IS THE OTTAWA CHARTER FOR HEALTH PROMOTION (1986) STILL RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
INTRODUCTION In 1986 Canada held the first International Conference on Heath Promotion in Ottawa, aiming to attain World Health Organisation (WHO) objective of advocating health for all (WHO 1986). The charter defined Health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health” (WHO 1986). The Ottawa Charter advocated for five principles of promoting health namely; building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills and reorienting health services (WHO, 1986). The Ottawa Charter has been relevant both in the 20th and 21st century …show more content…
According to WHO (2014), by 2014, 13% of the worlds adults were obese (600 million) and 39% were overweight (1.9.million) and this subsequently contributed to the increase on non-communicable diseases globally. This indicates that as much as there are avenues to educate and empower individuals to have a healthy lifestyle, the strategies in place are not working i.e. Individuals might be aware on how to be healthy but might not be health literate (Strecker et al. 2012). Additionally public health policies that have been put in place do not seem to be making an impact at an individual level (Strecker et al. 2012). The tobacco taxation policy in countries like Australia and Canada have reported a decrease in tobacco purchase (Jackson et al. 2006 and (Lin and Fawkes, 2007). Contrariwise the WHO world cancer report (2014) states that, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths i.e. in 2012, 1.59 million people died of lung cancer and that 20% of the global cancer and 70% of the global lung cancer are caused by tobacco use. This indicates that the tobacco taxation policy does not tackle the reduction of smoking in individuals especially those of the lower economic status i.e. the Indigenous Australians who have the highest lung cancer related …show more content…
(2012) further states that governments especially those of low-and middle income countries should involve its citizens in the decision making in regards to policy making. This will ensure the government implementations will be able to attain a greater impact and reach a greater audience in the population and individual involvement, will in-turn promote heath literacy and individual health empowerment (Strecker et al. 2012). Jackson et al. (2012) adds that in order for the development of individual skills to be more effective it must be combined with other strategies like the strengthening community action strategy. If these principles work in conjunction with each other it will build a strong community that advocated for heath equity and it is important to note that a strong community in made up of strong and informed individuals (Laverack 2009). Policy alone should not be the basis that drives individual empowerment (Strecker et al. 2012). These policies should be backed by action that target individuals in a specific population. For example if government advocated for an increase in physical activity, then greenspace should be made available to all individuals of the community and if healthy eating is advocated for, then healthy food should be made available and affordable to individuals especially those of low social economic status (Jackson et al. 2012).
INTRODUCTION In 1986 Canada held the first International Conference on Heath Promotion in Ottawa, aiming to attain World Health Organisation (WHO) objective of advocating health for all (WHO 1986). The charter defined Health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health” (WHO 1986). The Ottawa Charter advocated for five principles of promoting health namely; building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills and reorienting health services (WHO, 1986). The Ottawa Charter has been relevant both in the 20th and 21st century …show more content…
According to WHO (2014), by 2014, 13% of the worlds adults were obese (600 million) and 39% were overweight (1.9.million) and this subsequently contributed to the increase on non-communicable diseases globally. This indicates that as much as there are avenues to educate and empower individuals to have a healthy lifestyle, the strategies in place are not working i.e. Individuals might be aware on how to be healthy but might not be health literate (Strecker et al. 2012). Additionally public health policies that have been put in place do not seem to be making an impact at an individual level (Strecker et al. 2012). The tobacco taxation policy in countries like Australia and Canada have reported a decrease in tobacco purchase (Jackson et al. 2006 and (Lin and Fawkes, 2007). Contrariwise the WHO world cancer report (2014) states that, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths i.e. in 2012, 1.59 million people died of lung cancer and that 20% of the global cancer and 70% of the global lung cancer are caused by tobacco use. This indicates that the tobacco taxation policy does not tackle the reduction of smoking in individuals especially those of the lower economic status i.e. the Indigenous Australians who have the highest lung cancer related …show more content…
(2012) further states that governments especially those of low-and middle income countries should involve its citizens in the decision making in regards to policy making. This will ensure the government implementations will be able to attain a greater impact and reach a greater audience in the population and individual involvement, will in-turn promote heath literacy and individual health empowerment (Strecker et al. 2012). Jackson et al. (2012) adds that in order for the development of individual skills to be more effective it must be combined with other strategies like the strengthening community action strategy. If these principles work in conjunction with each other it will build a strong community that advocated for heath equity and it is important to note that a strong community in made up of strong and informed individuals (Laverack 2009). Policy alone should not be the basis that drives individual empowerment (Strecker et al. 2012). These policies should be backed by action that target individuals in a specific population. For example if government advocated for an increase in physical activity, then greenspace should be made available to all individuals of the community and if healthy eating is advocated for, then healthy food should be made available and affordable to individuals especially those of low social economic status (Jackson et al. 2012).