Policy Theory Applied to Public Health?

April Allgrove & Claudia Mendivil
Staff Contributors

The Annual SOPHE meeting held a session on Health Education and Promotion Theory, which included a presentation by Tyler Watson, MPH, CHES, titled, "How policy theory can improve public health advocacy." Mr. Watson discussed the significant contributions policies have made to public health, and in particular focused on three common policy theories for understanding and implementing policy; Three Streams Theory, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. He explained that while professionals in public health have mastered theories of behavior, they are much less versed with how policy theories can be applied to public health to achieve positive health outcomes in populations. He urged us to challenge ourselves not only to look at policy as an effective method for improving population health, but also, as suggested by the Advocacy Coalition Framework, to work with those groups who share similar policy interests but might sit on the opposite aisle of us, as this may be what allows us to make some of the greatest advances in public health. Mr. Watson made an excellent case for the necessity of the inclusion of policy theory into the field and curriculum of public health, and left most students who were present wanting more.