HEALTH EDUCATION

DEFINITION OF HEALTH EDUCATION

1. Health Education is a process of passing information to individuals or group

of persons with a view to influencing a positive behavior in health-related
matters.

2. Health Education is a strategy for reaching the individual groups facilities

communities with health messages that will positively effect a change in
their perception of issues related to health life style.

3. Health Education is a carefully planned method to influence and change the

attitude and behavior of individuals and communities by increasing their
knowledge and understanding of health & diseases.

4. Health Education is a process of persuading people to accept measures

which will improve health and to reject those that will have adverse effect on
their health.

5. Health Education is any combination of learning experience designed to

facilitate voluntary adaptation of behavior conductive to health.

6. Health Education is a process or assisting individuals acting separately and

collectively to make informed decisions on matters affecting individuals,
family and community health.

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 7. Health Education is the art and science of giving simple, accurate and
scientific information in a way that it would be understood, accepted, believe
and put into practice, (WHO 1990).

SCOPE OF HEALTH EDUCATION

The scope of health education extends beyond the conventional health sector.
It covers every aspect of family and community health. While no definite training
curricula can be proposed, the scope of health education may be divided into the
following:
 Human biology
 Nutrition
 Hygiene
 Family
 Disease Prevention and Control
 Mental health
 Prevention of accidents
 Use of health services.

1. HUMAN BIOLOGY:

Understanding health demands and understudy of the human biology, ie the

structure and function of the body; how to keep physically fit -the need for exercise
the need for exercise, rest and sleep, the effects of alcohol, smoking and drugs on
the body, cultivation of healthy life- styles, etc.

Reproductive biology is another area of current interest.

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UNICEF's "state of the world 's children report 1989 has drawn up a basic list of
healthy information which it believes every family has a right to know. The list
comprises of child spacing, Breast feeding, Safe-motherhood, immunization,
weaning and child growth, diarrhea diseases, house hygiene which enables
family/facilities to "bring about significant improvement on their own as their
children's health.

The best place to teach human biology is in school. It is only the school, through
its sequential health communication, which can provide continuous in-depth
learning experiences for millions of students. The provision of information and
advice on human biology and hygiene is vital for each new generation.

2. NUTRITION:

The aim of nutrition is to guide people to choose optimum and balanced diets,
remove prejudice and promote good dieting habits not to teach the familiar jargon
of colonies and the biochemistry of nutrition. Nutritional problems such as
ignorance about the value of breath feeding beyond the first year of life,
Misconceptions about proper weaning, ignorance of the appropriateness of certain
diets for infants and pregnant women, traditional food allocation patter with the
families, etc can be best solved by nutrition education. In recent years, the link
between dieting habit, certain chronic diseases of middle ages such as Obesity,
Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases has been established.

Nutrition education is a major intervention for the prevention of malnutrition,

promotion or health and improving the quality of life.

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3. HYGIENE

This has two aspects - Personal and Environmental Personal hygiene aims at
promoting the standards of personal cleanliness within the setting of the condition
where people live. Personal hygiene includes batting, clothing, washing hands and
toilets, care of nails, feet and teeth, coughing, sneezing, personal appearance and
inculcation of clean habits in the young. Training in personal hygiene should begin
at a very early age and just be carried through school age.

Environmental hygiene has two aspects - domestic & community.

Domestic hygiene comprises that of home, use of soap, need of fresh air, light
ventilation, hygiene storage of foods, hygienic disposal of wastes, need to avoid
pest, rats, mice and insects etc. Improvement of environmental health is a major
concern of many governments and related agencies throughout the world. In
developed countries, the emphasis is on the improvement of basic sanitary services
consisting of water supply, disposal of human excretes, other solid and liquid
wastes, vector control, food sanitation and housing which are fundamental to
health. In many areas, poor sanitary practices among the people have their roots in
centers-old custom styles of living and habits. These are not easily altered. An
environmental sanitation programme should include health education. It is not
enough to provide sanitary wells, latries and waste collecting facilities. If a health
education programme is taken, the people will participate from the beginning in
identifying in identifying their sanitation problems and will choose the solutions
and facilities they want. They will then more likely to use these facilities and
improve their health.

