Chairpersons

Prof.Dr.Dr.Heiko Waller M.Sc.
Center of Applied Health Sciences
University of Lüneburg
Wilschenbrucher Weg 84a
D-21335 Lüneburg
Tel:+49-4231-677-969
Fax:+49-4131-677-966
e-mail: waller@uni-lueneburg.de

Prof.Dr.Dr.Alf Trojan M.Sc.
Institute of Medical Sociology
University of Hamburg
Martinistr. 52
D-20246 Hamburg
Tel:+49-40-42803-4247
Fax:+49-40-42803-4934
e-mail: trojan@uke.uni-hamburg.de

The Health Promotion Section was founded during the EUPHA annual meeting in Budapest 1995.The core group of the section was formed by participants of the International Health Promotion Training course which was organized from 1986-96 by the Center of Applied Health Sciences in Lüneburg/Germany in cooperation with WHO/EURO and financed by the German Federal Center of Health Education. Today the Health Promotion Section has 753 members. The section understands itself as a platform for the exchange of research-, training- and practice- projects in health promotion on the European level. It also tries to stimulate and to help to realize joint research projects of its members.
The section considers the special needs of health promotion and disease prevention in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Health Promotion Section usually meets during the annual EUPHA conferences and organizes workshops around actual topics.

Activities

Past workshops:

1996 (London):Health promotion 10 years after Ottawa- views from different European countries
1998 (Göteborg):Recent developments of health promotion policy and research of the EU
1999 (Prag):Legal and financial conditions of health promotion- views back and ahead from different European countries
2000 (Paris):Reducing health inequalities through health promotion
2001 (Brussels): Health information(systems) for health promotion
2002 (Dresden): Progress and problems of health promotion in Central and Eastern Europe
2003 (Rome) : The role of health promotion in tackling inequalities in health
2004 (Oslo): Urban problems and health promotion
2005 (Graz): Linking health promotion and health care
2006 (Montreux): 20 years health promotion research in and on settings

Future workshops:
The topic of our workshop during the annual conference 2007 (Helsinki) will be: Linking health promotion and health care

Cooperation

The Health Promotion Section works together with other European organisations and initiatives in the field, especially with the European Regional Office of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE)(www.iuhpe@easp.es) and with the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) (www.ensp.fr/aspher).

Background Information

Although we use the term "Health promotion" for our section, we are - as regard to the content of our work- concerned with health promotion as well as with disease prevention. Health promotion and disease prevention are important strategies of public health. Health promotion is the strategy to promote health by strengthening resources for health, disease prevention is the strategy to protect health by reducing or avoiding risks for health. To achieve this we can use different methods at different levels. We can differentiate between personal, behavioural and structural levels, for the strategy of health promotion as well as for the strategy of disease prevention. This leads to a variety of tasks and methods:

	Health promotion	Disease prevention
personal	Strengthening health consciousness and sense of coherence through a positive socialization in families and peer groups	Avoiding illness through vaccination etc Detecting illness in an early stage through screening
behavioural	Strengthening resources through Health information, Health education, Health counselling, Health training, Social support	Reducing/avoiding risks through Health information, Health education, Health counselling, Health training, Social support
structural	Strengthening resources through Healthy public policy	Reducing/avoiding risks through Health protection in environment, work and community life

Our understanding of health promotion is very much influenced by the work of Antonovsky and by the Ottawa Charter of Health Promotion (WHO 1986) with the following 5 areas of action:

- Build healthy public policy
- Create supportive environments
- Strengthen community action
- Develop personal skills
- Reorient health services

Especially the "setting approach" of health promotion (in schools, hospitals, cities etc) seems to be a successful way of supporting health (cf. The evidence of health promotion effectiveness. A report for the European Commission by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. Brüssels 1999).