Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Telling Definition

The terms health education and health promotion have several definitions,no agreed upon definition and are sometimes used interchangeably.  
Though I use this blog and other venues to educate people on health related issues - I still consider myself someone who primarily promotes health and wellness.

In a reading for one of my classes, I came across this definition of health education and thought, "Well - that is it then isn't it?"  And I wanted to share:

Attributed to Griffiths(1972) from the text listed below:

" health education attempts to close the gap between what is known about optimum health practice and that which is actually practiced."

In other words - the difference between what we know will keep us healthy and what we actually do.

From : Glanz, K., Rimer, B.K., & Viswanath, K. (eds). (2008). Health behavior and health education: 
Theory,  research and practice (4th Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  [page 10]


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