In common usage and medicine, health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity". A variety of definitions have been used for different purposes over time. Health can be promoted by encouraging healthful activities, such as regular physical exercise and adequate sleep, and by reducing or avoiding unhealthful activities or situations, such as smoking or excessive stress. Some factors affecting health are due to individual choices, such as whether to engage in a high-risk behavior, while others are due to structural causes, such as whether the society is arranged in a way that makes it easier or harder for people to get necessary healthcare services. Still, other factors are beyond both individual and group choices, such as genetic disorders.
Healthy city is a term used in public health and urban design to stress the impact of policy on human health. It is a municipality that continually improves on a physical and a social level until environmental and pathological conditions are reached establishing an acceptable morbidity rate for the population. Its modern form derives from a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative on Healthy Cities and Villages in 1986, but has a history dating back to the mid 19th century. The term was developed in conjunction with the European Union, but rapidly became international as a way of establishing healthy public policy at the local level through health promotion. It emphasises the multi-dimensionality of health as laid out in WHO's constitution and, more recently, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. An alternative term is Healthy Communities, or Municipios saludables in parts of Latin America.
Primary health care, or PHC, refers to "essential health care" that is based on scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology. This makes universal health care accessible to all individuals and families in a community. PHC initiatives allow for the full participation of community members in implementation and decision making. Services are provided at a cost that the community and the country can afford at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. In other words, PHC is an approach to health beyond the traditional health care system that focuses on health equity-producing social policy. PHC includes all areas that play a role in health, such as access to health services, environment and lifestyle. Thus, primary healthcare and public health measures, taken together, may be considered as the cornerstones of universal health systems. The World Health Organization, or WHO, elaborates on the goals of PHC as defined by three major categories, "empowering people and communities, multisectoral policy and action; and primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services[1]." Based on these definitions, PHC can not only help an individual after being diagnosed with a disease or disorder, but actively prevent such issues by understanding the individual as a whole.
Declaration of Alma-Ata was adopted at the International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC), Almaty, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union 6–12 September 1978. It expressed the need for urgent action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world community to protect and promote the health of all people. It was the first international declaration underlining the importance of primary health care. The primary health care approach has since then been accepted by member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the key to achieving the goal of "Health For All", but only in developing countries at first. This applied to all other countries five years later. The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 emerged as a major milestone of the twentieth century in the field of public health, and it identified primary health care as the key to the attainment of the goal of "Health For All" around the globe.
Health promotion is, as stated in the 1986 World Health Organization (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, the "process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health."
The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a network of people working on a global scale to eliminate obstacles to breastfeeding and to act on the Innocenti Declaration. The groups within this alliance tackle the problems from a variety of perspectives or point of views, such as consumer advocates, mothers, and lactation consultants.
The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is the name of an international agreement signed at the First International Conference on Health Promotion, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and held in Ottawa, Canada, in November 1986. It launched a series of actions among international organizations, national governments and local communities to achieve the goal of "Health For All" by the year 2000 and beyond through better health promotion.
Health 21 or Health21 is the name given to the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region policy framework derived from the "health-for-all policy for the twenty-first century" passed by the World Health Assembly in 1998. The framework was called "Health 21" not only because it dealt with health in the 21st century, but also because it laid out 21 "targets" for improving the health of Europeans.
The Jakarta Declaration on Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century is the name of an international agreement that was signed at the World Health Organization's 1997 Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion held in Jakarta. The declaration reiterated the importance of the agreements made in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, and added emphasis to certain aspects of health promotion.
The Lalonde Report is a 1974 report produced in Canada formally titled A new perspective on the health of Canadians. It proposed the concept of the "health field", identifying two main health-related objectives: the health care system; and prevention of health problems and promotion of good health. The report is considered the "first modern government document in the Western world to acknowledge that our emphasis upon a biomedical health care system is wrong, and that we need to look beyond the traditional health care system if we wish to improve the health of the public.". The Report also recognizes that use of the local Health System shapes how people define their health-related need, options for care and definition of health.
Trevor Hancock was the first leader of the Green Party of Canada and a family physician. Under his leadership, the party ran 60 candidates in the 1984 federal election. He is a public health physician, and a retired professor and senior scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. He obtained his degree in medicine at the University of London and his degree in health science at the University of Toronto. He also consults with the World Health Organization. Together with Dr. Leonard Duhl, he created the Healthy Cities project that looks at environmental aspects of sustainable urban development as a determinant of health. In 2005, Hancock was also instrumental in initiating BC Healthy Communities – a provincial initiative focused on building capacity for healthy municipal governance.
The Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World is the name of an international agreement reached among participants of the 6th Global Conference on Health Promotion held in Bangkok, Thailand in August 2005, convened by the World Health Organization. It identifies actions, commitments and pledges required to address the determinants of health in a globalized world through health promotion.
The International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that was initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988. It is also known simply as HPH, or "Health Promoting Hospitals." HPH is based on the settings approach to health promotion philosophy of the WHO as outlined in the WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. The organization's main aim is to improve the health gain of hospitals and health services by a bundle of strategies targeting patients, staff, and the community.
People's Health Movement (PHM) is a global network of grassroots health activists, civil society organizations and academic institutions particularly from developing countries. PHM currently has bases in more than 70 countries that include both individuals and well-established circles with their own governance structures. It has chapters in South Asia, Africa, Pacific (Australia), South America, Central America, North America, Europe and several other countries. PHM works towards the revitalisation of Primary Health Care (PHC), as described in the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978.
Carl Ernest Taylor, MD, DrPH founder of the academic discipline of international health who dedicated his life to the well-being of the world's marginalized people. He was the founding chair of the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was a key contributor to the Alma Ata Declaration. At the age of 88, this energetic man assumed the challenging position as Country Director for the nonprofit organization Future Generations Afghanistan where he led innovative field-based activities until age 90. He has worked in over 70 countries and have students from more than 100 countries. He was sharing this near century-long perspective with his students up until a week before his death.
Health For All is a goal of the World Health Organization (WHO), that has been popularized since the 1970s and which envisions securing the health and well being of people around the world. It is the basis for the World Health Organization's primary health care strategy to promote health, human dignity, and enhanced quality of life.
Health in All Policies (HiAP) was a term first used in Europe during the Finnish presidency of the European Union (EU), in 2006, with the aim of collaborating across sectors to achieve common goals. It is a strategy to include health considerations in policy making across different sectors that influence health, such as transportation, agriculture, land use, housing, public safety, and education. It reaffirms public health's essential role in addressing policy and structural factors affecting health, as articulated by the Ten Essential Public Health Services, and it has been promoted as an opportunity for the public health sector to engage a broader array of partners.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights or SRHR is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at all in other contexts. These four fields are sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights. In the concept of SRHR, these four fields are treated as separate but inherently intertwined.
The Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability otherwise known as the Aalborg Charter (1994) is an urban environment sustainability initiative approved by the participants at the first European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns in Aalborg, Denmark. It is inspired by the Rio Earth Summit’s Local Agenda 21 plan, and was developed to contribute to the European Union’s Environmental Action Programme, ‘Towards Sustainability’.
Rural health care in Australia involves the delivery of health services by private, community and public hospitals in areas classified as rural and remote. Researchers note that the health of those living in rural areas is quantitatively and qualitatively different to those living in major metropolitan areas. These differences include often significant gaps in service delivery, accessibility and lower health outcomes.
