Designing effective health promotion and disease prevention programs.

Numerous researchers stress the importance of health promotion and disease prevention programs as a means of helping people to foster positive health and lifestyle habits. Typically, health promotion and disease prevention programs strive to educate the public about risks involved in health abuses and the impact of lifestyle upon health status. Research, however, also reveals that health promotion and disease programs are often poorly designed. In response to the problem, a course model for teaching future health professionals how to strategically plan health promotion and disease prevention programs is presented.