Adult health promotion

Abstract

Health promotion aims to enable people to increase control over their health as well as cause an overall improvement. It includes individual, social, and environmental interventions. This chapter covers group health promotion, community approaches to health, and the role of the expert patient. It then covers areas in which health promotion can be highlighted in adults, including principles of good nutrition, obesity, malnutrition, home food safety, exercise, smoking cessation, managing stress, and alcohol advice. It outlines UK screening programmes, the menopause, healthy ageing, ways of preventing cancers (skin, bowel, breast, cervical, and testicular), travel health promotion (including vaccinations and a topic on malaria), different types of contraception, and pregnancy from preconception, antenatal care, maternity rights, common problems in pregnancy, birth options, and postnatal care.