Abstract
After a quarter of a century, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, often recognized as a foundational document of health promotion, continues to be relevant for public health. Inspired by the WHO Constitution, the Alma Ata Declaration, and the Lalonde Report, the Ottawa Charter endorses a positive definition of health, situates health as a product of daily life, proposes core values and principles for public health action, and outlines three strategies and five action areas reaching beyond the boundaries of the health care sector. The Charter established a radical agenda for public health, specifically to expressly convey the values public health pursues, thereby increasing the potential for the reflexivity of the field and opportunities to consider complementary values in actions that promote population health. In this paper, we examine how public health has integrated health promotion by exploring examples of changes in public health systems and practice at international and national levels of governance. Nevertheless, an important challenge remains for health promotion: better use of research to understand how the values, principles and processes of health promotion can help to achieve public health mandates. A three-pronged action plan is proposed.
Key words: Health promotion, public health, public health practice, research, World Health Organization
Résumé
Un quart de siècle plus tard, la Charte d’Ottawa pour la promotion de la santé, largement reconnue comme un document fondateur de la promotion de la santé, continue d’être pertinente pour la santé publique. S’appuyant sur la Constitution de l’OMS, la Déclaration d’Alma-Ata et le Rapport Lalonde, la Charte d’Ottawa souscrit à une définition positive de la santé, situe la santé comme un produit de la vie de tous les jours, propose un certain nombre de valeurs et principes fondamentaux pour l’action de santé publique et expose trois stratégies et cinq domaines d’action qui s’étendent au delà du secteur des soins de santé. La Charte établit un programme radical pour la santé publique, celui de rendre explicite les valeurs qu’elle poursuit, accroissant ainsi à la fois le potentiel de réflexivité du champ et sa capacité de prendre en compte d’autres valeurs dans les actions qui visent à accroître la santé des populations. Dans cet article, nous examinons à l’aide d’exemples nationaux et internationaux comment la promotion de la santé a pénétré les pratiques et les systèmes de santé publique. Quoi qu’il en soit, un des défis importants pour la promotion de la santé réside dans une meilleure utilisation de la recherche pour mieux comprendre comment les valeurs, principes et processus mis de l’avant par la promotion de la santé contribuent à la réalisation des mandats de santé publique. Trois priorités d’action sont proposées pour relever ce défi.
Mots clés: promotion de la santé, santé publique, pratiques de santé publique, recherche, Organisation mondiale de la santé
Footnotes
Acknowledgement: Louise Potvin is the holder of the CHSRF-CIHR Chaire approches communautaires et inégalités de santé (CHSRF-CIHR no. CP1-0526-05).
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
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