According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Health promotion enables people to increase control over their own health. It covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions that are designed to benefit and protect individual people’s health and quality of life by addressing and preventing the root causes of ill health, not just focusing on treatment and cure.”
In the United States, chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease are the leading causes of death. A sedentary lifestyle, tobacco smoking, excessive alcohol use and a poor diet can cause these diseases. Public health aims to make communities healthier, which involves health promotion strategies that positively impact the healthy behavior of people to prevent disease, premature death and disabilities.
The Arkansas State University (A-State) online Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Public Health program equips students with skills in healthcare analysis, data collection, epidemiology, health education and more so they can impact health promotion efforts.
How Health Promotion and Public Health Work Together
According to the American Public Health Association, public health uses evidence-backed practices to improve individuals’ health and quality of life. Public health can involve any number of safety and health efforts like tracking disease outbreaks, vaccinating populations, setting employee safety standards, developing school nutrition programs and more.
According to the WHO, health promotion enhances the health of individuals and communities by focusing on prevention. This process can save people money on treatment and medical bills, as well as lessen the stress and trauma that affected families can experience. Promoting health and wellness can be done by encouraging healthy eating habits, awareness campaigns, smoking cessation programs, fitness websites, support groups, health fairs and response services.
A-State’s online B.S. in Public Health program prioritizes promotion efforts through coursework like the Preventative Health course, which equips students to teach and coach patients to manage, mitigate and prevent health challenges.
Those trained in public health efforts lead the way in health promotion. They use their medical knowledge and leadership skills to expand and lead educational health programs to prevent disease and improve health outcomes.
Health promotion initiatives empower people to make healthy choices and improve their quality of life. These initiatives work in different settings, despite socio-economic challenges such as poverty, lack of access to transportation or chronic disease. Building strong community networks with shared values to confront challenges and encourage a collective interest in achieving healthy outcomes is one way to overcome barriers.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a handful of strategies and examples for ways public health professionals can utilize prevention strategies in communities, worksites, schools, public venues and more.
The Impacts of Public Health and Health Promotion
By building policies that encourage equity, equip communities and produce a supportive environment, health promotion programs can educate and empower individuals to take control of their own health. The issue-based approach to preventative health promotion works well in specific settings where people live and work. These designs suit schools, stores, apartment buildings, markets, offices and community centers. By integrating positive health messages — while accounting for culture, belief systems, socio-economic status, behaviors, environment and social determinants of health — the whole population can benefit.
Healthcare professionals can impact public health and health promotion in various roles like public health programs manager, epidemiologist, community health worker, public health research associate and research program manager. These professionals can encourage and motivate individuals to follow a healthy lifestyle, adjust their habits and improve overall wellness. As a central public health function, health promotion encourages individuals and communities to manage health issues and develop health literacy through education and healthy strategies.
Public Health at Arkansas State University
An online B.S. in Public Health from A-State can give you the power to help people take control of their health. Students will acquire skills to inspire healthier lifestyles in their communities and develop skills to plan, assess, execute and analyze health-related programs for individuals, communities and groups.
Top schools like A-State recognize the activities and incentives that encourage change in high-risk populations by developing public health programs. By studying health communication, preventative health, environmental health, epidemiology, health equity and more, students gain real-world experience to impact public health efforts in a number of spaces.
Learn more about Arkansas State University’s online B.S. in Public Health program.