What do medical teachers understand by health promotion?

Abstract

THE co-ordinators of the courses that make up the undergraduate medical curriculum at the University of Southampton were asked what they understood by 'health promotion', what aspects of it, if any, were included in their courses, and whether they would like to develop health promotion within courses. Most defined health promotion as the primary pre vention of disease, usually heart disease and cancer, through patient instruction, usually about smoking, diet and exercise. Many had reservations about this model, finding it unproven, negative, simple, repeti tive, boring, authoritarian and not a task for doctors, especially hospital doctors. Health promotion was not much taught overall, although most co-ordina tors were willing to try to develop it. It mostly appeared in low status courses. Some teachers iden tified it with a 'social perspective' on medicine already taught to students. It was concluded that a project attempting to develop health promotion in the medical curriculum would have to recognise the strength of these attitudes, and evolve an approach which developed from, and challenged, specific aspects of them.