“The ingredients of health and long life are great temperance, open air, easy labour, and little care.” – Sir Philip Sidney
Health is important. Health is wealth. However we tend to be unaware of many health related issues due to our busy schedule. So health education is a fundamental part of educating ourselves about proper health. There are numerous ways to educate about health. It may be through newspapers, magazines, television shows, seminars or educational institutions. Health is not only the physical part of it; rather it consists of the emotional health, environmental health, social health and of course the spiritual health. Health education can basically be defined as a combination of learning and implementing theories of good health on individuals and groups.
The objective of Health Education is:
1) To assess the need of Health Education among the individuals as well as communities
2) Planning and implementation of different strategies, programs, seminars and interventions for health education
3) Conducting evaluation and different researches which are related to Health Education
4) Administration of these health strategies
5) To provide a proper resource of health education
6) To provide a proper advocate as well as an apt coordinator for Health education
Health education programs should be dealt globally. United States alone accounts for about 40 states which need health education. The curriculum of health education consists of developing a positive attitude and care for the overall human body and the essential organs related to the same; physical strength; alcoholic, tobacco and the drugs related health problems; misconceptions about some of the health myths; how is exercise useful to body; obesity control; AIDS; sexuality; how does the quality of food, sanitation, basic hygiene and water contribute to health etc.
Health education career has a lot of opportunities to offer as for example studies on Allied Health, Communication Sciences, Health Information and Communication, Counselling, Expressive Art Therapies, Dentistry, Laboratory Science, Dietics, Therapies and Rehabilitation, Podiatry, Psychology, Medical Imaging, Pharmacy, Medicine, Vision Studies, Veterinary Medicines, Physical Assistance etc.
In order to educate about health, an individual needs to have accurate knowledge about this subject. Different health education degrees can be acquired to serve this purpose. The Bachelor’s degree is of 4 years durations, the Master’s is for 2 years and the Doctorate degree varies from 4 to 7 years. Health education degrees are mainly acquired in Community Health promotion, Social and Behavioural sciences, Health Program Development, Health Management & Policy, Health Service Management, Public Health Epidemiology, Health Services Administration, Nutrition Health Education and so on.
However among all the health education degrees Nutrition Health Education is most important. Nutrition is the ultimate source of metabolism in human body which creates the energy within. It is very important to know the proportions of vitamins, protein and carbohydrate intake for our body. It is almost a regular phenomenon nowadays that we go for abrupt dieting or sometimes skip our breakfast. We do this being unaware of the nutritional problems that our body faces. So nutrition education is very important. Apart from the health educators one can also avail different courses on Nutritional education as for example programs on Food Safety and Biosecurity, Complimentary Feeding, Hunger & Food Security etc.