Establishing and Maintaining Healthy Environments: Toward a Social Ecology of Health Promotion

Abstract

Earlier research on health promotion has emphasized behavior change strategies rather than environmentally focused interventions. The advantages of integrating lifestyle modification, injury control, and environmental enhancement strategies of health promotion are substantial. The author offers a social ecological analysis of health promotive environments, emphasizing the transactions between individual or collective behavior and the health resources and constraints that exist in specific environmental settings. Directions for future research on the creation and maintenance of health promotive environments also are examined.