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University of California Press

About the Book

This book is a state-of-the-art educational resource on the latest research and public-policy developments in the fields of wellness promotion and disease prevention. Based on award-winning lectures by University of California faculty on nine campuses as part of the Wellness Lectures Program jointly funded by The California Wellness Foundation, Health Net, and the University of California, the volume aims to widen the scope of health care research and policy to promote wellness rather than focus on illness and disease, and to incorporate proactive, interdisciplinary approaches to health care. The volume also contains chapters by distinguished scholars inthe fields of wellness promotion and disease prevention. Many of these articles fall outside the scope of what we conventionally call health promotion, bringing new perspectives to research and policy possibilities.

Promoting Human Wellness is organized around core themes such as the importance of disease prevention programs that address multiple health risks, the link between poverty and minority status and disease susceptibility, and the challenge of evaluating health benefits and cost-effectiveness. The articles discuss such timely issues as genetic determinism as a paradigm in wellness promotion, adolescent health promotion and teen pregnancy prevention strategies, racial differences in cancer epidemiology, the California smokers' helpline, strategies for reducing youth violence, HIV/AIDS prevention, domestic violence education and prevention srategies, and the future of women's health research.

Presented within the framework of social ecology, several of the chapters in this volume address new ideas and approaches in the wellness field that are only now beginning to be understood such as the social construction of variables including race, class, and gender. Promoting Human Wellness will be essential reading for health practitioners, policymakers, and others seeking to expand the ways we define and achieve health.

Keywords: Public health, community health, medicine, nursing, social welfare, health education, health psychology, social ecology, public policy, aging, health promotion.

About the Author

Margaret Schneider Jamner is a Research Associate at the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Daniel Stokols is Professor and Dean Emeritus of the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents


Foreword, by Cornelius L. Hopper and Irene Bronston
Acknowledgments
Introduction: New Frontiers for Research, Practice, and Policy, by Margaret Schneider Jamner

PART ONE. NEW DIRECTIONS IN HUMAN WELLNESS PROMOTION

1. The Social Ecological Paradigm of Wellness Promotion, by Daniel Stokols
2. The Societal Context of Disease Prevention and Wellness Promotion, by Lester Breslow
3. Promoting Wellness: Biomedical versus Outcomes Models, by Robert M. Kaplan
4. Community Participation, Empowerment, and Health: Development of a Wellness Guide for California, by S. Leonard Syme
5. Genetic Determinism as a Failing Paradigm in Biology and Medicine: Implications for Health and Wellness, by Richard C. Strohman


PART TWO. WELLNESS PROMOTION RESEARCH: INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES AND PERSPECTIVES

6. Creating Health Promotive Environments: Implications for Theory and Research, by Daniel Stokols
7. Theory-Based Evaluation: Investigating the How and Why of Wellness Promotion Programs, by Johanna Birckmayer and Carol Hirschon Weiss
8. Pregnancy Prevention Opportunities Focusing on the Younger Sisters of Childbearing Teens, by Patricia L. East
9. Immigrants May Hold Clues to Protecting Health during Pregnancy: Exploring a Paradox, by Sylvia Guendelman
10. Race and Health: Implications for Health Care Delivery and Wellness Promotion, by Mack Roach III
11. Health Promotion in Ethnic Minority Families: The Impact of Exposure to Violence, by Kathy Sanders-Phillips
12. Valuing Future Health in Social Policy and Human Health Behavior, by Theodore G. Ganiats and William J. Sieber


PART THREE. WELLNESS PROMOTION PRACTICE: TOWARD MORE COMPREHENSIVE APPROACHES

13. Health Promotion at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: Challenges and Dilemmas, by Meredith Minkler
14. Bridging the Clinical and Public Health Approaches to Smoking Cessation: California Smokers’ Helpline, by Shu-Hong Zhu and Christopher M. Anderson
15. Disease Prevention versus Health Promotion: Pitfalls of Preventive Care in the Geriatric Population, by Andrew Duxbury
16. Preventing Disability in Older Americans: The Challenge of the 21st Century, by John C. Beck
17. An Educational Approach to Engage Health Care Professionals in Wellness Promotion, by Stuart J. Slavin and Michael S. Wilkes
18. University-Community Partnerships to Promote Wellness in Children, Youth, and Families, by Philip R. Nader


PART FOUR. WELLNESS PROMOTION POLICY: TOWARD A MORE EXPLICIT CONSIDERATION OF THE POLITICAL CONTEXT

19. Strategies for Reducing Youth Violence: Media, Community, and Policy, by Lawrence Wallack
20. Adolescent Sexuality and Health Care Reform, by Adele Dellenbaugh Hofmann
21. Improving Health and Safety in the Agricultural Workplace, by Marc B. Schenker
22. Enhancing Women’s Health: Current Status and Directions in Research and Practice, by Annette L. Stanton, Sharon Danoff-Burg, and Sheryle J. Gallant
23. Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Exploring Myths and Controversies, by Amparo C. Villablanca
24. HIV/AIDS Prevention: Successes and Challenges, Craig R. Waldo and Thomas J. Coates

Afterword
Sheldon Margen and Joyce C. Lashof
Notes on Contributors
Index

Reviews

"This very important work calls for research and policy-making that is proactive, multi-level, multi-method, and interdisciplinary--not disease-driven. It synthesizes perspectives on wellness that have the potential to produce a paradigm shift in research and policy planning, implementation, and evaluation." — Lené Levy-Storms, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Medicine/Geriatrics

"[This book] helps broaden the field of inquiry and legitimates the social and political perspectives in health care research and planning." —Ellen R. Shaffer, University of California, San Francisco, Program in Medical Ethics