Conceptual convergences and divergences in health education

Abstract

Health education underwent, in the last century, profound changes both in its concepts and in the practices that derived from them. These changes are a result of the political, economic and social transformations that have been affecting humanity. The concept of education has shifted from a merely instructive perspective, which focused on the transmission-assimilation of information, to a more comprehensive and integrative perspective, centered on the creation of conditions that enable individuals to develop themselves holistically in their multidimensionality, in constant interaction with others. In turn, the concept of health has lost its negative connotation of absence of disease to be positively understood as a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being, constantly changing throughout life. In this sense, health education has also ceased to be seen as the transmission of hygiene-sanitation information oriented to the prevention or treatment of diseases, conducted in formal contexts, and has started to be understood as the qualification of individuals to control their own health determinants through the creation or development of action skills. Therefore, education and health now present themselves as two sides of the same process. In this study, we intend to examine the conceptual evolution concerning health and education in the 20th century in order to understand to what extent these conceptual changes have had a reflection on the practices.