%0 Journal Article
%T Personal health promotion at US medical schools: a quantitative study and qualitative description of deans' and students' perceptions
%A Erica Frank
%A Joan Hedgecock
%A Lisa K Elon
%J BMC Medical Education
%D 2004
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6920-4-29
%X We collected information through four different modalities: a literature review, written surveys of medical school deans and students, student and dean focus groups, and site visits at and interviews with medical schools with reportedly outstanding student health promotion programs.We found strong correlations between deans' and students' perceptions of their schools' health promotion environments, including consistent support of the idea of schools' encouraging healthy student behaviors, with less consistent follow-through by schools on this concept. Though students seemed to have thought little about the relationships between their own personal and clinical health promotion practices, deans felt strongly that faculty members should model healthy behaviors.Deans' support of the relationship between physicians' personal and clinical health practices, and concern about their institutions' acting on this relationship augurs well for the role of student health promotion in the future of medical education. Deans seem to understand their students' health environment, and believe it could and should be improved; if this is acted on, it could create important positive changes in medical education and in disease prevention.Our purpose was to describe both typical and outstanding personal health promotion environments experienced by medical students in U.S. medical schools. Our interest in health promotion among medical students was based on compelling data showing that physicians who have healthy personal habits are more likely to encourage patients to adopt related habits [1]. However, despite the clear possibility that promoting medical student health should therefore be an innovative, efficient, and effective way to improve patient outcomes, no one has examined the extent to which Deans or students believe that this concept is enacted in medical school.We collected information through four different modalities: a literature review, a written survey of medical school Dean
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/4/29