According to the World Health Organization, health promotion is defined as the process of creating awareness amongst people so that they can be able to increase control over their health. Health promotion encompasses all those activities that are directed towards developing public health policies and activities that will be used to address the important aspects that are necessary to ensure the positive health of an individual such as proper housing, employment, quality working conditions, steady incomes and access to clean food.
According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, health promotion is described as the science and art of helping people to change their lifestyles so that they can be able to reflect a positive healthy side. The journal describes the techniques used in health promotion to involve informing, influencing and assisting individuals within organizations so that they take part in their own active health and wellbeing (Kuoppala et al, 2008).
Disease prevention on the other hand refers to a field of medicine that focuses on the prevention of diseases within a target community or society where research work and studies are used to develop prevention strategies for particular diseases. Disease prevention involves developing goals and objectives that will be used to ensure that the overall well-being of the society has been addressed through the creation of public health programs.
The main purpose or goal of disease prevention strategies is to provide health strategies that can be used by various communities around the world to stop the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The most common strategy that is used for disease prevention in the case of HIV/AIDS is community education and awareness programs where members of the community are taught on how they can be able to prevent the continuous spread of HIV and AIDS within their society (Kuehlein et al, 2010).
According to Kuoppala et al’s (2008) journal on health promotion, the author’s address the issue of promoting health by examining the personal well-being of an individual within the workplace. The authors also examine the aspect of an individual’s work ability, absenteeism and retirement with relation to health promotion. Their study analyses the association that exists between health promotion and the personal well-being of an individual as well as the various factors that exist in the workplace that affect the health and well-being of a worker. The authors also address the issue of how an organization can increase awareness activities on the health promotion of employees within the workplace.
The results of their study indicate that health promotion activities conducted within organizations decrease the prevalence of diseases amongst the organization’s employees thereby improving their mental well being as well as their work ability (Kuoppala et al, 2008).
Whitehead (2005) also focuses on health prevention within the workplace by discussing the role and responsibility of health care managers when it comes to disease prevention activities. Whitehead conducts his study by analyzing various literature and scholarly articles that discuss health promotion within the workplace as well as the strategies that are use for disease prevention I many organizations around the world.
The author of the article also examines the role of health care managers within the organization where he ascertains from the findings of most scholarly works that workplace health managers initiate and promote public health amongst employees by implementing organization health policy initiatives which will be used for disease prevention activities within the organization (Whitehead, 2006). Both articles contribute significantly to the field of nursing and nursing management as they offer theoretical knowledge on health promotion and disease prevention strategies in the work place context. The articles offer more theoretical backgrounds and reviews on how workplace promotion of health can be a beneficial tool when it comes to the awareness of various diseases that affect the general society amongst employees. The authors of the articles therefore make an important contribution to the available information on health promotion within the field of nursing.
References
Kuehlein, T., Sghedoni, D., Visentin, G., Gervas, J., & Jamoule, M., (2010). Quaternary prevention: a task of the general practitioner. Primary Care, 10(18): 350- 354.
Kuoppala, J., Laminpa, A., & Husman, P., (2008). Work health promotion, job well-being and sickness absences: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine. 50(11):1216-1227.
Whitehead, D., (2005). Workplace health promotion: the role and responsibility of healthcare managers. Journal of Nursing Management, 14(1):59-68.