i. Review Articles

An analysis of the concept of empowerment / C. M. Rodwell. Journal of Advanced Nursing 1996;23(2):305-13.

This paper is an analysis of empowerment and its use in nursing practice, education, research and health promotion.

Discusses the evidence derived from intervention studies in the post-neonatal, reschool, and school age periods which suggest that child development can be modified in ways which improve health and competence in the long-term.

Argues that community specifics have not been adequately taken into account in planning health promotion initiatives.

This paper traces changes in the way that the role of culture has been analysed in relation to community health issues and in particular with respect to 'community participation'.

Reviews literature published between 1983 and 1991 that focused on identifying the determinants of a health-promoting lifestyle.

Argues that a number of methodologic and conceptual issues have impeded understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic status and health.

This article describes services provided by community health nurses and documents the effectiveness of these interventions based on available literature.

Reviews the concept of Healthy Cities, its evolution and current practice, considers some of the problems in applying the concept, and speculates on its potential future development.

A review of health promotion research in nursing, focussing on the conceptualization and measurement of health promotion behaviours.

Discusses the cumulative findings of numerous studies of motivation to change behaviour.

Explores the challenges of gerontological health education to traditional models of health promotion.

This review describes the status of Healthy Cities globally and presents case studies.

A discussion of the implications of recent shifts in health promotion research for methodology.

This paper explores the meanings of the ideas of the new health promotion movement and explores implications for practice.

This essay considers the contribution of nursing to health promotion and the usage of concepts of health promotion in nursing literature.

Describes how the Central Sydney Area Health Service has established a Needs Assessment & Health Outcomes Unit to help improve health outcomes. Issues in working with population health outcomes at the local level are discussed.

Reviews the health and social science research on the role of powerlessness as a risk factor for disease, and the role of empowerment as a health-enhancing strategy.

Reviews the progress of Member States towards the Regional Health For All goal.

A discussion of the relationship between theory and practice and its effect on the current research agenda in health promotion.

An analysis of research published by the Australian Journal of Public Health and its utility for practitioners in building effective programs

Advances in public health communication / E. Maibach & D.R. Holtgrave. Annual Review of Public Health 1995;16:219-238.

Outlines the use of communication techniques and technologies to influence individuals, populations and organizations for the purpose of promoting conditions conducive to human and environmental health. Social marketing, risk communication, behavioural decision theory, entertainment education, media advocacy and interactive decision support systems are discussed.

This article argues that there has been a tendency to empower the "conventional" positivist paradigm in health promotion research, often at the expense of confounding or ignoring much of health promotion practice. This article argues further that a "constructivist" research paradigm not only has the potential to resolve some of the tensions between research and practice in health promotion but also is inclusive of knowledge generated by the conventional paradigm. The usefulness of a constructivist paradigm is demonstrated through the use of four practice-based case examples drawn from actual community-based health promotion efforts. The congruence of a constructivist paradigm with the health promotion principles of empowerment and community participation are discussed. Finally, this article argues for the acceptance of the legitimacy of knowledge generated from the constructivist paradigm and concludes that this paradigm is more suited to the goals of current health promotion.

Logistic regression analyses are performed on the 1990 Canadian Health Promotion Survey to test whether: a) socio-economic status is associated with risky life-style behaviours; and b) the effect of socio-economic status is greater for younger and middle-aged groups than for older age groups. The results indicate that socio-economic status affects health behaviours in relatively important ways, but this depends on the measure (education, income, work status), the specific behaviour, and the age group.

This issue covers 23 articles advocating for increased investments in school health promotion and for diffusing the concept of Health-Promoting Schools on a global scale.

This article analyzes intentions and reported improvement in exercise behaviour using a set of explanatory variables for the purpose of comparing several theoretical approaches: the social psychological approach; the materialist framework; and the life-style/life-cycle perspectives.

The author asserts that much of what is claimed in the name of population health supports the concerns of health promotion. However he also argues that there are some assumptions that may be at odds with those in health promotion and that these assumptions should be debated. These concerns include population health's emphasis on epidemiological methods, its economic conservativism and its silence on ecological questions of overall economic scale. Labonté's discussion outlines how population health differs from health promotion in its underlying philosophy of approach.

This paper provides an exploratory analysis of the relationship between participation in self-help groups and other informal and formal strategies by which individuals cope with stressful life events during later life.

The dominant theoretical models used in health education today are based in social psychology. While these theories have increasingly acknowledged the role of larger social and cultural influences in health behaviour, they have many limitations. Theories seek to explain the causes of health problems, whereas principles of practice, which are derived from practical experience, assist intervenors to achieve their objectives. By elucidating the relationships between theory and practice principles, it may be possible to develop more coherent and effective interventions. The key research agenda for health education is to link theories at different levels of analysis and to create theory-driven models that can be used to plan more effective interventions in the complex environments in which health educators work.

This paper describes the World Health Organization's project to develop a quality of life instrument (the WHOQOL). It outlines the reasons that the project was undertaken, the thinking that underlies the project, the method that has been followed in its development and the current status of the project. The WHOQOL assesses individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which the live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It has been developed collaboratively in several culturally diverse centres over four years. Piloting of the WHOQOL on some 4500 respondents in 15 culturally diverse settings has been completed. On the basis of this data the revised WHOQOL Field Trial Form has been finalized, and field testing is currently in progress. The WHOQOL produces a multi-dimensional profile of scores across six domains and 24 sub-domains of quality of life.