Health Education in the Era of Health Promotion

건강증진시대의 보건교육

Definition of health education can be various depending on historical background and individual point of view. In the industrialized era when health promotion is given a high priority in health activities, health education could be defined as a combination of planned learning experiences and social actions, which expand health knowledge and experiences of individuals and communities in order to meet their health needs, change harmful health behaviors to be desirable for health promotion and motivate them to do that. To realize the proposed definition of health education, health education should develop new policies in harmony with health promotion, facilitate the development of human resources, reflect the modern educational technology, strengthen multisectoral approach, and pay more attention to monitoring and evaluation. To fulfill the above mentioned role, health education approach should shift foci from diseases to health orientation, from individualistic health behavior modification to a systematic change of the general public, from medical domination to recognition of lay competence and from authoritarian health education to supportive health education.