Health promotion communication strategies have raised ethical concerns because they aim at altering peoples view. The issues raised have been discussed broadly by Nurrit Guttman in his article, Ethical Issues in Health Promotion and Communication. The author discusses the impacts of promoting health using digital social platforms. He has also analyzed the way health intervention information is developed, tested, articulated, and disseminated to the public by health care officials. According to the author, the fact that health promotion aims at influencing relationships, beliefs, lifestyles, and social norms raises several moral dilemmas and issues (Guttman, 2017). This paper discusses the role of healthcare professionals in solving the ethical issues raised in Guttman’s paper.
The health promotion communication process is influenced and funded by powerful private or public organizations and government agencies, whose motives are questionable. Ethical issues arising from the advertisement in media include exaggerations, extreme emotional appeals, provocative tactics, use of children, and omissions. The writer alludes that the key ethical concerns in the process are associated with the infringement of citizens’ privacy, interference with the rights to autonomy, equity, and freedom of choice.
The intervention communicated through the digital platforms may have unintended adverse effects on some target audience’s psychological well-being. This is because their norms, lifestyles, or beliefs are shown as negative models or they may be stigmatized. Additionally, the health promotion communication strategies used sometimes have effects on some cultural aspects of the community (Edelman et al., 2017). For instance, they might idealize specific lifestyles. In my opinion, health care professionals should use democracy when developing an intervention affecting multicultural settings. In addition, they should perform their duties of ensuring that a health promotion communication strategy favored by funders is not detrimental to the public. Furthermore, they should obtain consent from the citizens on issues that may infringe their privacy, autonomy, and freedom of choice before advertising the promotion.
Deontological theories require people to perform their duties and obligations when involved in decision-making processes where ethical issues are under considerations (Kruger, 2016). This implies that it is the duty of an individual to follow her or his obligations to society and people when handling duties (Lazar & Graham, 2019). Therefore, health care workers in health promotion sectors are required to uphold their conflicts of interest code, which needs them to avoid relationships with companies that influence their capacity to make fair and objective decisions.
The ethical philosophy based on rights should have been employed by healthcare workers in making decisions concerning health promotion communication strategies. This theory necessitates the principles of ethics such as justice and equity, respect for autonomy, beneficence, and the least harm to be practiced in an organization (Kruger, 2016). Interferences with equity and justice widen social gaps in society, some people benefit more than others from the strategies used in interventions. Therefore, there is a need to formulate strategies that support fairness.
Additionally, the democratic theory emphasizes the rights to privacy and autonomy for every citizen. Thus, healthcare workers should adhere to it in their duties. Every person deserves respect regardless of their status in society. Hence, the motivations, emotions, culture, and norms of communities should be analyzed before using digital platforms for the promotion. Health professionals must also ensure that less harm is inflicted on the target audience.
References
Edelman, C. L., Mandle, C. L., & Kudzma, E. C. (2017). Health promotion throughout the life span (9th ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences.
Guttman, N. (2017). Ethical issues in health promotion and communication interventions. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication.
Kruger, W. H. (2016). Ethical decision making processes. Healthcare Ethics: For Healthcare Practitioners, 97.
Lazar, S., & Graham, P. A. (2019). Deontological decision theory and lesser-evil options. Synthese, 1-28.