Report from the AAHE/SOPHE Joint Committee on Ethics

Abstract

In 1984, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the Association for the Advancement of Health Education (AAHE) convened a joint committee to de velop a profession wide code of ethics for health education. The following article is a compilation of the Committee's work over two years. The Committee's report appears first. It presents the Committee's position on how a code of ethics is developed and constitutes guidelines for future refinements in the code. Appendix A is the SOPHE code of ethics produced in 1976. It is included to show the evolution of the code into its current form as presented in Appendix B. Appendix B is the Code of Ethics devel oped by a SOPHE Committee in 1983. SOPHE and AAHE through a joint committee are continuing efforts to develop a code of ethics for the profession of health educa tion. We invite reader's reactions to the Code. Comments and questions can be di rected to the AAHE/SOPHE Ethics Committee, c/o the Editors of Health Education Quarterly.