EFFECT OF HEALTH PROMOTION IN TACKLING THE HEALTH OF BRITAIN AND THE RELATED ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS.
Health promotion is a socially embodied "value field"; its mission is to promote a Sanitary culture, one that locates health at the top of a hierarchy of cultural values and social goals. It is concerned with the whole person, the relationships between individuals and their environments and the wider forces that shape health. However, this essay is going to focus health promotion on coronary heart disease .In this context, the role of health promotion is in the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease.
Heart disease comes in many different forms. The ...view middle of the document...
As well as angina (chest pain), the main symptoms of CHD are heart attacks and heart failure.
Health promotion, however, is an inherently value-laden enterprise and one that can lead to major ethical dilemmas.
There are five approaches to health promotion. Within this essay, the various approaches to health promotion will be analysed and explained in the form of medical, societal change, and behaviour change approach. As a result of the various approaches to health promotion, many health professionals are involved which include teachers, doctors, dieticians, pharmacists, clinicians, practice nurses and doctors, and government. Their role in health promotion will be discussed in the main body of the essay.
The medical approach involves medical intervention like immunization and screening to prevent or ameliorate ill-health, possibly using a persuasive or paternalistic method. The aim of this approach is freedom from medically defined disease and disability, such as infectious diseases, cancer and heart disease, and to reduce morbidity and premature mortality. It is based on scientific method.
The evidence of the effects of medical treatment in coronary heart disease is consistent and strong. Medical treatments for lowering high blood pressure and blood cholesterol are considered in this section because they show estimates of the scale of effect that might be achieved by maximum coverage and compliance with non-pharmacological interventions like exercise. Comparisons of the effect of medical and non-pharmacological treatment are also required to evaluate whether there are detrimental effects specific to medical, or indeed non- pharmacological treatments. Furthermore, some multiple risk factors interventions use medical and non- pharmacological interventions so it is useful to know the level of their effects. For example, drugs like ion-exchange resins, fibrates, niacin and statins are used in lowering cholesterol levels (coronary prevention group, 1991).
However, this approach can only be applied in the areas of high blood pressure and cholesterol lowering where both medical and non-pharmacological interventions may be used.
This approach values preventive medical procedures; therefore, there are medical professionals who ensure that the patients comply with recommended procedures. These health professionals include; doctors, surgeries, medical assistants, pharmacists, chemists, health visitors, government, and nurses.
It is the medical professional’s responsibility to ensure that patients comply with recommended procedures.
Another prominent and important approach to health promotion is the behavioural change approach.
This approach aims to change people’s individual attitude and behaviour, so that they adopt a healthy lifestyle. Promoting healthier lifestyles is an essential part of the wider action needed to address the personal, social and economic factors that affect people’s health. Targeted health promotion programmes like...
