Pender, Nola J. [b. 1941] , a nursing theorist who first presented her Health Promotion Model for nursing in her book Health Promotion in Nursing Practice (1982). She developed the idea that promoting optimal health supersedes preventing disease. Pender’s theory identifies cognitive-perceptual factors in the individual, such as importance of health, perceived benefits of health-promoting behaviors, and perceived barriers to health-promoting behaviors. These factors are modified by demographic and biological characteristics and interpersonal influences, as well as situational and behavioral factors. They help predict participation in health-promoting behavior. The individual’s definition of health for himself or herself has more importance than a general statement about health. A major assumption in Pender’s theory is that health, as a positive high-level state, is assumed to be a goal toward which an individual strives.
