Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

An Ecological Perspective on Health Promotion Programs

1988; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 15; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/109019818801500401

2732-5601

Kenneth R. McLeroy, Daniel L. Bibeau, Allan Steckler, Karen Glanz,

Health disparities and outcomes

During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in societal interest in preventing disability and death in the United States by changing individual behaviors linked to the risk of contracting chronic diseases. This renewed interest in health pro motion and disease prevention has not been without its critics. Some critics have accused proponents of life-style interventions of promoting a victim-blaming ideology by neglecting the importance of social influences on health and disease. This article proposes an ecological model for health promotion which focuses atten tion on both individual and social environmental factors as targets for health promo tion interventions. It addresses the importance of interventions directed at changing interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy, factors which support and maintain unhealthy behaviors. The model assumes that appropriate changes in the social environment will produce changes in individuals, and that the support of individ uals in the population is essential for implementing environmental changes.