Preface

Health promotion has started to attract increasing attention not only from health professionals but also from the public. Indeed, the need for health promotion programs concerns all of us. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. This process improves the wellbeing of the individual. *Health Promotion* covers actions and practices aimed at creating behavioral change for the protection and improvement of health. These consist of health education as well as organizational, economic, and environmental support.

Ensuring that healthy lifestyle behaviors spread to individuals, families, groups, and societies is one of the important goals of improving health. With this understanding, attempts are being made to improve the personal choices and social responsibilities of individuals. Thus, people will be able to participate in practices that will enable them to improve their own health. In addition, people will take responsibility for their actions to maintain their own health.

Health promotion ensures the protection and development of health and psychological, social, and physical wellbeing, which is achieved through the collective efforts of individuals, society, public institutions and organizations, and non-governmental organizations. For this reason, attention is drawn to the importance of the determinants of health by pointing out that it is not enough to focus only on changing the behavior of the individual in health promotion actions in this book. In these actions, the importance of planning, implementing, and evaluating health education and health promotion programs with systematic approaches and the implementation of public health policies are emphasized.

In the 21st century, health-related changes such as climate change, globalization, digitalization, and the emergence of new contagious and non-communicable diseases continue as important problems that threaten the health of societies. The examples of health promotion in the book show how people are affected by the cultural, social, and environmental factors in which they live. At the same time, it shows that the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target groups have an impact on health promotion. The book also highlights the need to create programs based on theories, models, and approaches that provide information and guide the design, implementation, and evaluation process of health promotion programs for health promotion professionals. I hope this book will contribute to achieving these goals and provide guidance and inspiration for a healthier world.

I would like to thank all the authors who contributed to this book and the staff at IntechOpen who provided invaluable cooperation and support throughout the publication process.

> **Dr. Mukadder Mollaoğlu,** Professor, Health Sciences Faculty, Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey

> > Section 1

Health Promotion in Current

Perspective

Section 1
