Compare the biomedical and social approaches to health promotion and evaluate which approach best suits a given health issue and population

What this dot point is asking

WACE expects you to distinguish the approaches clearly and then make a reasoned judgement about which suits a scenario. A strong answer defines each approach, states its strengths and limits, and matches an approach to the health issue and population in the stimulus. Marks reward justified comparison, not a description of each in isolation.

The biomedical approach

The biomedical approach treats health as the absence of disease and locates the cause and cure inside the body. It relies on doctors, hospitals, diagnosis, medication, surgery, screening and medical technology. Its strengths are clear: it extends and saves lives, treats acute illness, and produces fast, measurable results for the individual treated. Vaccination programs, cancer screening and emergency care all sit here.

Its limits matter for this course. The biomedical approach acts late, once a person is already at risk or unwell, and it is expensive and individual. It does little about the social, economic and environmental conditions that made people sick in the first place, so it can keep treating the same problems without reducing how often they occur. Relying on it alone tends to leave inequities untouched.

The social approach (the social model of health)

The social approach sees health as produced by the conditions in which people live, and it acts on those conditions for whole populations. It addresses the social determinants directly: income, education, housing, environment and access to services. It emphasises prevention, equity, intersectoral action and community participation. Building safe cycling paths, taxing tobacco, regulating food advertising and improving housing are social-approach actions.

Its strength is reach and prevention: it can lower the rate of illness across a population and target the groups facing the most disadvantage, which is why it is central to reducing inequities. Its limit is that change is slower, harder to measure, and depends on political will and cooperation across sectors. It does not treat the individuals who are already sick today, so it cannot replace the biomedical approach.

Settings and population-based approaches

Health promotion is also organised by where and to whom it is delivered. A settings-based approach works through the places people live, learn and work, such as schools, workplaces and communities, embedding health into everyday environments. A population-based approach targets a whole group rather than individuals, for example a state-wide campaign or a universal policy. These approaches usually deliver social-model actions, because they act on environments and whole groups rather than treating single patients.

Choosing the right approach

The right approach depends on the issue and the group. For an immediate, treatable condition, the biomedical approach is essential. For a widespread, preventable problem driven by social conditions, the social approach will do more, especially for disadvantaged groups. The best answers usually argue for a combination, with the balance tilted toward the social approach when the goal is to reduce inequity, because only the social approach changes the determinants.

How this maps to the exam

Expect a stimulus describing a health issue or a proposed program. You may be asked to classify actions as biomedical or social, compare the approaches, or evaluate which best suits the issue. Justify your choice using the nature of the problem, the population affected and the goal of reducing inequity.