Living a healthy life mostly depends on us
Living consciously improves many factors of our health. The Semmelweis Health Promotion Center aims to facilitate such a conscious lifestyle by providing credible information and guidance pertaining to preserving and improving one’s health.
For this purpose, our colleagues have developed the interactive book Health to go, which offers everyone the opportunity for a healthier life.
In order to know what we can do for ourselves, we need credible professional information. We need to know exactly who to turn to, how we can reach them, and when it is necessary. We are the ones who need to take the most important steps in our everyday lives. Becoming such an active decision-maker, however, has its conditions. It is imperative to be aware of the hurdles and difficulties ahead of us, but in and of itself it is still not enough. We need to know our own coping and conflict management strategies, since they greatly influence our health status as well.
We often fail to comprehend the situation when we temporarily or permanently experience certain health problems. Naturally, we may become ill as a result of myriad reasons beyond our control, for example accidents, environmental effects, genetic traits or certain infections. In other words, we have very limited influence over several factors that affect our health status. However, much depends on our own contribution to preserving and improving our health.
Essentially, five main factors determine our health: our physical characteristics, our socioeconomic status, environmental factors, the health care system, and our lifestyle. How much depends on our own contribution? The pie chart below answers this question.
As shown, our health mostly depends on us. We are the ones who can shape our lifestyle, whilst influencing some of our physical characteristics. Now we only need to know how the “healthiest lifestyle” is attainable. Our book aims to answer this question as well.
Reference: WHO, Health Impact Assessment (2019)
