principles of health education

Health is a desirable objective which can be achieved through education. Health education is the 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.



Purpose/Aims of Health Education:

To ensure that health is an assets in the community.
To equip the people with skills, knowledge and attitude.
To promote the development and proper use of health service.



principles of Health education :
Interest:

It is a psychological principle that pupils do not listen to those things which are not to their interest. That is why health teaching should relate to the interests of the pupils. The pupils are not interested in health slogans such as 'take care of your health' or 'be healthy'. Health educators must find out the real health needs of the pupils.

Psychologists call them 'felt needs" i. e. 'needs' the pupils feels about themselves. If a health programme will be based on 'felt needs' pupils will gladly participate in the programme and only then it will be a pupils' programme. The health educator will have to bring about recognition of the needs before he proceeds to tackle them.

Participation:

Participation is based on the psycho­logical principle of active learning and group discussion, panel discussion, work shop—all provide opportunities for active learning. Health education must include not only the personal element but also social. However the personal and community health are closely interlinked and interde­pendent. 'To live must and to live best' may be a very desirable motto for health education.

Comprehension:

In health education one must know the level of understanding for which the teaching is direc­ted. One barrier to communication is the use of words which cannot be understood. Especially in the lower grades children do not understand the meaning of health. They are not interested in it as adults are.

Therefore, they should be led to practice certain health habits through con­crete goals than to be imparted certain abstract rules of health which are difficult to comprehend. So the teaching should be within the mental capacity of the children

Reinforcement:

Few children can learn all that is new in a single period Repetition at intervals is extremely useful. It assists comprehension and understanding so health instruction needs reinforcement, which. The doctors call booster dose'

Motivation:

In every person there is a fundamental desire to learn. Awakening of this desire is called motivation. There are two types of motives—Primary and secondary Primary motives are sex, hunger, survival which initiate people in to action. These motives are inborn desires! But secondary motives are based on desires created by the outside forces or incentive.

Some of the secondary moti­ves are praise, love, rivalry, rewards, punishment and reco­gnition. In health education motivation is an important' factor. The incentives may be positive or negative, but the positive must be emphasized as against the negative.

The important thing is 'what to do' and not 'what not to' do' for imparting health education fear as a motive should not be used invariably. Because conduct Controlled by' fear is the conduct of a slave Fear of disease cannot be a goal, but to live most effectively and to serve society in the best possible way should be set up as an ideal.

Learning by doing:

Learning is an action process; not a 'memorizing' one in the narrow sense. The Chinese proverb "'If I hear, I forget, if I see, I remember, if I do, I know" illustrates the importance of learning So health habits like other habits should be cultivated through will practice and by following certain rules rigidly.

Known to Unknown:

For imparting health education, one should proceed from, the known to the unknown, One should start where the children are and with what they understand and then proceed to new knowledge. The exis­ting knowledge of the children should be used as pegs on which to hang new knowledge. In this way systematic knowledge is built up - New knowledge will bring about a. new^ enlarged understanding which can give. Rise to an insight into the problem.