Abstract
Health promotion has a key role to play in preventing disease and promoting healthy lifestyles. Health promotion work is part science and part art. The science emerges from research and theory and the art emerges from our professional intuition and experience. The goal is to apply the science to achieve the best health promotion outcomes. However, an application of the theory, models and even the evidence, does not guarantee a desired outcome. To achieve this is an art and something that is often missing in practice. An understanding of how best to apply the ‘art and science’ of health promotion requires an appreciation that it is not only about being scientifically right but also about being real. The challenge for health promoters is to understand how they can use their judgement to best apply the available science to deliver successful approaches.
Highlights
The role of health promotion has remained largely consistent since its inception in the Ottawa Charter in 1986 as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health’ [1]
The science emerges from research, evidence and new knowledge, and the art emerges from our professional judgment, intuition and previous experiences [2]
The ‘science’ of health promotion comes from theories and models, from research and new knowledge that have been developed into a broad range of approaches, tools and strategies designed to deliver interventions, projects and programmes
Summary
The role of health promotion has remained largely consistent since its inception in the Ottawa Charter in 1986 as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health’ [1]. Health promotion work is part science and part art. The ‘science’ of health promotion comes from theories and models, from research and new knowledge that have been developed into a broad range of approaches, tools and strategies designed to deliver interventions, projects and programmes. Most theories and models are not used in practice, but a few can provide a structured approach to plan and implement health promotion programmes. An understanding of how best to apply the ‘art and science’ of health promotion requires an appreciation that any successful approach is about being scientifically right and about being real. The ‘art and science’ is an understanding of how best to apply the theory and evidence in a particular context to achieve a particular outcome.
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