), have continued to analyze noise complaint data using innovative sentiment analysis approaches, which was started during the Tier 2 project. The noise complaint data has been updated to include recent data from community partners and the US Navy’s official complaint line, which has been cleaned and included in analysis. The sub-team has also worked with community partners to discuss the potential products and outputs that would best serve these communities. A noise complaint taxonomy and lexicon has been drafted based on this community partner discussion and is currently in the process of receiving feedback from community partners and the research team.

A key stakeholder meeting was held on March 27, 2024, which was organized by a community partner, Sound Defense Alliance. The purpose of this meeting was to share results from the Tier 2 project and the aims of the current Tier 3 project.

Project Nature: An Intervention to Promote Nature Contact and Play Equity for Children via Primary Care

Investigators Pooja S. Tandon, Department of Pediatrics Kirsten Senturia, Department of Health Systems and Population Health Emily Kroshus, Department of Pediatrics Georgia Griffin, Department of Pediatrics Danette Glassy, BestStart Washington

Project update The project team offered updates organized by research aims.

Aim 1: Create an online toolkit to scale Project Nature (PN); Status: Complete As part of this aim, we created an implementation toolkit that includes training materials for pediatric primary care clinics that addresses why and how to integrate PN into workflows with visual materials (i.e. posters and other downloadable resources), templates that are adaptable to the local context by a partner clinic with translated materials, and the ability to add content to the website relevant to the local communities of partner clinics

We interviewed six clinicians using a mixed-methods usability testing protocol rooted in human-centered design about the feasibility, acceptability and usability of the Project Nature implementation toolkit.

User experiences were explored using a process of thematic analysis, with emergent themes synthesized and prioritized by study team members. Feedback from usability testing was reviewed by the research team and BestStart WA to identify areas for modification as necessary. Overall, feedback was very positive, and we made only small changes to the toolkit like wording and slide order.

Aim 2: Assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the PN toolkit using a mixed-methods approach; Status: Underway We have recruited six clinics across Washington state to participate in the second aim of this study. Three clinics are awaiting their scheduled PN orientation and 3 are actively implementing the intervention at Well-Child Check-Ups.

PN Toolkit Launch: Each partner clinic identified a PN Champion to serve as the primary liaison for intervention and research activities. Prior to launch, the Program Director at BestStart WA and Champion worked together to schedule and execute PN training. In addition, they worked together to tailor the PN materials to the local context and ordered the PN outdoor toys.

Quantitative data collection: All sites have completed pre-intervention quantitative data collection by 25 parents of children who were seen at the clinic for a Well Child Check-Up. One clinic has entered the post-intervention parent survey phase. All others have a plan to collect post-intervention surveys from parents about two weeks after their child’s appointment.

Qualitative data collection: After clinics have implemented PN for at least two months and have completed the post-intervention quantitative data collection, we will interview at least two clinic staff who were involved in PN implementation to understand their experiences, successes and challenges with PN.

Centering community voices in partnered mixed methods approaches to addressing health disparities with diverse communities

Investigators Theresa Hoeft, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Nora Coronado, UW Medicine Office of Healthcare Equity Giselle Zapata-Garcia, Latinx Health Board Diem Nguyen, Vietnamese Health Board Lan Nguyen, Vietnamese Health Board

Project update ince August 2023, we established partnerships with two community health boards within the Community Health Board Coalition (CHBC) – the Latinx Health Board (LxHB) and African Leaders Health Board (ALHB). Both health boards are conducting mixed methods data collection on mental health and wellbeing. These collaborations around data collection and analysis will enhance our toolkit, especially content that could be enhanced for community co-researchers.

Together with the ALHB, we created a quantitative survey on REDCap and submitted an IRB modification in November 2023. Although data collection was delayed in part due to the financial transformation at UW, it began in May with a terrific response and turnout from the community. Fifty surveys were completed at one health fair. The ALHB will also hold two community conversations in June and July to discuss mental health, wellbeing, and resource needs with local community leaders from many African countries.

