Back to the Future: Implementation Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities through the Ottawa Charter Framework

Health promotion has evolved significantly since the introduction of the Ottawa Charter in 1986. The Charter provided a transformative framework for public health, emphasizing equity, empowerment, and the integration of prevention strategies into broader social and economic policies. While its principles remain relevant, the changing global landscape presents new challenges and opportunities for implementing health promotion actions effectively.

Rapid urbanization, an aging population, the dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and widening health inequalities necessitate a reexamination of the Ottawa Charter's application in contemporary public health. Technological advancements, such as digital health tools and artificial intelligence, provide unique opportunities for enhancing health promotion, while economic and political instability in various regions poses significant implementation barriers.

This Research Topic seeks to explore how the Ottawa Charter's principles are being adapted and applied today, identifying trends, challenges, and innovations in health promotion actions across diverse socio-political contexts. By revisiting the Charter, this collection aims to provide actionable insights into how health promotion can address modern public health challenges while maintaining its foundational goals of health equity and community empowerment.

This Research Topic encourages contributions that explore:

• The application of the Ottawa Charter framework in addressing contemporary public health challenges.

• Trends in the implementation of health promotion actions, including successful models and lessons learned.

• Barriers to implementing the Charter's principles, with a focus on resource-limited settings, political instability, and health inequities.

• Innovations in health promotion, including digital health technologies, intersectoral collaboration, and policy integration.

• Strategies for addressing emerging challenges, such as climate change, mental health crises, and the global obesity epidemic.

Submissions can include, but are not limited to:

1. Building Healthy Public Policy: Evaluations of policy innovations promoting health equity and access.

2. Creating Supportive Environments: Case studies of urban planning, environmental health interventions, and workplace health programs.

3. Strengthening Community Action: Analyses of community-driven health initiatives and their outcomes.

4. Developing Personal Skills: Studies on health literacy programs, behavioral change interventions, and education campaigns.

5. Reorienting Health Services: Integration of preventive services into primary care systems and the role of health systems in empowering communities.

Additional themes are as follows:

• Advancing Health Equity through the Ottawa Charter: Contemporary Strategies and Challenges

This topic examines how the Ottawa Charter's principles are applied to promote health equity in diverse populations, addressing social determinants of health and systemic barriers.

• Digital Health Innovations in Health Promotion: Aligning with the Ottawa Charter

This theme explores the integration of digital technologies in health promotion initiatives, assessing their alignment with the Charter's action areas and their impact on public health outcomes.

• Community Engagement in Health Promotion: Revisiting the Ottawa Charter's Call to Action

Focusing on the role of community participation, this topic investigates effective strategies for strengthening community action in health promotion, as advocated by the Ottawa Charter.

• Policy Development for Health Promotion: Lessons from the Ottawa Charter

This area explores the development and implementation of health policies that reflect the Charter's principles, analyzing successes and challenges in various contexts.

• Reorienting Health Services towards Prevention: Operationalizing the Ottawa Charter

This topic examines efforts to shift health services from curative to preventive approaches, in line with the Charter's recommendations, and evaluates the outcomes of such transformations.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Ottawa Charter, Health Promotion, Public Health Policy, Health Equity, Preventive Services, Community Action, Health Literacy, Global Health Challenges

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.