Health education

Health education is a profession of educating people about health.
 Areas within this profession encompass:

• environmental health, 
• physical health, 
• social health, 
• emotional health, intellectual health, and 
• spiritual health.

 It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health. However, as there are multiple definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education. The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education as "any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and the skills needed to make quality health decisions."

The World Health Organization defined Health Education as "compris[ing] [of] consciously constructed opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are conducive to individual and community health."

The Role of the Health Educator

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the aim of public health was controlling the harm from infectious diseases, which were largely under control by the 1950s. By the mid 1970s it was clear that reducing illness, death, and rising health care costs could best be achieved through a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. At the heart of the new approach was the role of a health educator.
A health educator is “a professionally prepared individual who serves in a variety of roles and is specifically trained to use appropriate educational strategies and methods to facilitate the development of policies, procedures, interventions, and systems conducive to the health of individuals, groups, and communities” 

7 areas of responsibilities 


Responsibility I: Assessing Individual and Community Needs for Health Education
-Provides the foundation for program planning
-Determines what health problems might exist in any given groups
-Includes determination of community resources available to address the problem
-Community Empowerment encourages the population to take ownership of their health problems
-Includes careful data collection and analysis

Responsibility II: Plan Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs
-Actions are based on the needs assessment done for the community (see Responsibility I)
-Involves the development of goals and objectives which are specific and measurable
-Interventions are developed that will meet the goals and objectives
-According to Rule of Sufficiency, strategies are implemented which are sufficiently robust, effective enough, and have a reasonable chance of meeting stated objectives

Responsibility III: Implement Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs
-Implementation is based on a thorough understanding of the priority population
-Utilize a wide range of educational methods and techniques

Responsibility IV: Conduct Evaluation and Research Related to Health Education
-Depending on the setting, utilize tests, surveys, observations, tracking epidemiological data, or other methods of data collection
-Health Educators make use of research to improve their practices.

Responsibility V: Administer Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs
-Administration is generally a function of the more experienced practitioner
-Involves facilitating cooperation among personnel, both within and between programs

Responsibility VI: Serve as a Health Education Resource Person
-Involves skills to access needed resources, and establish effective consultative relationships.

Responsibility VII: Communicate and Advocate for Health and Health Education
-Translates scientific language into understandable information
-Address diverse audience in diverse settings
-Formulates and support rules, policies and legislation
-Advocate for the profession of health education

Motivation
Education for health begins with people. It hopes to motivate them with whatever interests they may have in improving their living conditions. Its aim come is to develop in them a sense of responsibility for health conditions for themselves as individuals, as members of families, and as communities. In communicable disease control, health education commonly includes an appraisal of what is known by a population about a disease, an assessment of habits and attitudes of the people as they relate to spread and frequency of the disease, and the presentation of specific means to remedy observed deficiencies.

Health education is also an effective tool that helps improve health in developing nations. It not only teaches prevention and basic health knowledge but also conditions ideas that re-shape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles in developing countries. This type of conditioning not only affects the immediate recipients of such education but also future generations will benefit from an improved and properly cultivated ideas about health that will eventually be ingrained with widely spread health education. Moreover, besides physical health prevention, health education can also provide more aid and help people deal healthier with situations of extreme stress, anxiety, depression or other emotional disturbances to lessen the impact of these sorts of mental and emotional constituents, which can consequently lead to detrimental physical effects.

Credentialing
Credentialing is the process by which the qualifications of licensed professionals, organizational members or an organization are determined by assessing the individuals or group background and legitimacy through a standardized process. Accreditation, licensure, or certifications are all forms of credentialing.

Teaching
A comprehensive health education curriculum consists of planned learning experiences which will help students achieve desirable attitudes and practices related to critical health issues. Some of these are: emotional health and a positive self image; appreciation, respect for, and care of the human body and its vital organs; physical fitness; health issues of alcohol, tobacco, drug use and abuse; health misconceptions and myths; effects of exercise on the body systems and on general well being; nutrition and weight control; sexual relationships and sexuality, the scientific, social, and economic aspects of community and ecological health; communicable and degenerative diseases including sexually transmitted diseases; disaster preparedness; safety and driver education; factors in the environment and how those factors affect an individual's or population's Environmental health (ex: air quality, water quality, food sanitation); life skills; choosing professional medical and health services; and choices of health careers.

The National Center for Education Statistics share that 99% of public schools conduct come type of nutrition education. For each grade from kindergarten through eighth, 50 percent or more of all schools have district or state requirements for students to receive nutrition education. However, only 40 percent have these requirements for ninth and tenth grades; and about 20 percent for eleventh and twelfth grades. The issue still lies with the content and thoroughness that is being taught. Topics taught in a most all of the schools are: the relationship between diet and health, finding and choosing healthy foods, nutrients and their food sources, the Food Guide Pyramid, and the Dietary Guidelines and goals. However, with the exception of the Food Guide Pyramid, less than half of schools cover these topics thoroughly. Overall, schools focus on increasing students’ knowledge about what is meant by good nutrition, with less emphasis on influencing students’ motivation, attitudes, and eating behaviors. Four of the five topics covered by more than 90 percent of all schools are related to knowledge. With the exception of finding and choosing healthy foods, less than one-third of schools provide thorough coverage of topics related to motivation, attitudes, and eating behaviors. Not often are there teachers specific for nutrition. Most of the time the nutrition content is taught by the primary teacher.