ABSTRACT
Since the last edition of this book health promotion has become more prominent in the routine work of general practice, especially with regard to smoking cessation. Health promotion is a broad topic with links to public health, psychology, sociology, education and social marketing. What is health promotion and what are the research,
evidence and literature bases that inform practice? The scope of health promotion practice goes beyond the clinical arena, but for this chapter the focus is based on the application of health promotion within general practice. The most frequently used definition of health
promotion is from the World Health Organization (WHO) Ottawa Charter, 1986: ‘Health promotion is a process of enabling people to increase control
This chapter provides some background to the discipline of health promotion and the links with public health. Theory and rationale are to some extent discussed but the emphasis is on practice within the context of general practice. There has been considerable growth and interest in this field during the last 5 years and evidence-based practice has been enhanced by the range of publications now available from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Cochrane Reviews and the Royal Colleges together with the requirements of the General Medical Council and Department of Health directives. Population health priorities influence health promotion practice with a growing understanding of the need to facilitate behaviour modification as an integral aspect of clinical practice. Behaviour modification is linked to social context and hence health promotion in general practice potentially contributes to the process of reducing health inequalities.
