Health Promotion, Education, and Literacy
What is the main goal of health promotion?
To enable people to increase control over and improve their health.
The Health Promotion Glossary, (1998) defines health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health.” This means health promotion is not simply about preventing disease or providing healthcare. It focuses on giving individuals and communities greater ability and opportunity to influence the factors that affect their health.
Which term describes a situation in which a population has a lower ability to protect itself from a danger or risk?
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the human dimension of disasters. It is influenced by economic, social, cultural, institutional, political and psychological factors. It helps explain why the same hazard can produce very different consequences for different populations.
Which of the following is NOT one of the five Ottawa Charter action areas?
A. Build healthy public policy
B. Create supportive environments
C. Strengthen community action
D. Develop personal skills
E. Provide medical treatment for all
E. Provide medical treatment for all
The five Ottawa Charter action areas are:
Build healthy public policy
Create supportive environments
Strengthen community action
Develop personal skills
Reorient health services
Medical treatment is not one of the five action areas. This reflects an important distinction: health promotion operates beyond simply treating individuals once they become ill. It also addresses the wider environments, policies, communities and services that influence health.
What is the difference between a hazard and a disaster?
A hazard describes a danger or risk, while a disaster refers to an event that causes significant damage or loss of life.
The distinction is important because the existence of a hazard does not automatically mean that a disaster will occur. The consequences of a hazard can depend on factors such as vulnerability, preparedness, infrastructure and socioeconomic conditions.
A patient can read and understand straightforward medication instructions, but struggles to ask questions, discuss their concerns with healthcare professionals, or apply health information to their own circumstances. Which aspect of health literacy is most lacking?
Interactive health literacy
Functional health literacy involves basic skills such as reading, writing and numeracy and understanding straightforward health information, such as medication instructions.
Interactive health literacy involves more advanced cognitive and social skills, including actively participating in healthcare, asking questions, communicating with professionals and applying information to personal circumstances.
What does “greater losses, fewer resources” mean in terms of disaster disparities?
Disaster impacts are unequal because socioeconomic capacity affects vulnerability and available resources.
Communities with lower socioeconomic capacity can face greater impacts while having fewer resources to prepare, respond, and recover.
A school introduces a new policy limiting unhealthy food options in the cafeteria. At the same time, it provides nutrition education to students and works with parents and local community organisations to support healthier eating.
Which Ottawa Charter action areas are MOST clearly demonstrated by this approach?
A. Develop personal skills and reorient health services
B. Build healthy public policy, develop personal skills, and strengthen community action
C. Create supportive environments and reorient health services
D. Strengthen community action and reorient health services
B. Build healthy public policy, develop personal skills, and strengthen community action.
The school food policy relates to building healthy public policy because a policy is being used to support healthier choices.
Nutrition education relates to developing personal skills by increasing students’ knowledge and ability to make informed choices.
Working with parents and community organisations relates to strengthening community action through collaboration and participation.
Name and describe the 3 levels of disaster literacy
Functional, interactive and critical.
Functional: Basic reading, writing and numeracy skills needed to understand straightforward disaster information such as warnings and hazard maps.
Interactive: More advanced cognitive and social skills that allow people to actively participate, ask questions, communicate with response actors and apply information to their circumstances.
Critical: The ability to critically analyse disaster information, evaluate its credibility, understand broader influences on disasters, and act on that knowledge.
A school provides health education lessons about healthy eating and physical activity, but students have limited access to healthy food, little opportunity for physical activity, and no involvement in decisions about school health policies.
Using the Health-Promoting School model and the Ottawa Charter, explain why providing health education alone is unlikely to be sufficient to promote students’ health.
Because health promotion requires supportive policies, environments, participation and services, not just knowledge
Health education can increase students’ knowledge, attitudes and potentially behaviours, but students’ ability to act on that knowledge is influenced by their wider environment.
The Health-Promoting School model takes a whole-school approach, involving areas such as Government policies and resources, School policies and resources, School governance and leadership, School and community partnerships, School curriculum, Social environment, Physical environment and School health services.
This also connects directly to the Ottawa Charter which advocates for supportive environments, healthy policies, community action and appropriately oriented services.
What three characteristics identified in the lecture can make an area particularly vulnerable to disasters?
Poor infrastructure, greater reliance on natural resources, and location in hazard-prone areas.
These conditions can increase exposure or reduce a community’s ability to protect itself, contributing to greater disaster losses.