Doing Health Promotion Research

While research teams are producing relevant and valid knowledge for health promotion, there is not yet a structured manual and distinct field of health promotion research. This timely "state-of-the-art" handbook contributes to structuring the field of health promotion research. This collection presents introductory-level methodological solutions to the major epistemological, methodological, and ethical challenges facing health promotion research. It brings together experts from different "research traditions" that coexist in the field. The handbook covers the existing knowledge production and sharing practices to delineate the "discipline" and its agenda for future research. Ultimately, it contributes to creating a global community of health promotion researchers. This volume concerns research practices relevant to the production and sharing of knowledge about health promotion practices. It is organized as follows: Part I presents some paradigms and approaches to knowledge production relevant to health promotion research. Parts II to V describe research designs and methods that specifically address health promotion research. Part VI includes an overview of the challenges facing health promotion research and suggests ways forward. Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research, Vol. 3: Doing Health Promotion Research is a highly relevant reference tool for researchers and graduate students in health promotion, public health, education, and socio-health sciences; practitioners in health, medical, and social sectors; policy-makers; and health research administrators.

While research teams are producing relevant and valid knowledge for health promotion, there is not yet a structured manual and distinct field of health promotion research. This timely "state-of-the-art" handbook contributes to the structuring of such a field of research. This collection of original contributions explores the major epistemological, methodological, and ethical challenges facing health promotion research. It brings together experts from different "research traditions" that coexist in the field. The handbook covers the existing knowledge production and sharing practices to delineate the "discipline" and its agenda for future research. Ultimately, it contributes to the creation of a global community of health promotion researchers. The handbook is organized by four types of practices (what people actually do) studied in health promotion; the practices of: Individuals and populations in relation to their health and its determinants Professionals who intervene to improve population health Policy-makers and institutions involved in the advocacy, design, and implementation of policies and programs Researchers and innovators (academic scholars and global agencies) through which investment in research and production of evidence-based guidelines are made. Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research, Vol. 1: Mapping Health Promotion Research is a highly relevant reference tool for researchers and graduate students in health promotion, public health, education and socio-health sciences; practitioners in health, medical, and social sectors; policy-makers; and health research administrators.

Research Methods in Health Promotion provides students (advanced undergraduate and graduate students) and practitioners with basic knowledge and skills regarding the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of research in the field of health promotion. Taking the perspective that research involves a predetermined series of well-defined steps, the book presents these steps in a sequential format.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

Health Promotion in Canada is a comprehensive profile of the history, current status, and future of health promotion in Canada. This fourth edition maintains the critical approach of the previous three editions but provides a current and in-depth analysis of theory, practice, policy, and research in Canada in relation to recent innovative approaches in health promotion. Thoroughly updated with 15 new chapters and all-new learning objectives, the edited collection contains contributions by prominent Canadian academics, researchers, and practitioners as well as an afterword by Ronald Labonté. The authors cover a broad range of topics including inequities in health, Indigenous communities and immigrants, mental health, violence against women, global ecological change, and globalization. The book also provides critical reflections on practice and concrete Canadian examples that bring theory to life.

More and more, health promotion is a crucial component of public health, to the extent that public health interventions are called on to prove their effectiveness and appraised for scientific validity, a practice many in the field consider self-defeating. Health Promotion Evaluation Practices in the Americas cogently demonstrates that scientific rigor and the goals of health promotion are less in conflict than commonly thought, synthesizing multiple traditions from countries throughout North, Central, and South America (and across the developed-to-developing-world continuum) for a volume that is both diverse in scope and unified in purpose. The book’s examples—representing robust theoretical and practical literatures as well as initiatives from Rio de Janeiro to American Indian communities—explain why health promotion evaluation projects require different guidelines from mainstream evaluative work. The editors identify core humanitarian principles associated with health promotion (participation, empowerment, equity, sustainability, intersectoral action, multistrategy, and contextualism), while chapters highlight challenges that must be mastered to keep these principles and scientific objectives in sync, including: (1) Building health promotion values into evaluation research projects. (2) Expanding the use of evaluation in health promotion. (3) Developing meaningful evaluation questions. (4) Distinguishing between community-based participation research and evaluation-based participation. (5) Evaluating specifically for equity. (6) Designing initiatives to foster lasting social change. The applied knowledge in Health Promotion Evaluation Practices in the Americas: Values and Research can bring the goals of intervention into sharper focus for practitioners, evaluators, and decision-makers and facilitate communication on all sides—necessary steps to progress from study findings to real-world action.

Understanding health behavior is a critical foundation for successful health promotion and health education programs. Yet many texts on health behavior theory tend to be encyclopedic in nature, making learning dry and tedious for students. Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice: Thinking Outside the Box is a different kind of health promotion theory book. It offers a more critical perspective of existing health promotion theories and challenges the student to create new theoretical frameworks for understanding human health and wellbeing. This unique text guides the reader to reflect

"Having so many theories put together thoughtfully, proximally, in a single book will help the field come to grips with what the role is of theories as we go forward and address the individual actions, and societal and community influencers of individual action, that promote healthy behaviors." --Jim Marks, director, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention New and longstanding threats to public health, such as violence, drug misuse, HIV/AIDS, and homelessness are creating an ever greater demand for innovative theories that are responsive to the changes in the larger social environment. This important work is designed to fill the demand by assembling a careful selection of new and emerging health promotion theories into a single volume, written with an emphasis on practical application of theory to health promotion and health education programs.