Health Education and Impact of Health Promotional Campaigns

In this essay I will be discussing the different health promotions that are currently in place. I will explain an outline of what is meant by health education. Secondly will be an explanation of the following health education levels such are primary health education, secondary health education and tertiary health education. And finally I will be explaining a current health education campaign and evaluate the impacts and effectiveness it has, and what relation it has with primary health education, secondary health education and tertiary health education. This essay will show relevant information collected from reliable sources on the different health promotions in place such as dry January, Stoptober, cervical screening (smear 4 smear), mental health and exercise and healthy eating and the impact these different health promotions have had on people’s lives. 

The different types of health promotion we have in place in the uk are, promoting breastfeeding, promoting child and family nutrition, SIDS prevention and education, injury prevention, promoting physical activity, smoking cessation programs such as ‘quit’ activities and ‘brief interventions,’ dry January and there are many more ongoing public health campaigns in the UK.

Health education is to teach and encourage individuals the meaning of health, and to show the importance of why being healthy should be maintained to prevent against diseases and other illnesses, and why going for screening tests and exams are important. Health education also teaches individuals about the physical, social, environmental  and mental health and it hopes to motivate people and keep them motivated in trying to be healthy. (tourouniversity, 2020)

The health promotion impacts on a person’s physical health and well being, by giving them the knowledge they need so they can live better and function within themselves. (NCBI, 2015)

The health promotion impacts on a person’s mental health by helping them to cope with stress and anxiety. It offers support and programmes for people suffering with mental health and other disorders. There are many health promotion campaigns in the UK that also offer programmes to help and support people. (youthgov, 2020)

The health promotion impacts on a person’s social health, by encouraging people to have a variety of social friendships to help reduce stress and heart related risks. The campaigns aim for people to talk about what is making them feel stressed. (helpguide, 2020)

The health promotion impacts on a person’s environmental health, by encouraging people to eat food with less chemicals in and more foods with natural ingredients. We can prevent environmental health problems by reducing smoking and second hand smoke, which causes cardiovascular diseases and respiratory infections. (healthypeople, 2020)

There are three different types of health education levels, which are, primary health education, secondary health education and tertiary health education.

A primary health education has measures in place to stop the illness before it gets to the disease stage and begins. Primary health education is the first contact, such as a GP, pharmacy’s and many other services that provide health care. They try to stop diseases or injuries developing in healthy individuals. An example to stop the primary health stage being needed is to make sure that regular exercise is being taken. (lumenlearning, 2020)

A primary health education illness can be down to an individual’s chosen lifestyle, such as the abuse of alcohol, unhealthy or poor eating habits, not enough exercise and smoking cigarettes. (lumenlearning,2020)

Secondary health education aims for individuals to have regular screening tests, and other scans and exams so if a disease or illness occurs it can be prevented in the earliest stage. Examples of screening are mammograms which is to spot breast cancer. (instituteforworkandhealth, 2020)

Secondary prevention is to limit or stop more serious health problems developing or occurring in the future. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

Secondary prevention also helps with diet and exercise programs to reduce the risk of individuals having a heart attack or a stroke. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

Tertiary health education aims to focus on people who are currently being affected by a disease or illness. They want to help in making that person’s life improve by lowering the chance of disability, limiting any complications and providing treatment and programs for them. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

Examples of tertiary health promotions include, chronic disease programs to manage diabetes, arthritis and depression. It also includes support groups to help individuals and their living. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

The current health campaign I will be discussing is cervical screening (smear 4 smear) Cervical screening is a preventative measure in place to help stop cervical cancer from happening, or to catch it in the earliest stages. From the age of 25 all women will be invited for a cervical screening test by their GP. Once the GP has performed the screening test, it is the sent off and tested for types of human papillomavirus (HPV). This causes the change to the cells of the cervix, if no HPV is found in the test you will not need to have another cervical screening test for 3 years if you are aged 25-49. After the age of 49 the cervical screening test will be required every 5 years until the age of 64, unless any change of spots of bleeding occurs within this time. Human papillomavirus is a very common virus, human papillomavirus can be from skin on skin contact, such as vaginal, oral and anal sex, and any skin on skin contact of the genital area. Some people will get human papillomavirus in their body but it will not be serious, it will not cause any problems and will not necessarily cause any cell changes in the cervix. (NHS, 2020)

The cervical screening programme was established in the UK in 1988. The cervical screening programme has since saved 5,000 lives a year with this current health campaign. (publichealthengland, 2018)

The first cervical screening examination which tests for human papillomavirus, as well as any abnormal cells first got introduced in December 2017. This was because human papillomavirus causes mostly all cervical cancers. (cancercouncil, 2020)

