• Poor populations experience worse health outcomes than those who are better off. This paper argues that people working in public health practice are uniquely positioned to address issues of poverty in marginalised and deprived communities.

Price, J. H., Khubchandani, J., & Webb, F. J. (2018). Poverty and health disparities: What can public health professionals do? Health Promotion Practice, 19(2), 170–174.

• This paper explores experiences of community participation in an Aboriginal context. It examines how social and power dynamics influence the process of participation and how these may raise ethical challenges for those involved.

Fraser, S., Vrakas, G., Laliberté, A., & Mickpegak, R. (2017). Everyday ethics of participation: A case study of a CBPR in Nunavik. Global Health Promotion, 25(1), 82–90.

• Social and cultural contexts influence concepts of health and of health promotion. This qualitative study explores the socio-cultural health concepts of women in rural Nepal. The findings have the potential to influence policy and practice in this context.

Yang, Y., Bekemeier, B., & Choi, J. (2018). A cultural and contextual analysis of health concepts and needs of women in a rural district of Nepal. Global Health Promotion, 25(1), 15–22.

• Social isolation, whether actual or perceived, is an increased risk for early death. This meta-analysis examines the magnitude of social isolation and identifies possible moderators. It concludes that both actual and perceived social isolation are comparable risks for mortality alongside other well-established risk factors.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., Baker, M., Harris, T., & Stephenson, D. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237.

• Using 40 years of data this paper examines economic hardship, social mobility and health outcomes and how these are related to each other over the life course.

Wilson, A. E., & Shuey, K. M. (2016). Life course pathways of economic hardship and mobility and midlife trajectories of health. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 57(3), 407–422.

• This paper examines the association between self-related health and social capital, at individual and neighbourhood levels and discusses potential health promotion strategies for the local context.

Miyamoto, K., Iwakuma, M., & Nakayama, T. (2017). Social capital and health: implications for health promotion by lay citizens in Japan. Global Health Promotion, 22(4), 5–19.

• This paper seeks to examine ‘empowerment’ in the social development context drawing on its roots in the word ‘power’. It explores the relationship between empowerment and structure and agency drawing on the thinking of a number of influential intellectuals.

Chaudhuri, A. (2016). Understanding ‘Empowerment’. Journal of Development Policy and Practice, 1(2), 121–141.

• This paper outlines three distinct types of health behaviour that, it argues, can guide the planning of health promotion programmes. These are personal-health behaviour, health-related behaviour and health-protective behaviour. Each are discussed in turn.

Simons-Morton, B. (2013). Health behavior in ecological context. Health Education & Behavior, 40(1), 6–10.

• This study investigates the asocial between political trust and external locus of control in the Swedish context. It concludes that low political trust appears to be independently associated with external health locus of control.

Lindström, M. (2010). Social capital, political trust, and health locus of control: A population-based study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 39(1), 3–9.

• This book review examines Practical Health Promotion by Hubley, Copeman and Woodall, a textbook that provides practical tips for health promotion programme planning outlining the skills and competencies required for success.

Hou, S. (2013). Practical health promotion. Health Promotion Practice, 15(1), 91–94.

• Using a theoretical and literature review approach, this paper focuses on the socio-ecological and ethical implications of the Precede-Proceed model and concludes that the model has a number of potentials in promoting health.

Porter, C. (2015). Revisiting precede-proceed: A leading model for ecological and ethical health promotion. Health Education Journal, 57(6), 753–764.

• This paper explores and identifies the factors within partnerships that influence trust and mistrust. The study found that power, leadership and efficiency were the most important factors influencing partnership mistrust. It concludes power sharing in partnerships is very important.

Jones, J., & Barry, M. (2018). Factors influencing trust and mistrust in health promotion partnerships. Global Health Promotion, 25(2), 16–24.

• This paper demonstrates how information needs and experiences can be gathered in a complex environment using participatory methods of exploration.

