Health promotion indicators: current status, issues and problems

This article describes the background to the current status of health promotion indicator research and defines the major issues and problems involved. It then discusses both of these areas in detail. Problems in health promotion indicators fall under three major headings: methodologies, concepts and theories, and purpose and applications. Two other kinds of problems are discovered under these headings. Problems of methodology include djfficulties in measurement and data analysis. The issues in concepts and theories of indicators include defining the field and defining the theory, while issues in purposes and applications involve the use of indicators in the fields of research and policy. The authors conclude that the emerging paradigm of health promotion has a wider perspective than the paradigm of disease prevention, medical care and medical treatmen

Towards health promotion indicators

This article examines the state of the art in health promotion indicator development over the past few years and presents five conclusions from this review, The authors put forward proposals for the development of health promotion indicators based on the question, "What research in health promotion will lead to appropriate indicators?”. The authors illustrate some areas of concern both for researchers and policymakers and suggest a number of indicators, appropriate to each of these groups, for important dimensions of health, health-related processes and health resources. The dialogue between health researchers and health decision-makers is growing and links are being made; it is important to continue this proces

The interaction of multiple stellar winds in stellar clusters: potential flow

While several studies have investigated large-scale cluster winds resulting from an intra-cluster interaction of multiple stellar winds, as yet they have not provided details of the bordering flows inside a given cluster. The present work explores the principal structure of the combined flow resulting from the interaction of multiple stellar winds inside stellar clusters. The theory of complex potentials is applied to analytically investigate stagnation points, boundaries between individual outflows, and the hydrodynamic structure of the asymptotic large-scale cluster wind. In a second part, these planar considerations are extended to fully three-dimensional, asymmetric configurations of wind-driving stars. We find (i) that one can distinguish regions in the large-scale cluster wind that are determined by the individual stellar winds, (ii) that there are comparatively narrow outflow channels, and (iii) that the large-scale cluster wind asymptotically approaches spherical symmetry at large distances. The combined flow inside a stellar cluster resulting from the interaction of multiple stellar winds is highly structured.Comment: 8 pages, 8 Figure

Advancing a theoretical model for public health and health promotion indicator development: Proposal from the EUHPID consortium

This paper discusses the work of the EUHPID Project to develop a European Health Promotion Monitoring System based on a common set of health promotion indicators. The Project has established three working groups to progress this task - health promotion policy and practice-driven, data-driven and theory-driven. The work of the latter group is reviewed in particular. EUHPID has taken a systems theory approach in order to develop a model as a common frame of reference and a rational basis for the selection, organization and interpretation of health promotion indicators. After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of those health promotion models currently proposed for indicator development, the paper proposes a general systems model of health development, and specific analytical, socio-ecological models related to public health and health promotion. These are described and discussed in detail. Taking the Ottawa Charter as the preferred framework for health promotion, the socio-ecological model for health promotion adopts its five action areas to form five types of systems. The structure and processes for each of these five systems are proposed to form the basis of a classification system for health promotion indicators. The paper goes on to illustrate such a system with reference to indicators in the workplace setting. The EUHPID Consortium suggest that their socio-ecological model could become a common reference point for the public health field generally, and offer an invitation to interested readers to contribute to this developmen