Emotional education in health education: A matter of public health

The holistic model of health requires the inclusion of emotions in prevention and promotion policies. A systematic review was carried out in databases Medline, PsychInfo, and ERIC to check the extent to which emotions are covered in health education. Sixty six of the 648 papers reviewed were accepted, presenting a wide range of topics, theories, and terms regarding emotional health. Therefore, health education strategies that take emotions into consideration are still underrepresented in scientific literature. Moreover, a great terminological and theorical diversity is found among the ones that incorporate emotional health, hindering knowledge dissemination and generalization of results. The need for an implementation of a health education model where emotional education is included as an essential part of it, according to recent scientific advances is clearly shown.