College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Glob Health Promot. 2024 Sep;31(3):42-59. doi: 10.1177/17579759241235109. Epub 2024 Mar 22.
The Health Promoting Universities (HPU) concept is undertheorized, with no African university belonging to the International Network of Health Promoting Universities (IHPU).
The study aimed to investigate the status of the HPU concept globally to inform emerging HPUs, more specifically in Africa, regarding its implementation.
An integrative literature review of studies conducted between 1 January 2013 and 5 November 2023 was conducted from online databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Lilacs, CINAHL and Medline). A VOS bibliometric analysis viewer was used to extract and analyze further relevant information that could have been missed in the review.
From 1128 records, 22 ( = 22) articles including two reports met the inclusion criteria. The main findings were that: (1) the HPU network is growing as a global network though undertheorized and less reported on, (2) the implementation of the HPU depends on a plethora of underpinning philosophies such as salutogenic and whole systems approach, and diverse programs and initiatives, 3) the terms HPU and healthy universities are often used interchangeably but the whole systems approach appears to be consistent in many HPU interventions. However, five contextual challenges that emanated from this review were discussed, including the definition of the HPU concept, theories for the HPU concept, measurement of the HPU concept, coordination and methods for measuring the HPU concept status. These challenges present obstacles to measuring the status of the HPU concept beyond the number of affiliated universities and HPU initiatives.
Despite the challenges, the HPU concept is gaining momentum globally, as evidenced by the growing list of universities (HPU network) involved and the proliferation of interventions/initiatives targeting university students.
健康促进大学（HPU）的概念尚未得到充分理论化，没有一所非洲大学属于国际健康促进大学网络（IHPU）。
本研究旨在调查全球 HPU 概念的现状，为新兴的 HPU 提供信息，特别是在非洲，了解其实施情况。
对 2013 年 1 月 1 日至 2023 年 11 月 5 日期间发表的研究进行了综合文献综述，检索了在线数据库（PubMed、Scopus、Web of Science、Lilacs、CINAHL 和 Medline）。使用 VOS 书目分析查看器提取并分析了可能在综述中遗漏的其他相关信息。
从 1128 条记录中，有 22 篇文章（ = 22）包括两份报告符合纳入标准。主要发现是：（1）HPU 网络作为一个全球网络正在发展壮大，尽管理论化程度较低，报道较少；（2）HPU 的实施取决于大量的基础理论，如健康促进和整体系统方法，以及多样化的项目和计划；（3）HPU 和健康大学这两个术语经常互换使用，但整体系统方法似乎在许多 HPU 干预措施中是一致的。然而，本综述讨论了五个出现的背景挑战，包括 HPU 概念的定义、HPU 概念的理论、HPU 概念的测量、协调和测量 HPU 概念状态的方法。这些挑战使得除了附属大学的数量和 HPU 倡议之外，衡量 HPU 概念的状态变得更加困难。
尽管存在挑战，但 HPU 概念在全球范围内正在获得动力，这表现在参与的大学（HPU 网络）数量不断增加，以及针对大学生的干预/倡议不断增多。
