Health promotion as an investment strategy: Considerations on theory and practice

This paper discusses the emergence of health promotion as a complex strategy framed by the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Many health promotion interventions are clearly informed by multiple theories underlying the disciplines that support them. An overarching theory of health promotion, however, remains to be developed. Conceivably, a theoretical rationale may derive from careful scrutiny of the interaction among the several action domains of the Charter, given a concerted effort to organize observations on crucial aspects of these interactions. The authors present an argument for such an enterprise and identify several key issues affecting its achievement, particularly deficits in health promotion skills required for policy analysis and mediation.