Health Promotion

Last update: 30 October 2009,
by Maureen Bell

I've divided this page into four sections. The first provides you with some tips on searching for material on Medline, and the second provides links to other web resources, including some full text material.

The third includes links to material on health literacy, and the fourth gives links to declarations and charters on health promotion.

Searching Medline

Remember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts.

You will find material on this subject in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for the various aspects of health promotion.

MeSH - Health Behavior

MeSH - Health Education

MeSH - Health Promotion

Many concepts have hierarchies of more specific subcategories or related terms. The indentations in the lists reflect the structure of the hierarchy, and the + signs at the end of terms indicate that there is a further hierarchy of terms not displayed here. Any of these terms can be searched individually, or you can "explode" terms to search sections of the list.

When you search for subjects using MeSH terms from the Medline thesaurus you will also have the option of appending subheadings to narrow the focus of your search.

For a list of the abbreviations used for subheadings in PubMed click here

Try using the search structure below for finding articles on trends in health promotion and health behaviour.

COMBINE

Health Promotion (MeSH term)

AND

Health Behavior (MeSH term)

PubMed Search Formulation

This search strategy uses the headings health promotion and health behavior. I've added a subheading to health promotion - "td" which stands for "trends". The search is then limited to articles which are in English or which have English abstracts.

Click here to see how it works. PubMed search.

Other Sources

Action Statement for Health Promotion in Canada
Produced by the Canadian PublicHealth Association in 1996.

American Social Hygiene Posters (ca. 1910 - 1970)
From the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota.

Evidence Based Health Promotion
A series of documents from the Victorian government.

Health Nexus Health Promotion Hub
Health Nexus, previously the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse, provides resources on health promotion, community development, and organizational development.

Health Promotion - NSW Department of Health
Full text of many publications is available here.

Healthy People ...Tracking the Nation's Health
Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for promoting health and preventing disease

Indicators to Help with Capacity Building in Health Promotion
Written by Penelope Hawe, Lesley King, Michelle Noort, Christopher Jordens, and Beverley Lloyd. North Sydney, NSW Health Department, 2000.

National Health and Medical Research Council. Publications. Health Promotion
Most of the publications listed are available electronically as .pdf files.

Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research
Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research Brian D. Smedley and S. Leonard Syme, Editors; Committee on Capitalizing on Social Science and Behavioral Research to Improve the Public's Health, Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Washington D.C., National Academy Press, 2000.

Small Step
A recent study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control indicated that deaths due to poor diet and physical inactivity rose by 33 percent over the past ten years, and may soon overtake tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death. In an attempt to combat this potential public health nightmare, the Department of Health and Human Service has created this site to help people make improvements in their diet and exercise habits through small incremental changes.

Visual Culture and Public Health Posters
An exhibition from the National Library of Medicine.

What is the evidence on effectiveness of empowerment to improve health?
This report shows that empowering initiatives can lead to health outcomes and that empowerment is a viable public health strategy. The key message from this review is that empowerment is a complex strategy that sits within complex environments. Health Evidence Network (HEN), World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, February 2006.

What is the evidence on school health promotion in improving health or preventing disease and, specifically, what is the effectiveness of the health promoting schools approach?
Health Evidence Network (HEN), World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, March 2006.

WHO | Health promotion
This page provides links to descriptions of activities, reports, news and events, as well as contacts and cooperating partners in the various WHO programmes and offices working on this topic. Also shown are links to related web sites and topics.

Health Literacy

Adelaide Thinker in Residence - Professor Ilona Kickbusch
A video of Professor Kickbusch's public lecture 'Health Literacy and the Role of Universities' presented as part of the Division of Health Sciences' Distinguished Lecture Series, is available here.

Clear Communication: an NIH Health Literacy Initiative
From the National Institutes of Health in the United States.

Clear Health Communication: Media - What is Health Literacy?
From the Pfizer Clear Health Communication Initiative.

eHealth Literacy: Essential Skills for Consumer Health in a Networked World
By Cameron D Norman, and Harvey A Skinner.
Journal of Medical Internet Research 2006, Vol.8 No.2, e9

Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion
Committee on Health Literacy, Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health [Institute of Medicine]. Editors: Lynn Nielsen-Bohlman, Allison M. Panzer, and David A. Kindig. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press, 2004.

Health Literacy, Consumer Health Manual
This is the health literacy section of the Consumer Health Manual produced by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), in the United States.

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary
Institute of Medicine. Washington D.C., National Academies Press, 2009

Health Literacy Fact Sheets
From the Center for Health Care Strategies Inc. in the United States.

Health Literacy Improvement
A page of resources from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
By M. Kutner, E. Greenberg, Y. Jin, and C. Paulsen, C. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, September 2006.

Health Literacy: Perspectives in 2002
A paper by Linda Shohet. ALNARC (Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium) Online Forum: 2002.

Health Literacy: Terminology and Trends in Making and Communicating Health-Related Information
By Julie Green.
Health Issues 2007, Number 92, pp. 11-14.

Health Literacy: The Gap Between Physicians and Patients
By Richard Safeer, and Jann Keenan.
American Family Physician, August 1, 2005 Vol 72, No. 3, pp. 463-468

How to Create and Assess Print Materials
By Rima E. Rudd. From the Health Literacy Studies site at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Literacy and Health Outcomes
Prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
AHRQ Evidence Report, No. 87, January 2004

Popular Topics: Improving Health Literacy
From a United States web site [PlainLanguage.gov] designed to encourage the use ofplain language in government communication.

Understanding Health Literacy and its Barriers (CBM 2004-1)
A bibliography from the National Library of Medicine. Covers January 1998 - November 2003, plus selected earier and later citations (651 citations) Prepared by Marcia Zorn, Marin P. Allen, and Alice M. Horowitz. May 2004.
Current Bibliographies in Medicine 2004-1

Virginia Adult Education Health Literacy Toolkit
Compiled by Kate Singleton, July 2003. From the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, the Toolkit is a resource to help adult education instructors and administrators better understand the problem of health literacy as it affects their learners.

'Virtually Healthy' newsletter
Virtually Healthy is the newsletter for schools and OHSC services from the Centre for Health Promotion: Children, Youth, and Women's Health Service in South Australia.

Declarations and Charters

WHO | Global Conferences on Health Promotion
These conferences have produced a series of charters and declarations on health promotion, including.

Ottawa Charter
First International Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, Canada, 21 November 1986

Adelaide Recommendations
Second International Conference on Health Promotion Adelaide, Australia, April 1988.

Sundsvall Statement
Third International Conference on Health Promotion, Sundsvall, June 1991.

Jakarta Declaration
Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion: New Players for a New Era -Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century Jakarta, 21-5 July 1997.

Mexico Ministerial Statement for the Promotion of Health
Fifth Global Conference on Health Promotion, Health Promotion: Bridging the Equity Gap, Mexico City, June 5th, 2000

Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World
Sixth Global Conference on Health Promotion, Bangkok, Thailand, August 2005.

Declaration of Alma-Ata, 1978
International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR, 12 September 1978.

Declarations, charters and statements--their role in health promotion.
Health Promotion International 2007 Sep;22(3):179-81.