AIDS prevention through health promotion facing sensitive issues. - Geneva : World Health Organization, 1991. - 78p. (Also available in Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian)

Explores the reasons why efforts to educate and inform the public about HIV infection so often fail to alter attitudes or persuade groups at risk to change their behaviour. The book concentrates on the need to understand how personal values, attitudes, and feelings may colour reactions to health messages and thus have a major impact on their credibility and persuasive power. To this end, the book presents eleven case studies illustrating the ways in which emotional factors have influenced the success of educational programmes. Representing a diversity of cultural settings and communication techniques, these case studies are intended to help health promotion planners understand the complexity of emotional reactions to AIDS, anticipate their impact, and design health messages accordingly. Information ranges from an evaluation of the effectiveness of factual as opposed to dramatic mass media campaigns, through advice on how to organize the public appearance of someone infected with AIDS, to a discussion of the subtle reasons why groups at high risk may reject a health message as personally irrelevant. Case studies are presented in four main groups. The first group, headed starting with ourselves, addresses the need for health promoters to recognize and deal with their own instinctive reactions to AIDS. Studies in the second part consider how emotional responses to AIDS in different target audiences can be used to increase the effectiveness of educational messages. Topics include the use of qualitative research in AIDS prevention, major lessons learned from anti-smoking and other health promotion campaigns, the successes and shortcomings of Australia's grim reaper mass media campaign, and the use of theatre to confront sensitive issues. Advice on the use of peers and patients as health promoters is presented in the third part, which describes projects conceived and implemented with the support of prostitutes, patients, and their families and friends. The final part illustrates ways to enlist the support of decision-makers and gatekeepers who can help or hinder health promotion. A study of AIDS education in schools notes the importance of including all potential opponents at the planning stages, while a report on government resistance to AIDS education in Ghana shows how the production of a video helped change official opinion.

This report on the Bangkok meeting on supportive environments for promoting health builds on and expands the recommendations of the Sundsvall Conference and describes the attempt to translate the concept of promoting supportive environments for health into meaningful action in the Asia-Pacific region.

The World Health Organization has published a number of scientific background papers on how certain behaviours influence health. They review the evidence that such behaviours can be changed and certain skills can be learnt by health workers that will positively influence health and health care. The papers are intended to lead to the production of teaching "modules", which should set out methods for: 1. demonstrating the skills to students; 2. practising the skills by students; 3. providing feedback to students about their performance; and 4. certifying that the skill has been learnt to a certain standard.

1. Preparing patients for invasive medical and surgical procedures: behavioural and cognitive aspects. WHO, Geneva, 93.
2. Communicating bad news. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
3. Introducing parents to their abnormal baby. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
4. Promoting nonpharmacologic interventions to treat elevated blood pressure. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
5. Psychological interventions for patients with chronic back pain. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
6. Self-management of recurrent headache. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
7. Improving adherence behaviour with treatment regimens. WHO, Geneva, 93.
   
8. Insomnia: behavioural and cognitive interventions. WHO, Geneva, 93.

This document reviews the eight Multi-City Action Plans (MCAPs) active at the beginning of 1994 and presents proposals for three new ones. It can usefully assist cities to participate in MCAPs in the next two years by giving concise information about what is available and what is expected of participating cities. Additional information on how MCAPs are set up and on their terms of reference is contained in the document "Guidelines for MCAPs" which is available from the WHO Healthy Cities Project Office.

This is a follow-up report on a symposium which took place in Hamburg (3-7 December 1989) with the purpose of defining the role of "bridge-building bodies" for health promotion. Policy-makers are encouraged to cooperate with these new structures for management of policy since they could gain experience in activating, mediating and involving people in practical, political or research settings. Very interesting for policy-makers and people involved in networking for health promotion.

This document presents a few highlights gleaned from five days of vigorous and stimulating discussion on four main themes: health promotion in developing countries, health supportive public policies, enabling and empowering people for health action, and strengthening national capability for health promotion. A list of identified priority actions to be taken by nations to foster health promotion may be helpful for policy-makers.

This document provides a checklist by which a school can rate itself according to 9 "steps" which indicate the extent to which it can be considered "mental health promoting." Each step is broken down into a number of operational criteria which help the school to understand whether it is fulfilling that step.

