Insights in Public Health: Building Well-Being: Linking the Built Environment to Health

摘要

The World Health Organization's Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 redefined health as not simply the absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and declared this to be a fundamental human right.1 This signified a major shift from looking at internal causes of disease to including the external aspects that shape our everyday lives. While many other factors influence health defined broadly, including genetics, behavior, and nutrition, an important and growing interdisciplinary field of research and policy highlights the particular role of the built environment in creating and fostering health.