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Book Review
Health Promotion Strategies and Methods
ISBN: 978-0-074715-00-0 1999 McGraw-Hill
Merilyn King
Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide SA
This interesting, informative and comprehensive book of 131 pages is the revised edition of an earlier publication written by Egger, Spark and Lawson in 1990. This version was also entitled "Health Promotion Strategies & Methods." The authors of the current edition are recognised experts in this field of health promotion and service. They have divided their book into eight chapters. The first chapter discusses the changing health patterns of society, principles of health promotion, the role of the health promotion practitioner and the strategies that might be considered by the practitioner in health promotion initiatives. The second chapter focuses on the concept of health and human behaviour and outlines the main models and theories that may be considered to facilitate behavioural changes. Chapter 3 focuses on the individual in society. It also presents a rationale for using individual approaches, outlines the various educational materials that might be used and gives advice about counselling. Chapter four focuses on the theory that governs successful health promotion of people in groups. Discussed are adult learning principles, methods of teaching and learning and the didactic and experiential approaches to learning. Chapter 5 focuses on social marketing and the media. This section is most interesting as it informs the practitioner about the role of the media and information about the techniques, for example, broadcast and printed media. Chapter 6 focuses on the community organization and community development. Discussion involves defining what is meant by the term 'community' and explaining how communities are organised and developed. Chapter 7 focuses on environmental adaptations. This interesting chapter discusses how human behaviour and the environment may be altered through healthy public policy, the role of legislation and enforcement. It also discusses the various organisational interventions of technology, the workplace, health-promoting schools, the various ecological considerations and the implications of these adaptations to the health promotion practitioner. Chapter 8 discusses the selection of the right strategies and methods of health promotion.
The strengths of this book are firstly, the language is clear, concise, logical and comprehensive. Secondly, the book is written for an Australian context and therefore meaningful to local health practitioners. Thirdly, the concepts discussed in the book are consistent with contemporary health promotion principles at a global level. Lastly, I particularly like the way chapters are summarised, this practice reinforces important points. I also appreciate the use of relevant pictures and humorous cartoon to clarify or emphasise important issues. The only criticism I would suggest is the fact that the book does not tell the practitioner how to evaluate their health promotion initiatives. Perhaps that could be another book for the authors to consider.
To conclude, I would thoroughly recommend this book as a text for use in an undergraduate nursing program. It would also assist practitioners who are working in this important area of health care.
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