title: Adapting and using quality management methods to improve health promotion.
abstract: Although the western world is the most technologically advanced civilization to date, it is also the most addicted, obese, medicated, and in-debt adult population in history. Experts had predicted that the 21st century would be a time of better health and prosperity. Although wealth has increased, our quest to quell health problems using a pathogenic approach without understanding the interconnectedness of everyone and everything has damaged personal and planetary health. While current efforts help identify and eliminate causes of problems, they do not facilitate the creation of health and well-being as would be done with a salutogenic approach. Sociologist Aaron Antonovsky coined the term salutogenesis in 1979. It is derived from salus, which is Latin for health, and genesis, meaning to give birth. Salutogenesis, the study of the origins and creation of health, provides a method to identify an interconnected way to enhance well-being. Salutogenesis provides a framework for a method of practice to improve health promotion efforts. This article illustrates how quality management methods can be used to guide health promotion efforts focused on improving health beyond the absence of disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education & Promotion, East Carolina University, 3207 Carol Belk Building, Greenville, NC. Electronic address: beckerc@ecu.edu.
authors.forename: Craig M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education & Promotion, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Glascoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education & Promotion, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
authors.forename: William Michael
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Felts
authors.affiliation: Board of Trustee Sherman College of Chiropractic, President of Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kent
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D011787:Quality of Health Care
keywords: Quality; health; salutogenesis; systems