title: Advances in health promotion in Africa: promoting health through hospitals.
abstract: A district hospital in a rural area of the Limpopo Province in South Africa has recently been launched as a 'Health Promoting Hospital', based on the principles of the Ottawa Charter and according to standards developed by WHO-Europe. The initiative was conceived as a project in partnership with stakeholders from the local community and is considered a pilot by Provincial health authorities, representing an advance in health promotion practice in the region. The project was designed as a research intervention, guided by the principles of critical action research integrated with the Precede-Proceed model for the systematic evaluation of health promotion and education. This commentary reports on the process undertaken in successfully transforming this community-based hospital into a Health Promoting Hospital by integrating the concept, values and standards of health promotion into its structure and culture, thereby creating a healthy setting and promoting the health and wellbeing of the hospital's staff, its patients, and their relatives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Brussels, Belgium. pdelobel@vub.ac.be
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Delobelle
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Onya
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Langa
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mashamba
authors.forename: Anne Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Depoorter
mesh_terms: D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000639:trends*; D006767:Hospitals, District; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D013019:South Africa