This document was prepared for the World Health Assembly Technical Discussions on community action for health. It provides information on a number of issues relevant to the overall theme of community action for health. It also includes a number of selected case studies of projects underway in all the WHO regions.

A wide-ranging collection of stories, from developed and developing countries alike, illustrating the many ways in which environments can be altered to promote better health. Intended to serve as both a sourcebook of ideas and a stimulus for action, the book concentrates on stories that yield practical lessons about the best strategies for tackling specific problems in specific settings. Throughout, stories are also critically assessed in terms of a conceptual framework that helps identify factors contributing to success. The handbook has 13 chapters presented in three parts. Chapters in the first part, focused on strategies, outline the basic components of supportive environments, explain the health promotion strategy analysis model (HELPSAM), and describe experiences using seven basic approaches to change: policy development, regulation, reorientation of organizations, advocacy, building alliances and creating awareness, enabling, and mobilizing and empowering. Also identified are the obstacles commonly encountered when efforts are made to change the physical, social, economic, or political environment.

Against this background the second and most extensive part presents and discusses over 140 stories showing how different needs for a supportive environment have been met using a diversity of strategies. These range from the use of legislation to foster school health programmes in China to government policies that encourage healthy eating in Norway, from the role of NGOs in upgrading housing in Malaysia to consumer mobilization to combat hazardous chemicals in the Philippines. To facilitate comparisons, stories are grouped together in separate chapters dealing with education, food and nutrition, home and neighbourhood, work, transport, and social support and care. In story after story, community participation consistently emerges as a strategy that helps give projects the best chance of success.

The final part, on steps for action, explains how these diverse experiences can be used to extract several practical lessons and develop basic frameworks for planning and action. Apart from demonstrating the need for planned strategies that draw on a range of approaches, these chapters further clarify the HELPSAM model for analysis and planning, and introduce the supportive environments action model (SESAME) based on a sequence of eight progressive steps, moving from the identification of needs and problems, through the setting of targets and mobilization of resources, to implementation and monitoring. The handbook concludes with a questionnaire that can be used to compile information about local projects, evaluate their success, and extract lessons for the future.

These documents outline a framework for life skills program development, both conceptually and practically, and are targeted at those agencies involved in school curriculum development, health education, and the development of school-based health and social interventions. Although directed at children and adolescents in schools, these documents can be adapted and interpreted to guide the development of life skills education for children that are not in schools, as well as for adult education and as part of community development projects.

This document in brief explains, reviews and analyses the concept of health promotion (HP) and its scientific base, illustrated by examples of how HP works (settings, population groups, health issues). It analyses the future challenges facing HP today and tomorrow, and outlines ways to approach these best. The structure of this up-to-date document on HP (designed as a lecture) could provide inspiration for the reader's own presentations on HP today and in the future.

Unavailable for annotation

This resource book reflects and documents the emergence of a new paradigm to confront recent challenges in the health field. It describes how health promotion redirects thinking about health by reasserting the social and political aspects, by ensuring that people have the power to define their own health concerns, and by placing health more clearly in the context of other aims in life. The articles in the book reflect different elements in the process of translating the message of scientific knowledge into new concepts for action. They document health action at different levels and in several countries.

A wide-ranging analysis of the ways in which health promotion approaches can be used to help the chronically ill and disabled exploit their potential to lead healthy and productive lives. Citing a number of promising developments in recent years, the book calls for a fundamental change in society's attitudes towards the chronically ill, whereby emphasis is placed on their potential and due attention is given to their need for support that goes beyond medical care. With this goal in mind, the book evaluates a wealth of recent experiences and research findings in order to identify practical measures that can be pursued by the health care sector, by public and private organizations, and by the chronically ill and their families. Three main chronic conditions are considered: coronary heart disease, cancer, and chronic pain. The book features 54 papers authored by experts in cardiology, oncology, pain management, rheumatology, psychology, physiology, rehabilitation medicine and epidemiology, and by representatives of numerous self-help groups throughout Europe. Papers are presented in twelve main parts. Papers in the first part set out a conceptual framework for helping the chronically ill cope with the stress of illness and enhance their health potential. The second part explores the importance of self-reliance, self-help, and self-determination in patients recovering from a heart attack. The needs of cancer patients are covered in the third part, which considers the role that alternative therapies and behavioural approaches can play in extending survival time and enhancing the quality of life. The fourth part, on chronic pain, points to the need for a combined involvement of social, psychological, and medical knowledge in the management of chronic pain. Other chapters relate experiences in changing public health policies, in creating supportive environments, in strengthening community action, and in developing the personal coping skills of the chronically ill and disabled. Information ranges from advice on how self-help groups can gain media support, through a discussion of the reasons why the chronically ill seek alternative therapies, through descriptions of experiences with a variety of new therapies for helping heart patients, cancer patients, families with a handicapped child, and persons suffering from chronic pain, migraine, and rheumatism. The remaining chapters, concerned with the need to reorient health services, consider the specific changes that need to be made in training, health research, and health care. Over 500 references to the literature are included.

