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. 1999 Nov-Dec;90 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S11-4.
doi: 10.1007/BF03403571.

Collective lifestyles as the target for health promotion

K L Frohlich  1 , L Potvin
Affiliations

Collective lifestyles as the target for health promotion

K L Frohlich et al. Can J Public Health. 1999 Nov-Dec.

Abstract
in English, French

The last five years have witnessed intense debate among health researchers in Canada regarding the overlap of the health promotion and population health discourses. Meanwhile, strong currents within health promotion have attempted to move the field beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards the influence of social environments on health, although the tendency is often to fall back on individual behaviour modification as the primary lever for change. The Population Health research agenda bypasses behavioural determinants of health and explores instead social determinants. This body of knowledge provides useful insight for addressing some of the tensions in the health promotion discourse. This paper explores two of these tensions: whether individuals at risk or general populations should be targeted for change; and whether lifestyle is an individual or a collective attribute. We propose the notion of collective lifestyles as a heuristic for understanding the interaction between social conditions and behaviour in shaping health.

Parallèlement au vif débat en cours sur les différences et similitudes entre les discours de la promotion de la santé et de la santé des populations, certaines tensions sont apparues en promotion de la santé. En dépit des efforts pour orienter davantage le champ vers les déterminants socio-environnementaux de la santé, les comportements individuels constituent encore souvent la cible ultime du changement. Délaissant les facteurs individuels et résolument tourné vers les déterminants sociaux de la santé, le domaine de la santé des populations peut contribuer à dénouer ces tensions. Dans cet article nous examinons deux tensions à la lumière de résultats d’études sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé. La première tension concerne la cible des interventions et la seconde le caractère collectif ou individuel de la notion de “lifestyle”. Nous proposons le concept de “lifestyle collectif” comme outil heuristique pour comprendre comment les interactions entre les comportements individuels et les conditions sociales façonnent la santé. Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé (GRIS), Faculté de Médicine, Université de Montréal

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