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4. FAMILY HEALTH

The family is the first defense as well as the chief reliance for the wellbeing of its
members. Health largely depends on the family's social and physical environment
and its lifestyle and behavior. The role of the family in health promoting and in
prevention of diseases, early diagnosis and care of the skin is of crucial
importance. One of the main tasks of health education is to promote the family's
self-reliance, especially regarding the family's responsibilities in child bearing,
child rearing, self-care and influencing their children to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

5. DISEASE PREVENTION & CONTROL

Drugs alone will not solve health problems without health education. A person
may fall sick again and again from the same disease. The experiences of western
countries have shown the role of education in the eradication of cholera, typhoid,
malaria and tuberculosis, etc. Education of the people about the prevention and
control of locally endemic diseases in the first of eighth essential activities in
primary health care.

Several public health programme are in operation on national scale to eradicate

diseases such as malaria, leprosy, TB, goiter etc. The recent experience of malaria
eradication indicated that anti-malaria spray with insecticides cannot solve the
problem, without health education.

6. MENTAL HEALTH

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Mental health problems occur everywhere. They become more prominent when
major killer diseases are brought under control. There is a tendency to an increase
in the prevalence of mental diseases where there is a change in the society from an
agriculture to an industrial economy and when people move from the warm
intimacy of a village community to the isolated food in big cities. The aim of
health education in mental health is to keep people to keep mentally health, and
prevent a mental breakdown. There are certain special situations when mental
health is of great importance – mother after child birth, child of entry into school
for the first time, school child entering into the secondary, decisions about a future
career, starting a new family and at the time of widowhood. There are critical
periods of life when external pressure tends to breakdown mental health. Health
workers should help people achieve mental health by showing sympathy
understanding and by social contact.

6. PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS

Accidents are the feature of the complexity of mental life. In the developed
countries, they are taken an increasing toll of life and limb. Accidents occur in
three (3) main areas, the home, road, and the place of work. Safety education
should be directed in these areas. It should be the concern of the engineering
department and the responsibility of the police department to enforce rules of road
safety. Accidents occurs in workshop, factories, railways and miles etc.
Management must provide safe environment and promote general order and
cleanliness, there should be safety its place in the factory, in the home and in the
office. The predominant factor in accidents is carelessness and the problem can be
tackled through health education.

AIMS / GOAL / BROAD OBJECTIVES

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To raise the standard of living or improve the quality of life of the individual,
family or community people.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF HEALTH EDUCATION

These fall basically under information, motivation and guiding into actions as
follows:
 To help people to acquire the knowledge and skill to make some related
decisions based upon their need and interests.
 To encourage people to value health as a worthwhile asset and to let them
know what they can as individuals and communities to promote their own
health.
 To prevent specific diseases and designing interventions to prevent ill-health
often through targeting high risk groups.
 To increase knowledge of people about health-related matters.
 To encourage positive health behavior
 To enlist/encourage community’s support for health programmes.
 To encourage people to recognize early signs of diseases and take immediate
step for treatment.
 To inform the public about medical advances & their limitations

PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH EDUCATION

These are the general and universal rule that guides health education practice. A
teacher or any educator adopts the principle to ensure effective learning. Therefore,
a healthy educator who is trained to teach people on matters related to health
should be closely guided by the basic principles of education. A clear
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understanding of principles will help the health educator to develop an effective
educational programme which involves going through a process of placing an
action to be implemented.

The basic health education principles are as follows:

 Selection of topic/background/knowledge/interview
 Selection of appropriate teaching learning format/strategy
 Knowledge of facts
 Comprehensive of facts
 Community mobilization/participation
 Motivation
 Reinforcement
 Leadership control
 Communication skills
 Evaluation and feedback/self-appraisal

