Before implementing Health Promotion programs, it is essential to plan and design them thoroughly and carefully. In the process of designing Health Promotion programs, the following 5 main questions need to be answered:
1. What and how serious is the problem?
2. What behaviour is responsible for this problem?
3. What are the causal factors of this behaviour?
4. What interventions can be developed?
5. How can these changes be implemented?
To identify the causal factors of unhealthy behaviour we collect information:
· about the predisposing factors such as knowledge, attitudes, values and perceptions
· about the reinforcing factors such as attitudes and behaviour of people in the target group environment (parents, peers, colleagues, employers, health staff, etc.)
· about the enabling factors such as: availability of resources, access to health services or health promotion programs, skills, etc. Based on the data we collect, we decide what changes should be made in human behaviour. These factors are normally the objectives of a health promotion intervention
When the process of designing an intervention or a program is completed, then the second and most important step is to design the protocol of the intervention/program.
The third and final step is the evaluation of the Health Promotion intervention/program, which includes the process and outcome evaluation. Evaluation in the context of Health Promotion is defined as the systematic examination and analysis of all aspects of a program and its results in order to produce information that can be used by all those interested in its effectiveness and its improvement.
In this context, students will study in depth and be able to:
· gain the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge and develop skills that will allow them to design, implement and evaluate a health promotion intervention in the community, in the workplace, in schools etc.