Health promotion is “the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health”, according to the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) 2005 Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World.

Health promotion involves public policy that addresses health determinants such as income, housing, food security, employment, and quality working conditions. More recent work has used the term Health in All Policies to refer to the actions to incorporate health into all public policies. Health promotion is aligned with health equity and can be a focus of NGOs dedicated to social justice or human rights. Health literacy can be developed in schools, while aspects of health promotion such as breastfeeding promotion can depend on laws and rules of public spaces. Health promotion is focused on preventative healthcare rather than a medical model of curative care.

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