Explains how the tools of health promotion can be used to encourage community action for health, foster healthy lifestyles, and create conditions conducive to good health, even when resources are severely limited. Addressed to policy-makers and planners, the book serves as both a call for intensified action and a rich source book of practical methods for tackling a range of problems. The book has four chapters. The first reviews the evolution of health promotion as a strategy, in line with the principles of primary health care, for reaching disadvantaged and under-served populations and for giving people greater control over conditions affecting their health. Pertinent facts and figures are used to indicate the magnitude of preventable deaths and disease and the corresponding need to intensify health promotion. Chapter two explains the aims of health promotion and outlines three strategies for action. These involve advocacy for public policies that support health, empowerment of people to make decisions for health, and social support for health. The third chapter, which constitutes the core of the book, presents and discusses over 50 case studies of health promotion activities in different parts of the world. Organized to reflect the three strategies introduced in chapter two, these case studies illustrate successful approaches ranging from the training of "little doctors" to the use of land-sharing schemes to upgrade urban slums, from earn-while-you-learn programmes for improved literacy to the use of comic magazines to promote hygiene in schools. For each group of case studies, the authors provide a useful discussion of factors that helped determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of the various approaches. The final chapter outlines challenges for future action.

The updated 1997 version will be available July 1997 at the World Health Organization's Projects, Activities and Initiatives in Health Promotion Web site.

This World Health Assembly resolution stresses the need to include a health component in socioeconomic development programmes and cooperation activities and requests the Director-General intensify efforts to promote health with due priority for the least developed countries.

This briefing book on Health Promotion in Developing Countries underscores the importance of the Health for All goal and brings into sharp focus the contribution that health promotion strategies can make towards the achievement of this goal in the spirt of social justice and equity. It builds upon a three-fold action strategy: advocacy for health-supportive public policies, empowerment of people, and social support for health. It provides a good description of experiences from many developing countries in creating and maintaining support systems.

This report summarizes WHO's programme orientation and activities in the area of health promotion, public information and health education. The main goals are the promotion of healthy life-styles and the creation of conditions conducive to healthy living. Emphasis is placed on strengthening national capabilities in designing and implementing health communication and action strategies with active involvement of all forces and sectors of society. This document highlights future directions for action.

A collection of twenty-one state-of-the-art reviews illustrating the ways in which research in the social sciences can improve understanding of the social determinants of health and disease and shape policies that promote health. Examples of specific interventions and their results are also provided. The book has five main parts. The first part focuses on strategies for improving public health policy. Articles, which underscore the need for a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to policy decisions, describe various methodological and conceptual approaches that can be used to assess problems, identify risk factors, guide policy choices, and test programmes of health promotion. Of central concern is the need to expand health policy from its traditional concern with illness and curative medicine to include multisectoral policies that create healthy environments and encourage individuals to make healthy choices. Articles in the second part, focused on social and behavioural factors, discuss the links between economic status and disease and consider the extent to which stress, coping styles, social supports, and lifestyle factors will influence individual differences in susceptibility to disease. Papers in the third part explore the ways in which families, workplaces, and hospitals can serve as settings for communicating health messages and promoting healthy practices. Population-oriented health promotion is assessed in the fourth part, which considers how policies should be changed to meet the special needs of women, the unemployed, the elderly, and the chronically ill. Details range from the question of whether paid work is good for women's health to a conceptual model linking aggregate economic change to pathological outcomes. The book concludes with a discussion of the role of community-based action in health promotion, including information on the outcome of various European programmes for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and on the contribution of voluntary organizations and self-help groups.

