Both a message and a population are required when developing a health promotion initiative, but which should come first? For a number of factors, a population should always come first. One of these is that the health requirements that should be addressed by the message of health promotion must be identified. Without a population with those specific requirements, it is impossible to identify health needs. Thus, focusing on a specific group is crucial for developing and harmonizing the health promotion message, and it should come first. It is not intended to minimize the significance of the program's message by placing the needs of the populace above those of the message. Instead, it seeks to give it relevance. A health promotion program cannot exist without a message (Bartholomew, 2016). However, the message needs to be relevant to the people it is being communicated to. Therefore, with a population already in place, the message becomes relevant and its objectives can easily be achieved.
Secondly, a health promotion program is driven by a population in that it seeks to enlighten a group of people on certain health issues. This group of people is the population. Without it, a health promotion program cannot materialize. One may be in a position to design a great and captivating health promotion message but its achievability would not be possible if there was no population for whom the message would be intended (Bartholomew, 2016). Therefore, the population should come first.
Having noted the importance of first identifying a population, it is necessary to note that a health promotion program lacks direction without a message. Therefore, both the message and population are equally important. The only difference between them is that the population needs to come first so as to facilitate both the creation of a message and the eventual success of the program.
Reference
Bartholomew, E. L. K. (2016). Planning health promotion programs: An intervention mapping approach.
