From behavior change to the improvement of living conditions. Toward ethical and effective health education

Health education is the basis of all public health policies and programs. However, the fundamental principles of health education are often misunderstood by decision-makers and other key social actors, who often overestimate the impact of health education or overlook its benefits. This paper examines the benefits of health education from the point of view of preventive measures and health promotion measures. The paper highlights the tendency to restrict the theoretical perspectives underlying the development of programs to an examination of intra-individual factors, thus overlooking the constraining effects of the physical and social environment on health decisions. The paper concludes by recommending a form of health education aimed at individual and collective emancipation and by calling for the implementation of population health strategies based on tried and tested theoretical models of health promotion.