BUILDING SKILLS TO SERVE A GROWING FIELD, ART AND SCIENCE OF HEALTH PROMOTION CONFERENCE SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MARCH 14–19, 2004

Our understanding of the most effective strategies to improve health has progressed dramatically in the past two decades. Theories of health behavior have been refined to guide the overall structure of programs. Techniques to increase participation have been tested and proven successful. Tailoring strategies have been developed to adapt programs to reflect the learning styles, motivation and educational level of individuals and groups. Experience has shown the programs and staff levels necessary to deliver the "preventable dose." Management strategies have been developed to persuade executives and other decision makers to provide appropriate program support. Research methods have been developed to accurately measure program impact. We have seen brilliant successes in clinical, workplace, and community settings which have improved quality of life, reduced disease prevalence, extended life span, reduced medical costs, and enhanced productivity.

We have also seen programs that attract so few participants, they are virtually invisible to the overall target population . . . programs based on invalid theories that make no impact on health . . . programs that do not engage the support of decision makers . . . programs that are very expensive, produce no positive impact and are quickly eliminated.

There is a huge gap between the most effective programs and the least effective programs. As long as this is true, we will miss our potential to improve health and quality of life, reduce costs, and enhance productivity. The perceived value and overall support for health promotion will also suffer.

We are involved in an ongoing advocacy effort to increase the importance of health promotion in national health policy (www.HealthPromotionAdvocates.org), and ultimately to grow the field. That growth has finally arrived; in fact we may be about to experience an era of historic growth. We would like to think this growth is in part due to our advocacy efforts to educate the U.S. Congress and the White House on the importance of health promotion, but most likely it has been caused by continually increasing medical costs which now consume an estimated 15% of GDP¹ and exceed the profits of many employers. Costs continue to increase in part because of an aging population and worsening lifestyle factors including the current obesity epidemic. The aging of the population alone is estimated to increase costs by 4%.² Lifestyle factors, including obesity, tobacco, and sedentary lifestyle, are estimated to account for 50%³ of all premature deaths and 25%–50%^4,5 of all costs, so any worsening in those factors has a huge impact on costs.

As a field, we need to ensure that our skills and overall capacity are sufficient to meet this demand. The goal of this conference is to describe the most effective strategies available . . . in order to narrow the gap between the most effective and the least effective programs. The focus of this conference is building skills . . . skills we can use to serve the nation through health promotion.

The conference will have four basic tracks: Practice Skills, Research Skills, Advocacy Skills and the Financial Impact of Health Promotion.

The Practice Skills track will address skills necessary to design and deliver successful programs in workplace, school, clinical, and community settings. This track will include how to apply behavioral theory to program development, increasing participation rates, effective communication strategies, how to develop top management support, tailoring programs to individual and group needs, successful strategies for enhancing physical activity and nutrition, managing stress, controlling weight, quitting smoking, and reaching high risk and low risk groups.

The Research Skills track will address skills necessary to develop and manage effective program evaluation efforts, including study design, measurement, sampling, and analysis.

 The Advocacy Skills track will address the skills necessary to continue our efforts to make health promotion a more important part of national, state, and local health policy.

The Financial Impact track will review the results of the most current research on the impact of health promotion on controlling medical care costs and enhancing productivity, and the application of this data to projecting the impact of health promotion on whole communities and the nation. For details, see www.HealthPromotionConference.org.

References

1. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. National health expenditures and selected economic indicators, levels and average annual percent change: selected calendar years 1980–2011. See Table 1 at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/statistics/nhe/projections-2001/t1.asp. Accessed May 27, 2004.

2. Symonds W, Grow B, Cropper M, Brady D. Health Care: get used to the pain, Business Week. October 20, 2003:42.

3. Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF, Gerberding JL. Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. JAMA. 2004;291:1238–1245.

4. Anderson D, Whitmer B, Goetzel R, et al. Relationship between modifiable health risks and health care expenditures: a group level analysis of the HERO research data base. Am J Health Prom. 2000;15:45–52.

5. Anderson D, 2003. Personal communication.

Michael P. O'Donnell, PhD, MBA, MPH
Editor in Chief, American Journal of Health Promotion