Health Interventions

October 21 & 23 2025
Eric Delmelle

Chapter Overview

  • Focus: Planning interventions to improve population health
  • Final step in population health tasks: Control health problems
  • Emphasis on:
    • Health promotion
    • Disease prevention
    • Levels of prevention
    • Strategic frameworks and models

Wheel of interventions

Intervention Planning

1Health Promotion vs. Disease Prevention

  • Health Promotion: Enhances well-being and capacity to make healthy choices
  • Disease Prevention: Aims to reduce the occurrence, progression, and consequences of disease

Promotion Examples:

  • Education campaigns
  • Community gardens
  • Bike-friendly cities

Prevention Examples:

  • Immunization programs
  • Anti-smoking laws
  • STI screenings

1Health Promotion vs. Disease Prevention

Health Pyramid

2Levels of Intervention

TYPE DESCRIPTION
Primary Prevention Prevents disease before it starts (e.g., vaccines, nutrition)
Early Detection Identifies disease early (e.g., screenings)
Clinical Treatment Manages illness through medical care
Rehabilitation Restores function post-illness/injury
Palliation Improves quality of life in terminal illness

3Primary Health Care (PHC) & Healthy People

  • PHC (Alma Ata Declaration, 1978):
    • Essential, accessible, and community-driven health care
  • Healthy People (U.S.):
    • National objectives to improve health and eliminate disparities
  • Goals:
    • Increase healthy life expectancy
    • Eliminate health disparities

4Key Models and Frameworks

  • PRECEDE–PROCEED Model:
    • Structured planning for health interventions
    • Includes assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation

PRECEDE–PROCEED

4Key Models and Frameworks

  • Socio-Ecological Model:
    • Individual, interpersonal, community, and systemic levels

Socio-Ecological Model

5Cross-Cultural and Community Considerations

  • Tailor interventions to cultural norms and beliefs
  • Use local leadership and community participation
  • Ensure equity, access, and sustainability

Community Engagement

Summary Takeaways

  • Effective interventions = more than clinical care
  • Blend promotion + prevention + treatment + community engagement
  • Use evidence-based frameworks
  • Public health and primary care must collaborate

Reflections

  • What makes a population-level intervention successful?
  • How can health promotion be better integrated into clinical practice?
  • Which model (PRECEDE–PROCEED or socio-ecological) feels more intuitive to you?