Martin, R. E., Murphy, K., Chan, R., Ramsden, V. R., Granger-Brown, A., Macaulay, A. C., . . . Hislop, T. G. (2009). Primary health care: Applying the principles within a community-based participatory health research project that began in a Canadian women’s prison. Global Health Promotion, 16(4), 43–53.

• This paper sets out a position that an asset-focussed health needs assessment is applicable and offers utility in low-resource, developing countries. This particular paper is based on a rural north India community.

Mathias, K. R., Mathias, J. M. P., & Hill, P. C. (2015). An asset-focused health needs assessment in a rural community in north India. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 27(2), 2623–2634.

• Given the importance of salutogenesis in health promotion, there has often been barriers to translating this idea to research practice. The authors suggest ways in which salutogenesis can be conceptualised and better considered in research practices and measurement.

Mittelmark, M. B., & Bull, T. (2013). The salutogenic model of health in health promotion research. Global Health Promotion, 20(2), 30–38.

• This paper is built on the premise that public health professionals often lack experience in policy advocacy. The paper draws useful recommendations for career development of professionals and diversification of the workforce.

Garcia, L. B., Hernandez, K. E., & Mata, H. (2015). Professional development through policy advocacy: communicating and advocating for health and health equity. Health Promotion Practice, 16(2), 162–165.

• The article is based on a review of relevant literature based on health impact assessment developments in Sweden. It outlines a series of barriers and facilitators that have impacted on the development of health impact assessment.

Knutsson, I., & Linell, A. (2010). Review article: Health impact assessment developments in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 38(2), 115–120.

• Peer education is often used for health education, particularly with youth and marginalised groups. This paper interrogates this much-used approach using a number of different pedagogical frameworks as an analytical lens to do so.

Southgate, E., & Aggleton, P. (2016). Peer education: From enduring problematics to pedagogical potential. Health Education Journal, 76(1), 3–14.

• This study evaluates the worth for public health of a community arts installation in support of new immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. It identifies non-material ways that individuals can be enabled to feel better supported and have a more positive outlook.

Philipp, R., Gibbons, N., Thorne, P., Wiltshire, L., Burrough, J., & Easterby, J. (2014). Evaluation of a community arts installation event in support of public health. Perspectives in Public Health, 135(1), 43–48.

• The purpose of this paper was to examine whether the extent that a country is individualistic rather than collectivistic moderates the persuasive effects of fear appeals in anti-smoking public service announcements.

Lee, H., & Park J. S. (2012). Cultural orientation and the persuasive effects of fear appeals: The case of anti-smoking public service announcements. Journal of Medical Marketing, 12(2), 73–80.

• Drowning disproportionately affects certain socio-economic groups. This paper sought to determine if a social marketing intervention might positively influence perceptions about water safety. It provides feasible strategies to supplement swimming lessons with the ultimate goal of preventing drowning.

Glassman, T. J., Casto, T., Karmakar, M., Blavos, A., Dagenhard, P., Domigan, J., . . . Kucharewski, R. (2018). A social marketing intervention to prevent drowning among inner-city youth. Health Promotion Practice, 19(2), 175–183.

• This study demonstrates the importance of understanding the diffusion process in social media. The authors argue that the resulting information can be used to improve public health and health promotion interventions at the levels of planning, design, implementation and evaluation.

Albalawi, Y. A., & Sixsmith, J. (2017). Exploring the diffusion of tweets designed to raise the road safety agenda in Saudi Arabia. Global Health Promotion, 24(4), 5–13.

• This paper examines data from the Shout-It-Now programme which uses edutainment to increase HIV counselling and testing rates. It concludes that integrating technology, quality assurance measures and edutainment with mobile HCT has the potential to increase testing rates.

Daniels, J., Komarek, A., Forgreive, B., Pahl, K., Stafford, S., Campbell Bruns, L., & Coates, T. (2017). Shout-it-now: A mobile HCT model employing technology and edutainment in South Africa. HIV Service Delivery, 16(5), 506–511.