The LxHB engaged with the Latinx community in a thoughtful CBPR process from November through March when developing their research questions and data collection plans. This led to a plan to collect qualitative data through a Spring quarter undergraduate class focused on oral histories. Students are collecting 16 – 22 oral histories with 18- to 26-year-old Latinx young adults around mental health, wellbeing, and belonging. The interviews began in May and will be shared with the LxHB to inform Latinx community services and research. They may also be archived with the Washington State Historical Society. An IRB modification was submitted in April to the UW IRB. An application was also submitted to the Heritage University IRB where some young adults were recruited. The LxHB is developing a REDCap quantitative survey for parents that is also focused on their mental health, wellbeing, and belonging. A UW SPH practicum student has also been engaged to support the qualitative coding and dissemination activities for the LxHB project.

We are continuing to update the toolkit focusing on content that is more meaningful to community co-researchers. Initial content was primarily aimed at academic and public health researchers. Several team members have been meeting to draft and refine content for the toolkit and then sharing this with the Community Advisory Board (CAB) at the March and May 2024 meetings. The CAB consists of CHBC members and has met three times since August 2023 to give feedback on the project and toolkit. We have also discussed ideas to increase accessibility of the toolkit (e.g., video versions of segments of the toolkit). The CAB will meet again in July and then monthly between September – December 2024 to discuss toolkit content and dissemination plans (e.g., dissemination networks, webinars, conference presentations).

Improving Health Equity and Closing Health Care Gaps for Children in Foster Care with an Innovative Secure Data Sharing Platform

Investigators Kari Gillenwater, Department of Pediatrics Benjamin deHaan, School of Social Work Elana Feldman, Department of Pediatrics Delilah Bruskas, School of Nursing & Health Studies (UW Bothell) Kimberly Collins, Department of Family Medicine Kelsey Potter, Apple Health Coordinated Care of Washington Maureen Sorenson, Apple Health Core Connections Sarah Yatsko, UW Center for Social Sector Analytics & Technology Staci Garrison, UW Medicine IT Services Anna Bender, Department of Pediatrics Caitlin Crumm, Department of Emergency Medicine Jack Hessburg, Department of Pediatrics Ajay Koti, Department of Pediatrics Catherine (Katie) Wolff, Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine

Project update This project seeks to establish data sharing with Washington State to identify and track children in foster care within the UW Medicine system, and determine if identifying and providing automated EMR based tools for this population improves health care delivery and thereby improves health equity for this high-risk population.

Our initial data sharing plan to identify children in foster care in Washington State presented some unexpected challenges; therefore, we redirected our data sharing to the Health Care Authority (HCA) of Washington. This involved a period of discovery to identify which Medicaid eligibility codes, shared from the HCA through the Accureg system (registration accuracy tool), indicate foster care status. The HCA based approach involved reallocating funds from the IDENTITY platform to our UW IT team, who developed an original system to integrate and surface this information in Epic.

The building phase of our project is now complete and the Epic tools launched for all UW Medicine users on 5/30/2024. These Epic tools reveal the foster care status to providers across UW, using a Best Practice Alert (BPA), and provide prompts and easy access to tools (e.g., SmartSet and Smartform) for more effective charting, diagnosing, billing and care delivery for children in foster care.

From April to June, high-yield primary care training is underway, delivered during All-Staff meetings across targeted UW Primary Care clinics serving the most pediatric patients (Harborview, Roosevelt, Northgate, Shoreline, and Kent Des-Moines). Training was completed for 30 faculty and staff at 1 clinic and is scheduled in June for the additional 4 of 5 clinics targeted for this training. The project was also introduced to UW pediatric residents through a health equity noon conference in late April. Family medicine residents will receive training on the BPA and Smartset as part of residency orientation in July. The second phase of the grant will include training on foster care across the general pediatrics and family medicine departments and increased foster care resource availability through SharePoint (linked from the Epic Foster Care SmartSet).

We continue to collect population health data from the data registry including identification of children in care and care delivery practices pre and post implementation. We are working with our IT team specialists that have expertise in longitudinal data capture methods (e.g., Clarity and Caboodle), and will analyze data from Epic and from our community partner, Coordinated Care, to compare these outcomes before and after implementation.

