BMJ  2005;330:527-529 (5 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7490.527

Clinical review

ABC of adolescence

Health promotion

Russell Viner,

Aidan Macfarlane

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Health can be defined as optimum physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Health promotion is the science or art of helping people change their lifestyle to move towards a state of optimal health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to increase awareness, change behaviour, and create environments that support good health practices.

Need for health promotion

There are five main reasons for a particular health promotion focus on young people.

One of the most compelling arguments for a focus on adolescent health is that adolescence is a time when new health behaviours are laid down—behaviours that track into adulthood and will influence health and morbidity throughout life. Health behaviours in childhood are dominated by parental instruction and shared family values. During adolescence young people begin to explore alternative or "adult" health behaviours, including smoking, drinking alcohol, drug misuse, violence, and sexual intimacy. The continuity of these behaviours into adulthood . . . [Full text of this article]

Settings for health promotion

Resilience

Role of individual health workers


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Wang, W.-L., Herting, J. R., Tung, Y.-Y. (2008). Adolescents' Avoidance of Secondhand Smoke Exposure: Model Testing. West J Nurs Res 30: 836-851 [Abstract]  
  • Ogilvie, D., Gruer, L., Haw, S. (2005). Young people's access to tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. BMJ 331: 393-396 [Full text]  

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