• Focused on the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, this paper outlines how bottom-up approaches were not widely implemented during the response. The paper shows the value of bottom-up approaches for current and future disease emergency responses.

Laverack, G., & Manoncourt, E. (2016). Key experiences of community engagement and social mobilization in the Ebola response. Global Health Promotion, 23(1), 79–82.

• This paper is a useful case study showing how community development principles and outcomes can be achieved. The paper is focused on a Sardinian village (Ulassai), but has wider transferability to other contexts.

Sardu, C., Mereu, A., Sotgiu, A., & Contu, P. (2012). A bottom-up art event gave birth to a process of community empowerment in an Italian village. Global Health Promotion, 19, 5–13.

• This paper shows the value of utilising lay people in developing public health outcomes. The paper focuses on community health champions in Northern England and demonstrates the impact of the intervention both for the champions and the community recipients.

Woodall, J., White, J., & South, J. (2012). Improving health and well-being through community health champions: a thematic evaluation of a programme in Yorkshire and Humber. Perspectives in Public Health, 133(2), 96–103.

• Prisons lag behind other settings in relation to practice, policy and theory development. This paper advances and builds upon theoretical understanding of the health promoting prions, suggesting the value of outdoor spaces to prisoner health.

Baybutt, M., & Chemlal, K. (2016). Health-promoting prisons: Theory to practice. Global Health Promotion, 23(Suppl.), 66–74.

• The main aim of this study is to develop the Taiwan Health-Promoting School Accreditation System framework. The authors conclude that the framework is reliable in assessing whether schools meet health promoting standards.

Chen, F.-L., & Lee, A. (2016). Health-promoting educational settings in Taiwan: Development and evaluation of the Health-Promoting School Accreditation System. Global Health Promotion, 23(Suppl.), 18–25.

• Current literature on the health-promoting sports club is gathered and assessed. The review includes six case studies from five countries. The paper usefully outlines current trends and themes in the literature as well as offering future direction for the movement.

Kokko, S., Donaldson, A., Geidne, S., Seghers, J., Scheerder, J., Meganck, J., . . . Eime, R. (2016). Piecing the puzzle together: Case studies of international research in health-promoting sports clubs. Global Health Promotion, 23(Suppl.), 75–84.

• Empowerment is a flag-ship value for health promotion, but its measure is a long-standing challenge. This paper outlines the debates and current thinking on evaluating empowerment. The paper offers some solutions and also seeks to stimulate further dialogue to refine measurement approaches.

Cross, R., Woodall, J., & Warwick-Booth, L. (2017). Empowerment: Challenges in measurement. Global Health Promotion, 1–4.

• This paper draws on a study of health promotion and sustainability programmes in Australia, providing insights to evaluation approaches being used and barriers and enablers to these evaluations.

Partick, R., & Kingsley, J. (2017). Health promotion and sustainability programmes in Australia: Barriers and enablers to evaluation. Global Health Promotion, 1–11.

• This paper argues that health promotion research is distinctive and outlines several reasons why this is the case, including the values applied to evaluation practice; the broad methodological toolkit available to researchers; and relinquishing professional control.

Woodall, J., Warwick-Booth, L., South, J., & Cross, R. (2018). What makes health promotion research distinct? Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 46(Suppl. 20), 118–122.

• This paper summarise and highlights critical debate surrounding evidence-based health promotion. Drawing on case studies and illustrative examples, the paper suggests eight key levers that enable practitioners to embed research evidence into practice.

Juneau, C. E., Jones, C. M., McQueen, D. V., & Potvin, L. (2011). Evidence-based health promotion: An emerging field. Global Health Promotion, 18, 79–89.

• Systematic reviews are an important resource for health promoters. This paper reports data from a purposive sample of 17 systematic reviewers of health promotion. The findings provide implications for increasing practitioner knowledge and experience in conducting and interpreting reviews.

Shepherd, J. (2013). Judgment, resources, and complexity: a qualitative study of the experiences of systematic reviewers of health promotion. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 36, 247–267.