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'The science
and art of promoting health, preventing disease, and prolonging
life through the organised efforts of society'.(1)
Don Nutbeam,
in his Health promotion
glossary, describes public health as a social and
political concept aimed at improving health, prolonging life
and improving the quality of life among whole populations
through health promotion, disease prevention and other forms
of health intervention.
He points out
that a distinction has been made in health promotion literature
between public health and a new public health for the purposes
of emphasising significantly different approaches to the description
and analysis of the determinants of health, and the methods
of solving public health problems. This new public health
is distinguished by its basis in a comprehensive understanding
of the ways in which lifestyles and living conditions determine
health status, and a recognition of the need to mobilise resources
and make sound investments in policies, programmes and services
which create, maintain and protect health by supporting healthy
lifestyles and creating supportive environments for health.
(1)
Reference adapted from Independent
inquiry into inequalities in health report, Sir Donald
Acheson, London, 1988.
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