Four Pillars of the Health Promotion Program

At the Health Promotion Program (HPP), we are committed to generating knowledge that drives policies and programs toward a healthier, more equitable society. Our research focuses on four key pillars that help us understand the complex factors influencing health and well-being.

Health Policy Health policy is defined as the decisions, plans, and actions undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society. Examples of healthy public policies are legislation, fiscal measures, and/or organizational policies that promote health and wellbeing. Building on this, the HPP is dedicated to generating robust evidence – to evaluate current health policies and translate them to become ethical, inclusive, and actionable. By grounding its initiatives in research and prioritizing equity, HPP ensures that policies address health challenges effectively while promoting fairness and social justice.

Health Literacy and Behavior Health literacy is the ability to access, understand, and use information to make better health decisions, while health behavior refers to the actions of individuals that affect their health and well-being. The HPP focuses on studies that describe and test interventions geared towards enhancing health literacy and promoting positive behaviors through education, capacity building, and community engagement. By empowering individuals with knowledge and fostering sustainable behavior change, HPP aims to create healthier communities and support long-term public health outcomes.

Healthy Settings and Environments Healthy Settings, the settings-based approaches to health promotion, involve a holistic and multi-disciplinary method which integrates action to create supportive environments for health and well-being. The goal is to maximize disease prevention via a "whole system" approach. The HPP emphasizes the importance of transforming these settings, through the use of current evidence that is context-appropriate, into enablers of good health by addressing social and environmental determinants. Through partnerships, capacity building, and targeted interventions, HPP advocates for sustainable changes that foster healthier behaviors and improve quality of life for communities.

Participatory Action Research Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research that prioritizes the value of experiential knowledge for tackling problems caused by unequal and harmful social systems, and for envisioning and implementing alternatives. The HPP uses PAR to contribute in empowering communities by integrating their perspectives into health initiatives and fostering co-ownership of outcomes. By bridging research and practice, HPP ensures its interventions are both evidence-based and culturally relevant, creating a foundation for sustainable health improvements.