ArticleHealth care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy2016
Behavior Change or Empowerment: On the Ethics of Health-Promotion Goals.
Article in Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed.
- Empowering aspects for healthy food and physical activity habits: adolescents' experiences of a school-based intervention in a disadvantaged urban community.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2018Trial
- An internet-based self-administered intervention for promoting healthy habits and weight loss in hypertensive people who are overweight or obese: a randomized controlled trial.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2015Trial
- Public brain health: a framework for action to promote and safeguard brain health.BMC global and public health · 2026Review
- Patterns of Gambling and Other Risky Behaviors among Adolescents. A Latent Class Analysis Study on the 2021/22 Health Behaviors in School Children Survey Data.Journal of gambling studies · 2026Article
- Why the Social Gradient in Health-Related Behaviour is Unjust : An Unconditionalist Perspective.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Article
- Prevention Science, Community Empowerment and Social Justice in Achieving Stronger, Healthier Communities.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Article
- Are Health Nudges (Dis)Empowering?Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Article
- Person, Provider, Practice and Policy-P4: A framework for two-way learning and aboriginal community-led health promotion and evaluation.Dialogues in health · 2026Article
- Behavior change beyond intervention: an activity-theoretical perspective on human-centered design of personal health technology.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Application of a staged health education pathway checklist in perioperative care of patients with esophageal cancer.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Supporting community health workers in South Africa for context-specific food and nutrition literacy: implementation of a multi-media education-entertainment intervention.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Health Capital and its Significance for Health Justice.Public health ethics · 2025Article
- Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health-the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Responsible design of an AI system for health behavior change-an ethics perspective on the participatory design process of the STAR-C digital coach.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Peer-to-peer sharing in public health interventions: strategies when people share health-related personal information on social media.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Article
- Perceptions of lifestyle-related risk communication in patients with breast and colorectal cancer: a qualitative interview study in Sweden.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2024Article
- An Empowerment-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Older People with Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration: An Exploratory Qualitative Case Study Design.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Belonging, happiness, freedom and empowerment-a qualitative study of patients' understanding of health in early rheumatoid arthritis.BMC rheumatology · 2024Article
- Empowerment of individuals in Iranian health systems: a qualitative study using the Z-cognitive map approach.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Smartphone Apps for Food Purchase Choices: Scoping Review of Designs, Opportunities, and Challenges.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
One important ethical issue for health promotion and public health work is to determine what the goals for these practices should be. This paper will try to clarify what some of these goals are thought to be, and what they ought to be. It will specifically discuss two different approaches to health promotion, such as, behavior change and empowerment. The general aim of this paper is, thus, to compare the behavior-change approach and the empowerment approach, concerning their immediate (instrumental) goals or aims, and to morally evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these two goal models, in relation to the ultimate goal of health promotion. The investigation shows that the behavior-change approach has several moral problems. First of all, it is overly paternalistic and often disregards the individual's or group's own perception of what is important-something that also increases the risk of failed interventions. Furthermore, it risks leading to 'victim blaming' and stigmatization, and to increased inequalities in health, and it puts focus on the 'wrong' problems, i.e., behavior instead of the 'causes of the causes'. It is thereafter shown that the empowerment approach does not have any of these problems. Finally, some specific problems for the empowerment approach are discussed and resolved, such as, the idea that empowering some groups might lead to power over others, the objection that the focus is not primarily on health (which it should be), and the fact that empowered people might choose to live lives that risk reducing their health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
24100936What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.