Introduction
Health education imparts health information so the recipient can use it to protect their family's and community's health. It is an active form of learning that favors changing attitudes and influencing behavior regarding health practices.
Health education is vital to disease prevention and health promotion and a channel for reaching out to people and alerting them to physician's services and other community resources. Health education is creative, digitalized, and preventive. In addition, it now acknowledges mental health as a vital factor in well-being.
What Is Health Education?
The National conference on preventive medicine United States defines health education as a process that motivates, helps, and informs people to maintain and adopt healthy practices and lifestyles. In addition, it advocates environmental changes required to facilitate this goal and conducts professional research and training to the same end.
What Are the Objectives?
The main objective of any health education is to make fundamental changes and improvements in the quality of life. Therefore, the purposes of health education are:
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Informing People (Cognitive): People are informed about various diseases, their etiology, and prevention. Information improves knowledge and awareness, helps prevent illnesses, and promotes health.
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Motivating People (Affective): Motivation is a combination of factors that initiate, direct and sustain behavior. It is concerned with forming, clarifying, or changing attitudes, values, opinions, or beliefs. Providing information does not improve health. After information dissemination, it is necessary to motivate people to alter their lifestyle so that it will be favorable in promoting health and preventing disease.
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Guiding Into Action (Behavioral): This objective involves developing skills and efforts. An individual may get motivated after receiving information, but he might need professional help and guidance to implement and sustain these changes.
How to Approach the Community Regarding Health Education?
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Regulatory Or Legal Approach: In this approach, the government makes laws and regulations to protect or safeguard public health, for example, the pollution act, epidemic act, food adulteration act, and environmental act, among others.
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Administrative Or Service Approach: This approach makes health facilities available to all with the hope that people will use them.
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Educational Approach: The approach can be most effective in achieving desired changes in health practices and lifestyles of the community. The main components are motivation, communication, and decision-making. It involves "learning" new facts and unlearning wrong information. The result of this approach can be slow, but they are permanent.
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Primary Healthcare Approach: The primary healthcare approach involves active participation from the planning stage until the delivery of health services. The public is provided with the necessary guidance to help identify and solve health problems.
What Are the Principles of Health Education?
Principles Of Health Education:
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Credibility.
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Interest.
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Participation.
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Motivation.
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Comprehension.
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Reinforcement.
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Learning by doing.
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Known to the unknown.
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Setting an example.
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Good human relations.
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Feedback.
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Community leaders.
What Are the Contents of Health Education?
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Human Biology: Schools should teach children about various anatomical parts and their functions. Awareness regarding good health, hygiene, and the need for exercise should be provided. Imparting first aid training to the children. The adverse consequences of smoking and alcohol should be discussed.
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Nutrition: Adequate emphasis on the effect of food on health and a balanced diet with guidance on choosing optimum nutrients should be given.
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Hygiene: Personal and environmental hygiene promoted.
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Family Healthcare: The importance of seeking the family's overall health.
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Control Of Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases: The effects and impact of diseases, how they spread, and their prevention.
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Accident Prevention: Use of safety measures like helmets, following traffic rules, drinking and driving, etc., should be provided.
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Using Health Services: Regular medical check-ups, annual visits, screening, and camps held for the public.
Methods Of Health Education:
Individual Approach: This can be in a clinic or healthcare center when the patient visits due to illness. Patient education regarding the nature of the disease, its prevention, diet, and hygiene and provided along with the medical service.
Group Approach: This is an effective method of community education.
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A presentation can be prepared using data, facts, and ideas and presented to a group.
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A discourse on selected topics where the speaker presents brief aspects of the topic with opportunities extended to the audience to raise questions and clear doubts.
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Group discussions where people can interact face-to-face, identifying and finding solutions to the problem.
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Health education workshops.
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Conferences or seminars.
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Role-playing or dramatic representation of a selected topic to make it more effective.
Mass Approach: Educational drives for large communities or the general public using mass media like television, radio, newspapers, posters, health magazines, internet.
Why Health Education Research?
The main agenda of health education research is to reduce disease burden and promote health. All human beings deserve to live a healthy and long life. Health educational research helps one get a complete picture of the disabilities, diseases caused, and death irrespective of age, time, and sex. A global burden, diseases are a tool that can help quantify the cause of illness, loss of health, injuries, and risk factors to improve health systems and eliminate despair.
The health delivery system should align with the general population and understand the nature of their challenges. In addition, the health system should focus adequately on the risk factors and the causes rather than the risk and prevalence.
How to Do Health Education Research?
Health education research involves research methods to study the effect of health education interventions, such as:
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Introducing health policies and plans covering various diagnostic tests for early disease detection, prevention, and health promotion. The procedures and insurance cover the required medical treatments and their bills.
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Awareness of diseases, the risk factors, the cause of a disease,
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Mortality and morbidity rates.
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Educating people about hygiene for prevention.
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Female hygiene and health education.
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Vaccinations.
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Health or medical camps.
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Routine health check-ups and physical fitness tests.
The steps followed in conducting health education research are:
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Develop a Research Question or Hypothesis: Identify the research topic for the study and develop a clear hypothesis or questions for the research.
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Conduct a Literature Review: Research existing literature on the topic that helps to understand the need and gap in current knowledge.
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Design the Study: Determine the appropriate research design, such as a survey or randomized controlled trial, and develop a detailed data collection and analysis plan.
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Obtain Ethical Approval: Before conducting the study, get ethical approval from the review board to ensure that the study complies with ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects.
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Collect and Analyze Data: Collect data from participants according to the study design and analyze the data using appropriate statistical techniques.
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Write and Disseminate the Results: Write a detailed report of the findings and disseminate through publication in a peer-reviewed journal or presentation at a conference.
Pre and Post-COVID 19 Effect on Health Education Research?
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic change in the population. Due to COVID-19, there was a complete lockdown in most countries, raising health awareness and understanding regarding the importance of a sound immune system, eating nutritious food, disease prevention, and self-care.
Health education was available but only implemented after the pandemic. But post-COVID-19, the general public has become more health aware and conscious and is trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. For example: washing hands frequently, using face-mask, having a balanced diet, etc., to prevent infection.
Conclusion:
Health education research is a system that helps in developing a healthy community. It is a tool that helps prevent disease and promote health. The data from various means are collected to know diseases' prevalence and risk factors. Social media and mass communication help in faster and more effective dissemination. Health education brings about disease awareness and the need for treatment and good health.