Presents and discusses a declaration formally adopted at a meeting convened to consider how health-related Islamic teachings might be used to persuade individuals and communities, in Islamic countries, to follow healthy lifestyles. The meeting, which brought together leading physicians, scientists, experts in jurisprudence, and religious scholars, aimed to issue clear health guidance based on an authoritative interpretation of wholesome lifestyles as embodied in Islamic law. The meeting, held in Amman, Jordan, was jointly sponsored by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences, and the Royal Academy for Research in Islamic Civilization-Aal Al-Bayt Foundation. The resulting Amman Declaration is reproduced in full detail. The Declaration identifies some 60 components of lifestyle where Islamic teachings offer guidance on healthy and harmful behaviours. These concern the areas of nutrition, food safety, personal and community hygiene, waste disposal, sexual relationships, breast-feeding and child care, mental health, alcohol consumption, substance abuse, and violence.

This report focuses on the changing role of hospitals within health care systems and the present pressures on hospitals as a result of changing health service policies in most European countries. It also deals with the possible role of network organizations in health services and the role of WHO's European Hospital Programme in facilitating the changes deemed necessary. A fruitful discussion of the concept of the "Health Promotion Hospital."

Unavailable for annotation.

This report brings into sharp focus the effects of development projects and programmes on the environment. The relationship between development policies and health status and quality of life are analysed by studying three important areas - urbanization; industrialization; agricultural development - in depth, with emphasis on occupational health and child labour, housing and slums, irrigation and pesticides. Additional case studies, together with country experiences, enrich the analyses. This report makes interesting recommendations on the actions which could be taken by the relevant policy-makers to reduce or eliminate health risk factors without abandoning their priority objectives for development in their sector.

This document serves as a practical manual for facilitators in the field of early childhood psychosocial development.

This brief report is a rapid overview of the life-styles in the ex-USSR and in Central and Eastern Europe. It reviews the design of healthy life-style programmes for different populations; discusses the prevention of substance abuse, including alcohol problems, drug dependence and tobacco consumption; and examines the role that education and training play in the development of good practitioners of health promotion. A series of recommendations are made to promote healthy life-styles in the ex-USSR and in Central and Eastern Europe.

See annotation below.

The above two documents outline a framework for life skills program development, both conceptually and practically, and are targeted at those agencies involved in school curriculum development, health education, and the development of school-based health and social interventions. Although directed at children and adolescents in schools, these documents can be adapted and interpreted to guide the development of life skills education for children that are not in schools, as well as for adult education and as part of community development projects.

Unavailable for annotation

This manual provides a much needed guide to improving the mental health and well being of refugees and other displaced persons. Prepared by WHO in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the manual responds to growing awareness that the trauma, terror, loss and bereavement experienced by refugees can pose serious threats to their mental health and well being.

This document was presented to Western Pacific Office Member States as a framework for WHO's future direction in the region. It proposes a modus operandi, and reports the conclusions of multidisciplinary teams on preparation for life, protection of life and quality of life.

The above two documents provide an overview of early childhood psychosocial development, and a set of principles that can guide programme development.

This booklet serves as the popular summary of the WHO Expert Committee Report on Comprehensive School Health Education and Promotion, which was held in September 1995. It provides a summary about how health promotion through schools can increase the return on investments in education, and includes the ten recommendations made by the Expert Committee to help individuals at all levels foster the development of health-promoting schools.

The full report of the WHO Expert Committee on Comprehensive School Health Education and Promotion will serve as the foundation for WHO's Global School Health Initiatives.

This document is the first of a series and aims to create a forum to debate issues related to women's mental health and to their contribution to mental health care. This debate will contribute to the recognition of their strength and steadfastness in coping with the myriad problems that assail them, and pointing out future directions for research and action to address women's needs.

This publication reports on data on project planning and implementation, target groups and expected behavioural changes, materials and channels of communication, evaluation of reach and impact, facilitating and constraining factors and sources of funding gathered from 38 developed and developing countries. The study concluded that project planning was often unstructured, while themes, target groups and expected outcomes were very broad, thus lessening the likelihood of impact. Although organizations in many countries are currently undertaking public education in rational drug use this work needs to be much better documented, evaluated and supported. Technical, financial and collaborative support at national, regional and international levels is necessary to strengthen programme planning, implementation and evaluation, and to contribute to sustainability. A more creative approach is needed to providing resources for such support. Governments, professional groups, international organizations, NGOs, especially consumer organizations, universities, industry and the media all have a synergistic role to play.

