Health has a variety of definitions, which 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.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. It oversees the English National Health Service (NHS). The department is led by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with three ministers of state and three parliamentary under-secretaries of state.
Nesta is a British foundation, registered as a charity, which supports innovation.
The Ministry of Health is the public service department of New Zealand responsible for healthcare in New Zealand. It came into existence in its current form in 1993.
Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. It has been described as consisting of three components. These are "health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions".
Health education is a profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health, as well as sexual and reproductive health education. It can also be defined as any combination of learning activities that aim to assist individuals and communities improve their health by expanding knowledge or altering attitudes.
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."
Healthy People is a program of a nationwide health-promotion and disease-prevention goals set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The goals were first set in 1979 "in response to an emerging consensus among scientists and health authorities that national health priorities should emphasize disease prevention". The Healthy People program was originally issued by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This first issue contained "a report announcing goals for a ten-year plan to reduce controllable health risks. In its section on nutrition, the report recommended diets with fewer calories; less saturated fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar; relatively more complex carbohydrates, fish and poultry; and less red meat." Though this recommended diet consisted of more processed foods rather than fresh produce, the report advised for consumers to "be wary of processed foods". The goals were subsequently updated for Healthy People 2000, Healthy People 2010, Healthy People 2020 and Healthy People 2030.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administration and expenditure of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its associated agencies and public bodies. The Clerks of the Committee are Previn Desai and Joanna Dodd.
The healthcare reform in China refers to the previous and ongoing healthcare system transition in modern China. China's government, specifically the National Health and Family Planning Commission, plays a leading role in these reforms. Reforms focus on establishing public medical insurance systems and enhancing public healthcare providers, the main component in China's healthcare system. In urban and rural areas, three government medical insurance systems—Urban Residents Basic Medical Insurance, Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance, and the New Rural Co-operative Medical Scheme—cover almost everyone. Various public healthcare facilities, including county or city hospitals, community health centers, and township health centers, were founded to serve diverse needs. Current and future reforms are outlined in Healthy China 2030.
The Acheson Report, fully titled the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report, was a report published in 1998 by a United Kingdom inquiry headed by Donald Acheson.
The regions of England, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. They were established in 1994 and follow the 1974–96 county borders. They are a continuation of the former 1940s standard regions which followed the 1889–1974 administrative county borders. Between 1994 and 2011, all nine regions had partly devolved functions; they no longer fulfil this role, continuing to be used for limited statistical purposes.
The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation is a statutory authority in the Australian state of Victoria, originally funded by hypothecated taxation raised by the Victorian Tobacco Act 1987. It was the first health promotion body in the world to be funded by a tax on tobacco.
Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a result of the reorganisation of the National Health Service (NHS) in England outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It took on the role of the Health Protection Agency, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and a number of other health bodies. It was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, and a distinct delivery organisation with operational autonomy.
Professor Kevin Andrew Fenton, is a Public Health Physician and Infectious Disease Epidemiologist. He is the London Regional Director at Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Regional Public Health Director at NHS London and the Statutory Health Advisor to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. He is the current President of the United Kingdom Faculty of Public Health and holds Honourable Professorships with the University College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Public Health Wales is an NHS Trust which was established on 1 October 2009 as part of a major restructuring of the health service in Wales. It aims to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities in Wales.
Public Health Scotland (PHS) is the national public health body for Scotland. It is a Special NHS Health Board, and it is jointly accountable to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government. Fully exercising its functions from 1 April 2020 as Scotland's leading national agency for improving and protecting the health and well-being of all of Scotland's people, it is jointly sponsored by COSLA and the Scottish Government, and collaborates with third sector organisations.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability and replacing Public Health England. It is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care is a position in the Department of Health and Social Care in the Government of the United Kingdom. The role has previously been known as the Minister of State for Public Health.
Efficiency Office is a government department under the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong. It is a management consulting agency in the SAR government structure, providing suggestions of general consulting, resource management and information technology for different SAR government departments and agencies.
