Health is the state of being free from illness or injury. It is a general concept, often used as a synonym for good health or well-being. Although health can be measured in terms of physicality, mental stability and emotional wellness, it is more than just the absence of disease. It also encompasses lifestyle choices and social factors. In other words, health is not simply the absence of disease but a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.
There are many determinants of health, including genetics, environment, lifestyle and socioeconomic status. Health promotion and disease prevention are important components of public health policy. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. This definition has been widely accepted over time and is now incorporated into many national constitutions and laws.
The WHO’s 1948 Constitution states that one of its aims is “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”. Its 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion further stated that “health promotion addresses the broader determinants of health such as housing, transportation systems, working conditions…” And finally in 2002 at its Alma Ata conference it declared that: “Achieving global consensus on Definition(s) of Health was an important step forward but we must now define what we mean by ‘attainment’.” For WHO member states to attain this goal they identified 4 pillars which included: building a healthy society; creating supportive environments; developing personal skills; and strengthening community action . Each pillar contains multiple sub goals which if attained would make significant progress towards achieving better levels on a global scale for each indicator systemically.. Some popular measures used to assess different domains include life expectancy measures such as child mortality rates ,self-reported measures such as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE), utility basedmeasures such as EQ5D among others..”