Digitized health promotion: risk and personal responsibiltiy for health and illness in the Web 2.0 Era

This chapter focuses in particular on the digital health phenomenon as it has been taken up in health promotion endeavors, or what I will refer to here as “digitized health promotion.” The discussion identifies digitized health promotion as the latest stage in the trajectory of health promotion ideology and practice over the past four decades in wealthy Anglophone nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I argue that over this period the individualistic approach to preserving and maintaining good health that was commonly espoused in medicine and public health was challenged by advocates arguing for a greater focus on social justice and social epidemiology, as expressed in ideals of “the new public health.” The individualistic approach to health promotion never fully disappeared, however, and has gathered momentum in the current economic and neoliberal political climate. While many health promotion workers still champion the ideals of “the new public health” and “health for all,” public health policy in the context of digitized health promotion has begun to return to emphasizing personal responsibility for health. Straitened economic circumstances and the possibilities generated by the emergence of new technologies have converged to advance digitized health promotion. Digitized health promotion: risk and personal responsibility.... Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305780595_Digitized_health_promotion_risk_and_personal_responsibility_for_health_and_illness_in_the_Web_20_era [accessed May 30 2018].