More information about the Population Health Initiative pilot grant program, tiering and upcoming deadlines can be found by visiting our funding page .

What is population health?

Population health is a broad concept encompassing not only the elimination of diseases and injuries, but also the intersecting and overlapping factors that influence health.

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Critic’s Notebook

After 12 Years of Reviewing Restaurants, I’m Leaving the Table

Pete Wells is moving on from his role as the Times restaurant critic, a job with many rewards and maybe too many courses.

A hand tacks up a sheet of paper showing a photo of Pete Wells and others. It reads, “NYC Restaurant Critics. Alert Management.”

By Pete Wells

Early this year, I went for my first physical in longer than I’d care to admit. At the time, I was about halfway through a list of 140 or so restaurants I planned to visit before I wrote the 2024 edition of “The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City.” It was a fair bet that I wasn’t in the best shape of my life.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

My scores were bad across the board; my cholesterol, blood sugar and hypertension were worse than I’d expected even in my doomiest moments. The terms pre-diabetes, fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome were thrown around. I was technically obese.

OK, not just technically.

I knew I needed to change my life. I promised I’d start just as soon as I’d eaten in the other 70 restaurants on my spreadsheet.

But a funny thing happened when I got to the end of all that eating: I realized I wasn’t hungry. And I’m still not, at least not the way I used to be. And so, after 12 years as restaurant critic for The New York Times, I’ve decided to bow out as gracefully as my state of technical obesity will allow.

Not that I’m leaving the newsroom. I have a couple more restaurant reviews in my back pocket that will appear over the next few weeks, and I plan to stick around at The Times long after that. But I can’t hack the week-to-week reviewing life anymore.

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COMMENTS

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Reflecting on health and wellbeing as a student nurse: a personal journey

Introduction

Theoretical perspectives

Lay perspectives

Similarities

Differences

A personal definition

Dealing with loneliness

Related files

‘Nursing is not just my potential job, but a part of who I am becoming’

‘My ADHD brain has allowed me to be more attuned to the atmosphere in the ward’

‘A strong team requires both introverts and extroverts’

‘We need a system to support students whose placements are unsuitable’

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Promoting public health and wellbeing

103 Health Promotion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

People Create Health: Effective Health Promotion is a Creative Process

Kevin M. Cloninger

The Indispensable Components of Health Promotion

Why are the Individual Components of Health Promotion Only Weakly Effective?

What is a Healthy Personality?

The Range of the Benefits from Creative Living

Physical Well-Being

Social Well-Being

Spiritual Well-being

Conclusion – People Create Health

Acknowledgements

Health Improvement and Promoting Well-Being

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Task 1- A Comprehensive Report on Approaches for Health Improvement and Promotion of Well-being

2.1 Evaluating the Concept of Health and Ill Health

2.2 Comparing and Contrasting Models of Health

2.3 Analyzing Factors Affecting Health and Well-being

2.4 Analyzing the Connection Between Diet, Health, and Exercise

2.5 Evaluating Media’s Role in Influencing Attitudes to Health

2.6 Explain the Terms

2.7 Explaining the Approaches to Health Promotion

2.8 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Models of Behaviour Change

3.0 Task 2- Campaign Report and Support Materials Relating to a Health Promotion Initiative Selected

3.1 Defining the Rationale of a Health Promotion Project

3.2 Seeking Approval or Permission to Proceed with the Project

3.3 Designing Materials for the Project

3.4 Carrying out A Health Promotion Project

3.5 Evaluating the Effectiveness and Impact of the Project

4.0 Conclusion/Summary

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Can an Online Course, Life101: Mental and Physical Self-Care , Improve the Well-Being of College Students?

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Course History, Structure, Content, and Assessment

Survey Project

Ethical Considerations

Impact of Life101 on Self-Care Knowledge and Practices

Life101 as a Model to Address Mental Health Challenges in College Students

Future Directions

Acknowledgments