Health Promotion Program Overview
Welcome to the discipline of Health Promotion!
Within the School of Education, Teaching, and Health is the discipline of health promotion. Students across the campus have the opportunity to take a course that emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in college and beyond. Further, if students have a passion for health and changing people’s live, they are encouraged to pursue a degree in health promotion. Students can select from the following course and program offerings:
- Fitness classes (i.e. Yoga, Pilates, Aerobic Dance)
- Skills classes (i.e. Tennis, Scuba, Golf)
- Health courses (i.e. Nutrition, Stress Management, Exercise Physiology)
- Minor in Health Promotion
- BS in Health Promotion
- MS in Health Promotion Management
- Combined B.S./M.S. Degree
What is Health Promotion?
Health Promotion is the science and art of helping people, organizations,
and communities change lifestyle behaviors to move toward a state of improved
health resulting
in decreases in chronic disease and health care costs. To accomplish this
objective, students learn the science of health through the study of nutrition,
chemistry, exercise physiology, and psychology combined with program planning
for health promotion by learning how to assess, implement, and evaluate
programs that effectively achieve the outcome of improved health.
History of Health Promotion at AU
The discipline of health promotion is relatively new, however AU has been actively involved with health promotion since the late 1970s. During the late 1970s, the National Center for Health and Fitness was established and offered the MS in Health Promotion Management. This academic program was one of the first programs in the country to offer an advanced degree in health promotion. In 1995, building on the success of the MS program, the BS degree was established giving undergraduate students an opportunity to pursue this degree. To date, there are over 400 graduates around the nation and the world dedicated to improving the health and quality of people’s lives.
Health Promotion Research
To establish the field of health promotion, research activities were initiated to investigate the effectiveness of health promotion programs at the worksite. Since the United States health care system is funded through employers, it was hypothesized that health promotion programs might improve the health of employees and reduce rising health care costs. In the 1980s, the National Center for Health Fitness received several research grants through the Pentagon and the Army Materiel Command to study the health and financial benefits of corporate health promotion programs. The research demonstrated that health promotion programs did provide organizations with a return on their investment due to the improved health and productivity of the employees. This research has been a springboard for other health promotion research projects by the faculty and students.
Contact Us
Health Promotion
Gray Hall 119
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016-8037
Phone: (202) 885-6275
Fax: (202) 885-6288
E-mail: healthfitness@american.edu
