Aligning Health Promotion Principles With Health Behavior Practice: Experiences With Qualitative Tuberculosis Research

Although health promotion scholars encourage researchers in the field to adopt a broad definition of health and a wide lens on the factors which shape it, critics have noted that health promotion research continues to be focused downstream on individual health behavior, downplaying the powerful role of structural determinants. We argue that increased use of qualitative approaches in health promotion could support the shift away from clinically defined disease and towards health promotion practices which advance community well-being and empowerment. We focus on three overlapping tensions, namely the inclination to predefine standards for ‘healthy’ behavior, the tendency to undervalue the role of structural factors, and the propensity to advocate for universal rather than targeted approaches. We support our case by exploring three examples from tuberculosis research.