What is health promotion?
Updated - Tuesday 08 August 2006
What is health promotion?
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and improve their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. These wide-ranging perspectives of health mean that health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to well-being. (World Health Organization (WHO) Ottawa, 21 November 1986)
