FeaturesHealth Promotion and Disease Prevention Health Promotion and Disease Prevention - A Handbook for Teachers, Researchers, Health Professionals and Decision Makers Editors: Donev D., Pavlekovic G., Zaletel, Kragelj L. Hans Jacobs, 2007  Steering Committee Member Doncho Donev, M.D., Ph.D., has provided The Science Advisory Board with a summary of a published book of which he is a coeditor; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, a handbook for training and research in public health with a primary focus on South Eastern European (SEE) countries. Technical features of the book: The book was printed in October 2007 in B5 format with hard cover-pages, with a total number of 806 pages of text in English and 35 pages of introductory contents. Number of copies: 600. Publisher: Hans Jacobs Publishing Company, Lage, Germany (ISBN 978-3-89918-169-2); co-publisher: the Institute of Social Medicine, Institutes, Medical Faculty in Skopje, R. Macedonia (ISBN 978-9989-2749-0-9). Editors: Prof. Dr. Doncho Donev from Skopje, R. Macedonia, Asist. Prof. Dr. Gordana Pavlekovic from Zagreb, Croatia, and Asist. Prof. Dr. Lijana Zaletel Kragelj from Ljubljana, Slovenia; Asistant Editor: Prim. Dr. Ilija Gligorov from Skopje, R. Macedonia. Proof-reader for English: M-r sci Lenka Danevska. Total number of authors and co-authors is 81, coming from 12 countries: from SEE countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia), Germany, Hungary, Turkey and USA. The printing of the book was supported by the Stability Pact PH-SEE Project through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Availability: The book is available on-line, PDF full text, at: http://www.snz.hr/fph-see and a hard copy may be ordered from the publisher, Hans Jacobs Publishing Company (hans.Jacobs@gmx.net) or from the co-publisher, the Institute of Social Medicine, Medical Faculty in Skopje (donev@freemail.org.mk) at a standard price of EUR 15 for all SEE countries, and additional EUR 5 for postal costs. Structure and contents of the book: The book contains: a Preface, 64 modules distributed into five chapters: Chapter 1. Health Promotion: Concepts, Principles and Strategies (15 modules and sub-modules and 5 case-studies); Chapter 2. Settings' Approach in Health Promotion (6 modules and 2 case-studies); Chapter 3. Disease Prevention (5 modules); Chapter 4. Health Education (5 modules); and Chapter 5. Selected Topics in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (15 modules). A health promotion glossary and a terminology exercise are included in the annexes. 1. Who would be interested in this book? You are a public health passionate, policy or decision maker, you like to look broader and beyond boundaries, and you are curious to discover unknown areas. You have to prepare common public health policy and strategy, teaching sessions on health promotion and disease prevention or to learn for a public health examination. Then this book may be of special interest for you: it invites you to combine your work and studying with the process of discovering public health, health promotion and disease prevention in the view of South Eastern European countries and international context. 2. What is the background and purpose of this book? The book has been developed in the framework of the Research & Development project, best known as the “Public Health Collaboration in South Eastern Europe” (PH-SEE), launched in 2000 and funded by the Stability Pact through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The PH-SEE Stability Pact Project, aiming to reconstruct and rebuild public health in the SEE Region in terms of postgraduate public health training, research and practice based on the regional specificities and following international standards of public health education, achieved to establish ongoing regional collaboration in the field of public health by creating a strong network of public health institutions and professionals and organizing regular professional meetings, seminars and conferences for developing education and research activities, as well as the exchange of experiences. The most tangible output of the PH-SEE Project are the training curricula, teaching materials and handbooks created, as well as the new schools of public health established by now in almost each country of the SEE Region. The initial vision and goal of the editors and authors was to prepare a book that could play the role of a lighthouse for secure navigation in stormy waters, which could allegorize the public health in the SEE countries in transition. The book on “Health Promotion and Disease Prevention” is expected to contribute to the advancement of the postgraduate public health education and research, as well as to the development of a population-based public health policy and strategy, and related health promotion intervention programs and activities, first of all, in the SEE countries. The concepts of health promotion and disease prevention have come into age since the Ottawa First International Conference on Health Promotion, held in 1986, and the subsequent conferences and adopted declarations guided by the World Health Organization. Despite all the progress and developments in health promotion over the previous decades, two important challenges still remained in the SEE countries. The first was to demonstrate and communicate more widely to SEE countries that health promotion policies and practices, together with effective disease prevention, can make a remarkable long-term difference to the health and quality of life of individuals and populations. The second was even more important; that health promotion action can achieve greater equity in health and can decrease the health gap between population groups within and among the countries. With the birth of the new millennium it became increasingly apparent, however, that the world is changing fundamentally and this includes our understanding of the overall determinants of health, most of them in the domain of public health and health promotion. Some relevant aspects of health promotion and disease prevention have been, more or less, addressed within the previous three PH-SEE teaching books: on “Health Systems and Their Evidence Based Development” (2004), on “Public Health Strategies: A Tool for Regional Development” (2005), and the third book on “Health Determinants in the Scope of New Public Health” (published in 2005, also by Hans Jacobs Publishing Company, Lage, Germany). This book, the fourth PH-SEE teaching book on “Health Promotion and Disease Prevention”, also deals, but in a more systematic and comprehensive way, with the various determinants of health, as well as factors causing diseases (pathogenesis), but also factors promoting health and encouraging a positive change of lifestyle (salutogenesis). It also tackles the necessary shift from prevailing individual and public health medicine towards a comprehensive public health perspective for coordinated multidisciplinary and intersectoral efforts and actions directed to sustained population-wide health improvement. 