1
Department of Commerce and Management, The IIS University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
2
Department of Management of Science and Technology Development, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Corresponding author details:
Sivakumar JT Gowder
Department of Management of Science and Technology Development
Ton Duc Thang University
Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
Copyright: © 2020 Shivani L, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Health education is the key factor for the growth of human society from the ancient
time. Ancient Greeks were the pioneers of health education. Health Education encompasses
combination of principles by which the individuals and communities are imparted knowledge
to behave in a manner that is favorable to promotion and restoration of the physical, mental
and spiritual wellbeing in a planned manner. It is entire learning process during which the
communities learn the skills and behavior for maintenance and improvement of health and
wellbeing in a holistic manner through education processes. According to WHO, health is
a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of
disease and infirmity.
The role of health education cannot be overlooked when it comes to building a healthy nation. The aim of health education is to sensitize the people about health awareness. The importance of health education: health education is of vital significance for formulation and implementation of health policies and programs; it is primarily needed to improve, maintain and restoration of health of community; to enhance the quality of life of people by increasing life expectancy and helping them to live long and healthy life; to reduce premature death and mortality rate; and to reduce chronic disease, awareness, prevention and cure.
The scope of health education is widespread and is of utmost important. Health
education is a key factor in various socioeconomic fields such as home, schools and
communities. Life at home is the foundation of the activities in a society. Healthy home
leads to healthy society which in turn leads to great nation. Policy makers or health officials
should train parents first about eating habits/ diet plans, physical health, cleanliness, etc.
and then other members at home. Otherwise also, parents can train their children after
having secured training from concerned officials. Schools or colleges are the hubs to train
children / youngsters about health education. Government bodies or school authorities
should include health education in their curriculum. They should collaborate with policy
makers and health educators to train their students with reference to various parameters
concerned to health: to keep good physical and mental health; healthy diet methods;
methods to prevent diseases; drug and alcohol prevention; etc, so that the students in turn
train people at their home or locality (society). Community health education is important
for a society or nation. Healthy life style, disease prevention, environmental hygiene and
cleanliness and dietary plans are some of the methods that improve a particular community
or a community in general through health education.
Poor quality of human health can adversely affect the economy of a country. As a part of human capital, if our masses will be unhealthy and unaware of health issues will lead a country to under investing in workforce productivity. It leads to vicious circle.
Human capital is significant determinant of economic prosperity and hence, health
education is in need of an hour for growing economy that can be done by spreading
learning and awareness about health restoration and maintenance. Health and economic
development are both interrelated terms. Adverse effects of poor human capital due to lack
of health awareness can be irreversible and grave. The effects can come in many faces as:
poor economic growth; poor human capital index; increased mortality rates; poor social
infrastructure; reduced per capita and national income; deficit in manpower supply; poor
economic development due to poor factor productivity; increased unemployment and
increased poverty and fall in living standards. Studies show that increased healthcare costs
is due to limited literacy skills [1,2].
Improve access should be made to health information by the means of media in the form of increasing the media’s awareness of health literacy issues and making scientific information easy to understand by public. It is also needed to develop new methods for information dissemination. Investment on public health is more effective and efficient when compared with other sources. Health authorities should work with educators to improve curriculum on health. Educators are the highly respected members of a society. Health care programs can be conducted in institutes, work places and community health centers. Policy makers and health educators should adapt health care system according to the need of their people locally but in addition to major health issues [3-5].
Health education should reach people living in different
communities, region, etc. and the concerned health officials should
monitor people whether people follow the rules and regulations that
will enhance the life of people. Audio visual programs, seminars,
workshops and conferences, visit to cities/ towns, villages, schools
and homes will be reliable to improve health education.
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