Health promotion interventions are aimed at improving health by seeking to influence lifestyles, healthcare services and physical, cultural and socioeconomic environments. Several publications support the relevance of theory-based interventions directed to promoting health. However, the adoption of an educational conceptual framework in the planning and evaluation of health promotion interventions is still limited. The aim of this article is to describe the educational paradigms for health promotion intervention and analyse the main educational theories and models used in literature, reporting the international debate about the type and level of application of different theoretical frameworks in health promotion interventions.