Health education is a social science that includes biological, psychological, environmental and medical science to promote health and prevent disease through the educational activities. Health education influences the health behavior of the individuals and communities. This education improves the quality of life of all people and reduces the premature deaths. Health education reduces the costs that individuals, families, insurance companies, medical facilities, the state and the nation would spend on medical treatment. Through the health education programs, students learn how to improve their health and prevent disease through developing skills.
Families have access to support and services that help them develop healthy attitudes and behaviors. Students offer a positive physical, emotional and social environment and health education offer students and opportunity to acquire knowledge and practice skills that can benefits them through out life. The aim of health education programs is to motivate students to maintain and improve their health and reduce the health related risk behaviors. Health education is very necessary nowadays because the amount of people falling to common sicknesses increases from a year to another.
There are many companies that offer free health education advice to the general public especially on educating themselves by making full use of the knowledge they learnt. Health education topics cover drinking, drug use, unprotected sexual contact etc. health education is about helping students gain new information about healthy living and learn developing tools which are necessary to live a healthy life. Health education is concerned with the quality of life and encompasses the physical and social well being of the every member of the society.
An effective health education programs should address the needs of the young people and consider young's people or children's knowledge and experience. Health education curriculum should be both holistic and pupils centered. To make it more beneficial, health education must also be based on a partnership between all schools staffs, parents, school board and the wider community. Health education curriculum has been designed to increase awareness about health and hygiene among children, develop the positive the positive living habits among them and empowers them to make informed choices about their own health.
Health education system promote the idea of responsibility for one's health by addressing health concerns like nutrition, exercise, fitness, disease prevention, growth and development, environmental and social health, conflict resolution and violence protection. The basic objectives of health education curriculum are to improve life skills such as self esteem, decision making, effective communication, character building, stress management and ensuring that they become an integral part of each child's life.
Parents are the primary educators of their children to share their beliefs. Parents and teachers need to work together to provide children with the best health information. Health education teaches students to take responsibility for their own health by learning how to stay healthy, develop good health habits and responding to warning signs before something serious happen to their health. Since early in the twentieth century, health educators have played an important role in addressing challenges to our health and in the past there were infectious diseases such as smallpox, medical science helped bring these killers under control.
Now, greatest threat to our health are chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, AIDS, injuries etc. job of the health educators involves a knowledge based skills aimed at improving and maintaining health of the individuals , families and whole communities. The challenges facing children growing up in the 21st century, especially poorest children living in low income countries and they are affected by problems such as poor nutrition, infectious diseases, violence, inadequate access to clean water and increase threat of living with HIV/AIDS. They are need to equip with knowledge, values and skills they will help them to face these challenges and help them in making healthy life style as they grow.
The advantage of skill based health education to areas such as AIDS prevention, reproductive health, tobacco and drugs abuse is becoming increasingly widespread. Providing information about issues such as sex, sexual transmitted diseases is necessary but not sufficient, to lead to healthy behavior change. Everyday students make decisions affecting their health; what foods to eat, what risk to take or what to do for exercise. The standards for health education can help students make better decisions about their health.
Students should learn to protect their health by acquiring good information, by seeking good advice and by taking responsibility of their own health. Health education gives the students the knowledge to thrive physically, mentally and socially. It helps students to recognize the cause of ill health and they become aware of dimension of good health. Health education includes a set of skills to help people to better consumers of information, to manage stress and to take better decisions in the face of conflicting messages.
Health education is shown to yield both investment and consumption benefits or economic aspects of it have to receive inadequate attention. Poor health is often caused by unhealthy environment, by lack of information and by inappropriate health services. Problems includes the lack of the safe and sanitary lining conditions, malnutrition, risk of parasite and water borne diseases, alcohol and drugs resulting intentional injuries.
