Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Health Promotion

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their own health and to improve their health outcomes. It covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions that are designed to benefit and protect individual people's health and quality of life by addressing the root causes of ill health, and not just focusing on treatment and cure. There are three key elements of health promotion: good governance for health, health literacy, and healthy cities.

In brief, government policies should holistically promote public health. For example, health policies like high taxes on unhealthy or harmful products such as alcohol, tobacco, and food products which are high in salt, sugars and fat with measures to boost trade in other areas. Other ways that policies can promote health include legislation that supports healthy urbanization by creating walkable cities, reducing air and water pollution, and enforcing the wearing of seat belts and helmets.

Additionally, people need access to knowledge, skills, and information to make healthy choices, for example about the food they eat and healthcare services that they need.

Lastly, a core tenet of health promotion should be prevention. This requires that preventive measures be built up in cities, communities and in health care facilities for promoting good health in the population.