3. What are the positive and useful aspects of the book? What do the book contents offer? The complex subject of health promotion and disease prevention in the book is divided in five main chapters, reflecting the different stages and fields in health promotion and disease prevention development. The chapters include modules and sub-modules on certain topics. The contents’ coverage is solid and broad-based providing an overview on the complex challenge to manage health promotion and disease prevention. But what makes this book so different from other public health books? It is, as mentioned in the preface, likely to be the first book on health promotion and disease prevention focusing on the situation in South Eastern Europe. Having in mind the situation in the SEE countries, most of them taking part or having completed the accession process to the European Union, the European context is addressed in several sections. The enormous efforts of all those involved in these projects have to be acknowledged considering the political and historical background in the SEE region. It is legitimate to say that the cooperative development of these books contributed to the peace building process and the re-establishment of the regional cooperation in public health. Furthermore, in today’s era of EU enlargement, the book is most timely, offering insights in health promotion and disease prevention in the SEE Region, as well as the possibility to enrich the West European public health curricula with perspectives from South Eastern Europe. It is worth emphasizing that editors and authors from many SEE and other countries contributed with a huge amount of voluntary unpaid work for the sake of the Stability Pact project and improvement of the quality of postgraduate public health education and practice in South Eastern Europe. It seems there is no other endeavor of this size and established and re-established fast and close collaboration between countries, some of them having been in war with each other only a few years ago. 4. What are the negative aspects of the book? The book was not meant to be, and it can not be, an overall comprehensive textbook for all aspects and topics in the broad field of health promotion and disease prevention. However, its content is complex and structured in five chapters with 64 modules and case studies. The book integrates the most recent developments in the field of health promotion and disease prevention at the European and international level, but also the current understanding, approaches and vision of authors. It should serve to stimulate critical reflection and action in practice of public health professionals, policy and decision makers. It was also not meant to be, as it is not perfect, like the life itself. 5. Why would you recommend this book to a colleague? Authors from 12 countries (eight SEE countries, Germany, Hungary, Turkey and USA) contributed to the development of this handbook, thus illustrating the trans-national collaboration in the project. Written in English, to accommodate the international level, the book addresses an audience in the context of public health education, research and practice. It is most suitable to be used as a “handbook” for teachers, but would also serve public health practitioners, researchers and policy makers who want to recall knowledge on a specific subject in the field of health promotion and disease prevention, as well as public health students for self-induced or distance-learning purposes. The book structure reflects its primary intention to serve as a manual for teachers and postgraduate students in public health. The sections are presented in the form of teaching modules, thus turning out to be an added value compared to other public health teaching books: a standard-form summary page prior to each module provides information such as title, authors and identification of the module, address of the author for correspondence, key words, abstract of the content; learning objectives; teaching methods; recommendations for teachers; assessment of students; and the suggested student workload volume in ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). The text of the module introduces the given subject in more detail and is complemented with suggested exercises and recommended readings in order to facilitate the learning process. A number of case studies on specific features from selected SEE countries supplement the teaching modules. In a broader sense, this handbook will be a valuable resource in everyday academic and professional life and practice of health policy and decision makers, as well as professionals who are dealing with or are somewhat related to the health of the public. It is obvious in many countries that public health professionals must be better prepared to inform the public and to advise political leaders regarding options the society itself has to develop in terms of healthy public policies and collective health promotion strategies, sufficient problem-solving capacities and to establish supporting public health infrastructures. From a modern perspective of population health science it is difficult to see any reasonable alternative to the vision of a collectivistic and salutogenic approach to the health of the population groups and health of the public in general. In conclusion: The book “Health Promotion and Disease Prevention” represents a comprehensive handbook, first of all, for lecturers and postgraduate students in public health in accordance with the contemporary recommendations of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The book is fulfilling an important gap in the harmonization of the post-communist education systems in SEE countries with the European and international standards with direct contribution in preparing teaching modules in the book by prominent experts, teachers and researchers from SEE countries and broader. The book may serve as a useful manual not only for teachers and students, but also for the policy and decision makers and professionals in the public health community, to help them to react, much easier and better prepared, to the challenges of the 21st century, which are already here with us. -- 2008 SAB Steering Committee Member Doncho Donev, M.D., Ph.D. ### Next >> [ View All Features ] |
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