This report examines the issue of unhealthy environments in both rural and urban settings. It analyses the various constraints weighing on urban and rural environments, and proposes strategies to make these environments more favourable to the development of health. A very useful document for ministries of environment, town planners and for all those who are concerned with the development of a healthier environment.

This report examines physical environment, education and social support and advocacy for health supportive policies in the context of urban, rural and school settings. Brief presentations on environmental programmes in the different countries are provided, as well as frameworks for action for promoting supportive environments for health in each setting.

This report is a brief overview of health education and health promotion issues in countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region, including: health education in primary health care, action-oriented, integrated school health education for primary schools, communication in health promotion, the role of mass media in health education and promotion, and the role of community participation in health promotion.

This document reviews the research necessary to plan and implement effective and cost-effective programmes to improve the health of children through schools. It explores what research can tell us about: (1) the health status of children, (2) what young people are doing that will affect their health in the future, (3) what schools should do to influence health, and (4) what guidance research can provide about how to intervene effectively and cost-effectively through schools to improve health and education.

The author analyses selected health policies from developed countries from a Health Promotion perspective. The article provides an insight into the history of Healthy Public Policy development. The author emphasises the need of "second generation" health objectives and outlines principles for their development.

This practical guide explains in detail how to set up a health promotion foundation: its goals, structures, organizational functions, funding guidelines and auditing. The foundation in this example is based on revenue from a dedicated levy on tobacco products. The guide provides valuable information on setting up the foundation, and on successes and difficulties involved in running it.

A comprehensive review of the present status of school health. Among the health conditions that have been linked with failure to attend school or poor performance are: nutritional deficiencies, helminthic infections, physical and mental disabilities, reproductive problems and other health problems. Consideration for taking actions and the components of a school health programme are also discussed.

This paper describes specific barriers to improving school health programmes at local, national and international levels and common barriers at all levels. It also provides examples of specific local, national and international strategies to improve school health programmes and general strategies that could be implemented at all levels.

This paper describes the development of the WHO health promotion programme in Europe and some of the key challenges that confront WHO in developing this programme further.

The document serves as the prototype for documents being developed as part of WHO's new Information Series on School Health. It provides arguments addressing why helminth infection prevention is important and effective among school-age children. Guidance is provided on planning and implementing helminth reduction interventions as part of the components of a school health programme.

This booklet highlights major policy and research issues involved in creating health-promoting environments. The first paper focuses on general subjects in environmental policy and research, concentrating on the physical environment and particularly on the major environment of everyday life. The second paper discusses issues in research on human health and focuses on research on social support and health. These papers stimulate discussion and action on subjects that are important not only for human health but also for human survival on a deteriorating planet. The Sundsvall Declaration on supportive environments for health is included in the booklet.

WHO has produced a number of documents describing the World Health Organization's project to develop a quality of life instrument (the WHOQOL). The WHOQOL assesses individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It has been developed collaboratively in several culturally diverse centres over four years.

WHOQOL Focus Group Moderator Training - WHO, Geneva, 92.
WHOQOL Focus Group Work. WHO, Geneva, 93.
WHOQOL Study Protocol - WHO, Geneva, 93.
Protocol for New Centres - (WHOQOL). - WHO, Geneva, 94.
WHOQOL-100 February 1995
Introduction and Background. WHO, Geneva, 95
Facet definitions and questions. WHO, Geneva, 95.
Preparation and Administration of Questionnaire, WHO, Geneva, 95.
The 100 Questions with response scales. WHO, Geneva, 95.
Important questions. WHO, Geneva, 95.
Scoring the WHOQOL. WHO, Geneva, 95.
The origins of the 100 questions. WHO, Geneva, 95.
Resources for new WHOQOL centres. WHO, Geneva, 95.
Summary of analyses of WHOQOL pilot data. WHO, Geneva, 95.
WHOQOL-BREF. WHO, Geneva, 97.