Essay Example on Education & Health Promotion: Skills, Politics & More

Education applies to health promotion in various ways. First, education helps individuals to learn more about health. They do this by getting a skill-based health education. Secondly, the educational process provides people with skills such as decision-making and critical thinking that enable them to lead healthy lifestyles. Another factor that applies to health education is political, where it has a vital role in health affairs. Through political aspects, it is possible to determine and examine how health problems can be made into a policy agenda. Political responses influence populations that have been affected, responsibility for them, and their health problem severity (Baggott, 2011). Lastly, the environmental aspect applies to health promotion as it affects human health in various ways, such as air and water pollution, which have a direct impact on human health.

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For an educational aspect, society needs to promote education to all its members to ensure that everyone has an awareness of health issues. As a result, people would be more receptive to health promotion and education activities. Also, another action is instilling skill-based education in its system where learners get interactive learning top get the knowledge that would help them adopt healthy behaviors. Political activities that can be applied include coming up with governmental policies and regulations to support health education and promotion (Ball, 2006). Another action that a society can take is ensuring that political ambitions do not implement measures meant to promote health issues. Some of these political vices include embezzlement or misuse of funds intended for health education and promotion. Environmental actions that can be taken to improve health and its education involve coming up with environmental legislation and acts meant to promote awareness for the need for protection against pollution (Cottrell, Girvan, & McKenzie, 2018). Another action can be raising awareness at the societal level where people are taught of the importance of the environment and the role that it plays to ensure that humans, plants, and animals are coexisting healthily. This kind of awareness allows for health promotion and education.

A policy of health promotion and education can benefit a nation by boosting the overall economy by reducing healthcare costs and losing productivity as a result of preventable illnesses. For instance, tobacco use and obesity annually cost the economy of the United States billions of dollars in lost productivity and healthcare costs. There are programs to help the citizens combat these health issues which not boost the health of individuals, but also allow a high return of investment for the communities (Egger, 2013). According to the CDC, the United States control program see a $1 investment lead to a loss of $5, mostly due to the avoidance of the costs meant for the treatment of smoking-related illnesses.

Conclusion

Health education and promotion are also crucial to the nation as it is way members of the community can access healthcare services and wellness resources. For instance, some of the disparities affecting Americans include rural health disparities, gender health disparities, socioeconomic health disparities, and ethnic or racial disparities (Seedhouse, 2001). All these can be attended to through policy implementations that promote health education and promotion. It can also extend into legislation and policy development at the national, state, and local level. Here, it influences and informs critical decisions that have an impact on community health.

References

Cottrell, R.R., Girvan, J.T., McKenzie, J.F. (2018). Principles and Foundations of Health Promotion and Education Seventh Edition San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

Baggott, R. (2011). Public health. Palgrave Macmillan.

Ball, D. (2006). Environmental health policy. McGraw Hill / Open University Press.

Egger, G. (2013). Health promotion strategies and methods. McGraw-Hill education.

Seedhouse, D. (2001). Foundations for Health Promotion. Wiley.