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Advancing the ‘science of delivery’ of health promotion: not just the ‘science of discovery’
E-mail: hpi@deakin.edu.au
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How can health promotion best be delivered? What are the optimal roles and responsibilities of individuals, health and other practitioners, professional associations, public and private organizations, and governments at different levels? This is a conundrum that we have been grappling with for more than two decades and are still feeling the way forward.
Compared with our investment in understanding the causes and consequences of health issues and to a lesser extent the effectiveness of interventions, we have not adequately investigated the best ways to organize, manage and finance health promotion. The ‘science of discovery’ has tended to dominate the ‘science of delivery’. This is understandable given the common criticism over the last decade that ‘health promotion does not work’ or at least ‘health promotion does not work well enough’.
As documented in Health Promotion International and other sources, the tide has turned with mounting evidence of the value and cost–benefit