Introduction:

Health promotion is fundamental to help people to acquire personal skills, abilities, and behaviors that facilitate the acquisition of a healthy lifestyle.

Objective:

To analyze what qualitative evidence indicates about the perception of health promotion by adults and health professionals to contribute to lifestyle changes.

Methodology:

We used qualitative metasynthesis and metadata analysis with Sandelowski and Barros's proposal in descriptive or interpretative primary studies from 2008 to 2019, considering the perceptions of adults and health professionals regarding health promotion and lifestyle. Different databases, descriptors such as health promotion, healthy behaviors, healthy lifestyle, nursing and qualitative research and Boolean operators AND, OR, with various possible combinations, were used. Quantitative articles, pediatric population and people with health problems were excluded. Ten articles were analyzed according to Lincoln and Guba's scientific rigor criteria.

Results:

People perceived the macro and micro social context and some barriers in the implementation of health promotion actions by health personnel, which directly influenced behavioral changes. Health professionals recognized health promotion as a mediation strategy between people and their environment to influence the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusions:

Health promotion remains an ideal strategy to encourage actions for the benefit of people's health.