HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Related articles in AJPH Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Guinta, M A Articles by Allegrante, J P Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Guinta, M A Articles by Allegrante, J P

The President's Committee on Health Education: a 20-year retrospective on its politics and policy impact.

M A Guinta and J P Allegrante

Center for Health Promotion, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.

The President's Committee on Health Education was created by Richard M. Nixon in September 1971 and submitted its final report in September 1973. The committee resulted from the convergence of (1) a perceived national domestic policy need in response to escalating medical costs, (2) Nixon's personal and political ambitions, and (3) the dynamic political context of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its work led to both private and public initiatives designed to influence the public's health through education; its findings and recommendations also laid the foundation for the National Consumer Health Information and Health Promotion Act of 1976 and thus contributed significantly to the development of subsequent national policy in health promotion and disease prevention. This paper places the work and contributions of the committee into historical perspective by analyzing the committee's origins and methods and the underlying politics that shaped its work and final report. The impact of the President's Committee is traced from the emergence of health education in the early 1970s as a potentially cost-effective alternative to medical care to the pivotal role health education now plays in health promotion and disease prevention efforts.

Related articles in AJPH:

The President's Committee on Health Education. The committee's legacy.

H G Ogden
AJPH 1993 83: 908-909. [PDF]  

Women's contributions to the committee ignored.

W H Carlyon and M B Pollock
AJPH 1993 83: 909. [PDF]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. M. Jorgensen Health Education: What Can It Look Like after Health Care Reform? 1993 SOPHE Presidential Address Health Educ Behav, April 1, 1994; 21(1): 11 - 26. [Abstract] [PDF]