Promotion de la santé : Enjeux pour l'an 2000

Abstract

The Origins of Health Promotion Although it can be traced back to ancient Greece, health promotion as we know it today is generally seen as originating from professional and governmental involvement in public health, which has produced two schools of thought: health education (the predominant school) and intervention in public policy (Badgley, 1994; Bunton & Macdonald, 1992; Green & Kreuter, 1991; O'Neill & Pederson, 1994). The development of health education occurred primarily in the post-World War II period, strongly influenced by social psychology in the United States and focusing on personal, voluntary, health-related behaviour modification (Godin, 1991; Green & Kreuter, 1991). The approach to intervention in public policy, mainly on the part of government, was proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and various Canadian agencies in the late 1970s (Kickbusch, 1986, 1989, 1994), with a view to creating physical and socio-economic environments conducive to adopting and maintaining a healthful personal lifestyle (Milio, 1986).