This study explores transitions in museum practice related to health education. It is based on a scoping review (Arksey and O’Malley 2005) of European and North American health exhibitions at science centres, health museums and children’s museums.

The purpose of early science centres was to educate the public about the progress of science and technology and promote scientific literacy, creating scientifically competent citizens and prompt scientific education (Bradburne 1998). Recent developments emphasise the ability to debate critically the future of science; arming citizens to critically relate to, and distinguish, conflicting or complementary scientific statements and the constant flux of new scientific results; as well as to assess the relevance and validity of these. As such, science centres and museums have increasingly focused on educating the public to become competent and critical citizens (Quistgaard and Kahr-Højland 2010; Pedretti 2002). Concurrently, the domain of health education has advanced from efforts to persuade people to change their behaviour by informing them about health-related issues towards empowerment-centred health education (Green and Tones 2010).

Science centre views of the visitor have, further, changed from regarding them as passive recipients to acknowledging them as co-creators of knowledge (Hooper-Greenhill 2000). The visitor’s construction of knowledge is now seen as based on previous experience, socio-cultural background, as well as the learning context, raising a consciousness about the conditions and contingencies of learning within the museum field. Science centres thereby continue their evolution from being authoritative communicators of scientific facts and evidence towards a more context sensitive and socially responsible role. This shift includes a broader view of the scope, purpose and relevant topics of science centres, as well as a more extensive conception of what constitutes science, resulting in issues-based exhibitions on socio-scientific topics (Pedretti 2004). One emerging theme from this perspective is that of health exhibitions which do not only disseminate information about the body and its functions but in addition aim to affect visitors’ lifestyle. The concept of health promotion is based on a broad notion of health as encompassing physical, social as well as mental health and wellbeing. Central to health promotion is the notion of enabling people to gain control over their life and health; empowering people, and a commitment to creating equity in health (Green and Tones 2010). Since the establishment of the field of health promotion with the seminal Ottawa Charter in 1986 (WHO 1986), a wide variety of settings have been studied in the field: communities, schools and work places (Green and Tones 2010), to name but a few. We hold that science centres and museums can provide a new setting for health education and promotion and that they should be studied as such.

Studies of the health promoting potentials of art exhibitions have received a fair amount of attention (e.g. Camic and Chatterjee 2013; Hamilton et al. 2003), while our literature search indicated that studies regarding the outcomes of explicitly health related exhibitions and their potential for promoting health in this new setting are scarce. Therefore, this study examines health exhibitions with aims and ideals parallel to those of health promotion. Which approaches are taken to promote health through exhibitions and do these contribute to empowerment and critical reflection on health related topics? How can the museum as a health educational space expand its role from traditional knowledge dissemination to a more community engaging interaction?

We apply the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) as a theoretical framework to assess the health promotion initiatives of 18 recent international exhibitions.

Arksey, H. and O'Malley, L. 2005 Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8, 1, 19-32. Bradburne, J. M. 1998. Dinosaurs and white elephants: The science center in the twenty-first century. Public Understanding of Science, 7(3), 237-253. Camic, P. M., & Chatterjee, H. J. 2013. Museums and art galleries as partners for public health interventions. Perspectives in Public Health, 133(1), 66-71. Daudt, H. M., van Mossel, C., & Scott, S. J. 2013. Enhancing the scoping study methodology: a large, inter-professional team’s experience with Arksey and O’Malley’s framework. BMC medical research methodology, 13(1), 48. Elo, S., & Kyngäs, H. 2008. The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62(1), 107-115. Green, J., & Tones, K.. 2010. Health promotion, planning and strategies. Los Angeles: SAGE. Hamilton, C., Hinks, S., & Petticrew, M. 2003. Arts for health: still searching for the Holy Grail. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57(6), 401-402. Hooper-Greenhill, E. 2000. Changing values in the art museum: Rethinking communication and learning. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 6(1), 9-3. Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., & O’Brien, K. K. 2010. Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implement Sci, 5(1), 1-9. Nutbeam, D. 1998. Evaluating health promotion—progress, problems and solutions. Health Promotion International, 13(1), 27-44. Pedretti, E. G. 2002. T. Kuhn Meets T. Rex: Critical Conversations and New Directions in Science Centres and Science Museums. Studies in Science Education, 37:1, 1-41. Pedretti, E. G. 2004. Perspectives on learning through research on critical issues‐based science center exhibitions. Science Education, 88(S1), S34-S47. Quistgaard, N. & Kahr-Højland, A. 2010. New and innovative exhibition concepts at science centres using communication technologies, Museum Management and Curatorship, 25:4, 423-436. Sheeran, P. (2002). Intention—behavior relations: A conceptual and empirical review. European review of social psychology, 12(1), 1-36. WHO 1986. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. World Health Organization.