History of Science 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: World Health Organization, Water Security, Health Promotion

• School: Western University
• Department: History of Science
• Course: History of Science 2220
• Professor: Lawrence Burns

Document Summary

The world health organization (who) de nition of health: health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-bring and not merely the absence of disease or in rmity . Ses is also known as a key social determinant of health . Social determinants of health - the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. Health outcomes may be greatly improved by trying to reduce social inequality generally: scandinavian countries such as sweden and iceland do a much better job of this. Non-medical factors and group dynamics should be included in public health initiatives: prevention and health promotion, not just emergency response or reactive intervention.