DISEASE PREVENTION
Disease prevention
and Health promotion programs focus on keeping people healthy. Health promotion
programs aim to engage and empower individuals and communities to choose
healthy behaviors,
and make changes that reduce the risk of developing lifestyle and/or chronic
diseases and other morbidities.
World
Health Organization (WHO) defines health promotion as: “the process of enabling
people to increase control over and to improve their health. This moves beyond
focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental
interventions”
Disease
prevention differs from health promotion because it focuses on specific efforts
aimed at reducing the development and severity of chronic diseases and other
morbidities. Disease prevention puts more emphasis on
prevention strategies to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and
other co-morbidities related
to musculoskeletal disorders. The emphasis is maintained on social determinants
of health, which influence modifiable risk behaviors. Social determinants of
health are the economic, social, cultural, and political conditions in which
people are born, grow, and live that affect health status i.e. poverty limits
access to healthy foods and safe neighborhoods. Modifiable risk behaviors
include tobacco use, poor eating habits, and lack of physical activity, which
contribute to the development of chronic disease
The
effect of exercises on physical health can be explained by the adaptation
processes of metabolic and cardiovascular systems
Disease
prevention by regular physical activity in particular aerobic training
exercises helps in preventing cardiovascular diseases. Physical activity
promotes psychological benefits by decreasing negative emotional states e.g.
anxiety and increasing positive emotional state e.g. vigor.
In
most cases physical exercises is an appropriate means for health promotion.
Wellness
is related to health promotion and disease prevention. Wellness is described as
the attitudes and active decisions made by an individual that contribute to
positive health behaviors and outcomes, this is paramount as it champions to
the adherence to health promotion and disease prevention strategies
Activities
for health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness programs include:
- COMMUNICATION; this is essential and key factor in
health promotion and disease prevention. Helps to raise awareness
about certain healthy behaviors for the general public, and this can be
done through communication strategies such as public service
announcements, health fairs, mass media campaigns, and newsletters.
- EDUCATION;
is a channel of empowering
behavioral change and actions through disseminating and increasing
knowledge. Examples of health education strategies include courses,
trainings, and support groups.
- POLICY,
SYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT: health promotion, disease prevention and wellness
programs gains the hearing and actualization by the general public by Making
systematic changes – through improved laws, rules, and regulations
(policy), functional organizational systems, and economic, social, or
physical environment – to encourage, make available, and enable healthy
choices.