There are many different types of human papillomavirus, some are just infectious and not linked to cervical cancer, they will eventually go on their own, the most serious and common human papillomavirus that is linked to cervical cancer is, HPV16 and HPV18. Women having sex at an earlier age and having more than one sexual partner, will put them at risk of being infected with HPV16 and HPV18 which could potentially then lead to cervical cancer and treatment being needed. (WebMD, 2020)

It is also said that women who do not have a very good immune system could also be at risk of developing cervical cancer. (pubmed, 2015)

In march 2019, Public Health England launched a campaign on cervical screening saves lives and the importance that all women go to their cervical screening test. It aimed for women to understand the risks of cervical cancer, to encourage women to go for their screening once they have received their invite, that cervical screening can help prevent the cancer before it starts, and also the reasons why women should not feel ashamed or embarrassed of going. ‘cervical cancer prevention week is 21st-27^th January. In march 2019 it was the 10^th anniversary of the death of the tv star Jade Goody.’ (publichealthengland,2018)

The death of star Jade Goody, it raised more awareness for cervical cancer and encouraged women to get checked regularly than ever before. There has even been documentaries on the Tv, showing Jade Goody facing cervical cancer, and the different treatments she had to go through with after developing this disease. This is why there is more media interest in launching the cervical screening health campaign. (goodtoknow, 2019)

There is no evidence that screening women aged 22-24 reduced the rate of cervical cancer at ages 25-29. Cervical screening saw a 60% reduction of this cancer in women aged 40, it then saw an increase at age 64 of 80%. Cervical screening is effective in spotting and treating the cancer in its most earliest stage. (thebmj, 2009)

For the cervical screening to be effective and to eliminate the chance of women getting cervical cancer, research shows that 90%of girls are vaccinated the with human papillomavirus vaccine in their school or with their GP at the age of 15 years. 70% of women are screened for cervical cancer and that 90% of women who are identified to have cervical cancer are treated. (WHO, 2020)

The impact cervical screening has had is that, by 2013 there was 65,000 cases of cervical cancers that had been prevented by having the cervical screening test, since the health campaign was launched in 1988. Cervical screening reduces the risk of cancer among all women aged 25-64. (BMJ, 2020)

Having the cervical screening examination for human papillomavirus can impact on women both socially and psychologically. As it is known that human papillomavirus can be passed on through skin on skin contact. Research shows that women who get a positive result for human papillomavirus become stressed and anxious, the result of this effects them socially and psychologically, and also knowing the positive test result varied between just being an infection or weather the early stages of the disease. (pubmed, 2020)

The cervical screening relation to the primary health education is that it is the first stage out of the three. It offers the human papillomavirus vaccination to teenagers in their school years, before they become sexually active. There is three separate vaccinations to have for this. Having the human papillomavirus vaccination helps to reduce the risk of women getting cervical cancer. It has also been put in place to prevent in stopping the illness before it gets to the disease stage and begins in needing treatment. This vaccine also protects women against 9 types of human papillomavirus which is known to be the cause of developing cervical cancer. (lumenlearning,2020)

The cervical screening relation to the secondary health education, is that at this stage the health campaign aims for all women to have regular check -ups and screening tests. If the disease occurs at any time, it can be prevented straight away with treatment. The health campaign hopes all individuals will go for regular screening examinations, this will help in stopping the disease at its earliest stages. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

The cervical screening relation to the tertiary health education, is that it mainly focuses on women who are being affected by the disease. It offers access to cancer treatments, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for women of any age. It aims in helping to improve the person’s life and lower the chance of disability, by providing treatment and any health campaign programmes that are needed. (instituteforworkandhealth,2020)

In this essay I have spoke about the different health promotions that are currently in place. I have explained an outline of what is meant by health education. I have given an example and explained what is meant by primary health education, secondary health education and tertiary health education. I have also given examples for each of these, and some of the diseases and illnesses of the following health education levels. As it can be seen in this essay I have chosen the cervical screening (|smear 4 smear) campaign to discuss. I have explained what this campaign is, and how from 2009, more awareness of the cervical screening campaign came into place with the death of TV star Jade Goody. since then as it can be seen above more media raised awareness for Jade Goody. Also there were documentaries put on the Tv showing that anyone can develop cervical cancer and encouraging how important it is to go. for regular screening examinations I have evaluated the impacts and effectiveness this campaign has, along with some relevant statistics collected from reliable sources, and the age vaccinations and cervical screening examinations start. And lastly I have explained what relation cervical screening has to primary health education, secondary health education and tertiary health education.