ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have provided theoretical frameworks for looking at a variety of processes that can influence the effectiveness of a health-promotion enterprise (e.g., educational outcomes of the user-media-message interaction, factors affecting the adoption of health behaviors). This chapter examines some of these issues from a different perspective. It examines different approaches to health promotion by considering the roles played by health promoters in relation to their audience, and the ways computing does and can facilitate these roles. It is argued that conceptualizing computing as a medium (instead of a tool) lends itself particularly well to approaching health promotion as the empowerment of individuals in support of their own initiatives to integrate health behaviors into their lifestyles. Such a perspective can best support those health promotion relationships in which the individual is more independent in making health decisions and choosing health behaviors. An approach referred to here as health integration creates a central role for a highly differentiated, self-responsible individual and a facilitative role for the health promoter.