Selection of topic/ Background knowledge/ interview

The topic to be selected for any health education programme must be based on the
actual need of the people; else they will not show any interest during the teaching
and learning process. Usually, the actual/felt needs are many but for an effective
programme to be achieved; one topic must be dealt with a time to ensure positive
behavioral change. The felt need of the community in relation to health are those
needs/problems as considered by them that affect their health and total well-being,
eg portable water supply good road networks, maternity homes, etc. The true needs
of a community in relation to health are those essential needs that when adequately
handled will improve the wellness of the community members. In other words, the
content of any health education programme should be determined by the actual
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need of the target group. To ensure relevance of the material a “KAP” studies be
carried out, ie to getter information about the current knowledge, attitude &
practiceal behavior of the community/population/target group. The aim is to find
out what people know, what they believe, what they desire, what they expect, what
they hope for and what they do in relation to their knowledge & attitudes.
Selection of Appropriate Teaching- Learning format/ Strategy
This involves the methods to be chosen in favor of applying the technique of
“known to unknown” or “simple to complex” and participation learning. People
are able to learn actively and effectively when they participate in the programme
through group discussion, role playing, workshop and the use of audiovisual aids
and demonstrations

Knowledge of facts
The health educator should have full knowledge of the facts to present, speak with
authority and avoid vague of false answers.

Comprehension of facts
This involves language use that must be simple enough for people to understand.

Motivation
The educator must be dedicated and motivated to teach. He/she must have love and
have interest in his/her work as well as in the people he teaches. People are usually
very eager to have new knowledge only when stimulated, may be through
involvement/ appreciation/ praise and reward.

Reinforcement

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This involves repetition of the learning objectives at intervals to ensure full
learning experience, most especially if audience shows lack of interest. When this
is applied, an experience which is meant to be once and for all is not easily
forgotten.

Leadership Control
For any meaningful teaching to occur, there must be order & discipline in the
learning environment. The health educator must maintain leadership control by
restoring and maintaining sanity always. He/she must be easily accessible and
identify with the people.

Communication Skills
This involves the rate/ pace of presentation and characteristic of the health
educator.
1. The health educator should teach of a rate/ speed that will help to sustain the
interest and attention of the people learning.
2. The educator must apply all the relevant communication skills in order to
bring about behavioral change, eg must be a good listener and be able to
establish report.
3. Must understand and adopt whatever cultural patters that exist in tha
community.
4. Must not maintain intellectual distance
5. Must be able to send messages to a large audience or to individuals.

Evaluation and Feedback/ Self Appraisal

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This involves assessment of the presentation made through questioning in between
or at the end of presentation. The feedback received by the educator from the
people (learners) will help him to improve or modify his teaching in order to
improve transfer of knowledge and retention of facts by learners in favor of
behavioral change.

Other relevant principles include the following:

1. Reaching the people

The health educator should be able to reach the people

 Physically by visiting them, sending them mails, holding meetings with the
opinion leaders, knowing their leadership structure and lines of
communication for subsegment meetings.
 Intellectually by assessing the level of education or literacy of the level of
education or literacy of the people, what is to be adopted for effective health
education.
 Emotionally by creating an opportunity for the people to be able to express
their positive and negative feedings, anxieties and emotions.

2. Studying the people

A health educator must study the people in terms of communication, customs,

tradition, taboos, economic status, socio-political and religious background suitable
for a particular community.

3. Working with people

The health educator should allow the participation of people in the execution of the
project going on in their community to enable the them develop sense of interest
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and acceptance and wiliness to contribute their resources for the success of the
programme.

4. Respect for people’s culture

A health educator should exhibit total respect for people’s culture, tradition and
values. Respect for people’s culture will make the people see the health educator as
a friend and not a threat and it will go a long way to generate a successful health
education, thereby achieving your aim.

5. Principle of Adaptability with the environment

The health educator should adjust himself or herself with the environment of the
people. He should not criticize their unhealthy living or insanitary condition of
their surroundings in order to achieve a successful health education.

6. Principle of Simplicity

The health educator should put away pride or arrogance and appear natural and
plain so that the people will see him or her as a part and parcel of them and co-
operate effectively.

7. Principle of clarity

For a health educator to achieve a positive result during his/her presentation or

health talk, he/she must make it simple and easily understood by the people. Use of
ambiguous vocabularies will result into confusion and unsuccessful result will be
achieved.

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