Connecting health promotion research to policy action

Anthony Calibo is a supervising program officer of Essential Newborn Care in the Philippines’ National Center for Disease Prevention and Control

But that’s not all. I am also a pediatrician, and on Saturdays I see patients in my private practice at St. Luke’s Medical Center. During my fifth year of medical school, I had a rotation in the obstetrics and gynecology unit. At a session on prenatal care, I asked whether a mother could interact with her future pediatrician before giving birth. I was both surprised and troubled when the facilitator had no answer.

There is crucial information that an expectant mother ought to have during prenatal care, such as breastfeeding education in particular. With a bachelor’s degree in public health, I have always considered health education to be a vital part of medicine. This shaped my view as a physician and prompted me to conduct a formal study on the transition process from OB/GYN to pediatric care, with a focus on Metro Manila in the Philippines.

I found that prenatal pediatric consultation was rare; in fact less than four percent of obstetricians referred their patients to a pediatrician prior to birth. This reveals a dire lack of health education for expectant mothers, which I have committed to rectifying as part of my role within the department of health. It is unfortunate that the Philippines, like many countries, tends to overlook the importance of evidence-based programs in prompting behavior change. I hope I have prompted discussion of this challenge with my poster presentation during this conference—the first IUHPE event I have ever attended since discovering the organization in 2006.

The conference was impressively well rounded in its presentation of essential cross-cutting issues in health promotion. But I feel that policy development is one area that was inadequately addressed. The health field urgently needs professionals with a policy focus, who can make the connection between research outcomes and political action both locally and globally. IUHPE should be vocal—as individuals and as an organization—in elevating health promoters as vital partners in policymaking at all levels.