Health promotion

About us

Organization

The Health Promotion Unit (HPR) is part of the Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion (CHP), within the Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Custer.

The Health Promotion Unit is composed of the following teams:

Ageing and life course

Ageing is a privilege and a societal achievement. It is also a challenge, which will impact on all aspects of 21st century society. It is a challenge that cannot be addressed by the public or private sectors in isolation: it requires joint approaches and strategies.

National and community programmes

Our objective is to co-operate with Member States in strengthening their capacity, policies, financial support and evidence for health promotion with emphasis on sound evidence-based strategies and approached, well planned, implementation and evaluation.

School health and youth health promotion

Many of today's and tomorrow's leading causes of death, disease and disability (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases, depression, violence, substance abuse, injuries, nutritional deficiencies, HIV/AIDS/STI and helminth infections) can be significantly reduced by preventing six interrelated categories of behaviour, that are initiated during youth and fostered by social and political policies and conditions.

Oral health

The objectives of the Oral Health Programme, have been reoriented according to the new strategy of disease prevention and promotion of health. Greater emphasis is put on developing global policies in oral health promotion and oral disease prevention, coordinated more effectively with other priority programmes of CHP and other clusters and with external partners.

Physical activity

The goal of the Physical Activity Programme is to promote higher levels of physical activity within the world population of all ages and conditions, men and women, in all life settings. One of our main activities is the promotion of the Annual Global Move for Health Initiative.

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