Background and Objective: Freire’s approach emphasizes the social determinants of health and aligns with health promotion by fostering critical awareness and collective action. Despite its potential, a systematic synthesis of its application in health interventions is lacking. This narrative review examines the application of Freire’s theory in health promotion interventions, with a focus on participants (e.g., healthcare workers, community members, etc.), interventions (e.g., culture circles, educational programs, etc.), and outcomes (e.g., empowerment, behavioral change, etc.).
 
Methods: We conducted a PRISMA-compliant narrative review of studies from 2015 to 2023 using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Search terms included “Freire Theory”, “health promotion intervention”, “critical consciousness”, and “empowerment”. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts, extracted data (e.g., study design, sample characteristics, and key findings), and assessed quality using standardized criteria for quantitative and qualitative research.
 
Findings: Of 144 identified studies, 6 met the inclusion criteria. Freire’s framework consistently enhanced health promotion by fostering dialogue, critical thinking, and empowerment across diverse settings (e.g., rural elderly, nurses, adolescents, etc.). Key outcomes included improved self-medication behaviors (Gharouni et al., 2021) and reduced moral distress in nurses (Nancy, 2020).
 
Conclusion: Results underscore the significance of Freire’s theory in health promotion. Limitations include small sample sizes and reliance on self-reports. Future research should prioritize larger, more diverse samples and longitudinal designs.



Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This study was conducted with the collaboration of the research librarians to access scientific articles at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and the authors would like to express their gratitude for their support."
 
Conflict of Interests Statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data Availability: All data generated or analyzed during this study will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
 
Data Availability
By PRISMA guidelines emphasizing transparency, all data analyzed and presented are included within the manuscript. However, the extracted data, including coding frameworks and other related materials used during the systematic review process, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. This ensures transparency and facilitates reproducibility of the findings.
 
Funding/Support
The present study received no funding/support.
 
Ethical Approval
This narrative review was conducted based on previously published studies. No new data were collected from human participants or animals, and according to the regulations of the university and the Ministry of Health, narrative articles do not require an ethics code (The relevant letter is attached to the article).
 
Authors' Contribution

J and MH. K developed the study concept and design. LGH. Acquired the data. KH. J and MH. K analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the intellectual content, manuscript editing, and read and approved the final manuscript. KH. J and MH. K and LGH provided administrative support.

 
Informed Consent
Not applicable