05.02.2018
Social determinants of health

World Health Organisation (WHO) Health is closely linked to the social, economic and structural conditions in which people live and work. Thus, not only the health sector but also other policitical sectors are responsible for the health of a country's population. These relationships have already been highlighted in the Alma Ata statement in 1976 and later in the Ottawa Charter (1986). The importance of societal influences on health, and thus on a public health policy, is undoubted in today's approaches and got access into the concept of "Health in All Policies" as well as the WHO's approach of "Universal Health Coverage". (Photo: Pan American Health Organization PAHO / flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)