Community Health Education

Abstract

Health education aims at behavior change rather than just delivering health knowledge to people. In Korea health education activities in public sector began in 1960 and they were included in the primary prevention program in communities. This article reviewed current health education programs in healthy living practice programs provided by local public health centers in Korea and drew implications for the future role of health education in community setting. Health education has been a core function of the National Health Promotion programs in the nation since the enactment of the National Health Promotion Law in 1995. The National Health Promotion programs are funded by the National Health Promotion Fund which are drawn from tobacco tax. The National Health Promotion programs include healthy living practice programs (smoking prevention and cessation programs, moderate alcohol use programs, physical activity promotion programs, and nutrition programs), chronic disease prevention programs, oral health programs and public hygiene programs. Methods of the National Health Promotion programs include health education, health counseling, health class, health information management, survey and research. Smoking prevention and cessation programs include smoking cessation clinic, smoking cessation education, non-smoking environment program, and non-smoking campaign. Moderate alcohol use programs include alcohol use education, moderate alcohol use campaign, alcohol use counseling, and alcohol free environment programs. Physical activity promotion programs include obesity control, targeted exercise program, and exercise civic group programs. Nutrition programs include nutrition management, obesity management, nutrition education, breakfast eating program, and nutrition counseling and treatment programs. The health education programs in community are not efficient today because there are many overlapping contents and short term goals. Community health education programs needs to be more comprehensive. Workforce development is another big issue at the moment because the National credential program will begin in 2009. Variety of community health education programs should be developed and funded by the national health promotion fund.