title: How can patient education help attain the objectives for the nation?
abstract: The publication of Healthy People and Promoting Health/Preventing Disease represents a milestone in the development of a national health promotion policy. The growth of patient education programs, one component of clinical preventive medicine, suggests an avenue for achievement of these health promotion objectives. I report the findings of surveys of patient education activities and programs, which found that a substantial number of patient education efforts address the Objectives for the Nation. I then discuss the results of an analysis of the Objectives for the Nation that found that 15.7% of the 370 measures pertain, either implicitly or explicitly, to patient education. I conclude by making suggestions for strengthening the links between patient education and health promotion policy.
authors.affiliation: International Patient Education Council, Rockville, MD 20850.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Bartlett
mesh_terms: D000573:American Hospital Association; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009934:Organization and Administration; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs