Abstract
Aim
In 2014, Sally Davis, England’s Chief Medical Officer, proposed a paradigm shift in public health—the 5th Wave—which should focus on the culture of health. Her paper was meant to spark a debate, but this has been largely absent until now. This article argues why the concept of the culture of health needs to be incorporated into the theory of public health and shows a possible direction for applying it in practice.
Subjects and methods
Review of theoretical approaches and knowledge synthesis.
Results
Applying the culture of the health approach to change health behavior requires taking several different strands of thought into account. Any proposed effective intervention should be based on a framework including the ‘behavioral system,’ ecosocial theory, complex systems science, and school health promotion approaches. Changing culture is impeded by its complexity, but to solve this wicked problem, the focus should likely be on health promotion in schools.
Conclusion
To make interventions more effective, it is necessary for public health professionals to have an extensive debate on the interpretations of the role of the culture of health as highlighted in this article.
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Change history
30 January 2018
The journal had been advised to revise the title so that Clarivate Analytics can try to count the citations more accurately. There’s been confusion due to the existence of another journal with the same name.
Notes
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/wscc/ Accessed: 05.09.2017
http://www.who.int/school_youth_health/gshi/en/ Accessed: 05.09.2017
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Sara Vitrai, MA, gender studies expert, and Eric Hofer, BSc Honors A.I., expert in editing and making comments that greatly improved the manuscript.
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The original version of this article was revised: Due to the existence of another journal with the same name, the Publisher has added a subtitle, “From Theory to Practice.” Effective as of January 2018, the new title of this Journal is Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice.
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Vitrai, J. How should we change the culture of health? A note on the margin of an outstanding debate. J Public Health (Berl.) 26, 383–389 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0878-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0878-0