World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations created in 1948 with the primary responsibility for international health matters and public health. The WHO Regional Office for Europe is one of six regional offices throughout the world, each with its own programme geared to the particular health conditions of the countries it serves.
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UN City, Marmorvej 51 DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark Tel.: +45 45 33 70 00 Fax: +45 45 33 70 01 E-mail: contact@euro.who.int Web: www.euro.who.int
Like its predecessors, the 2012 European health report describes both the overall improvements in health in the WHO European Region and their uneven distribution within and between countries. It breaks new ground, however, by helping both to define well-being, a goal of Europe’s new health policy, and to map the way towards achieving it. The report shows that, while decreases in certain causes of death and advances in tackling risk factors and socioeconomic and living conditions have led to better health, health inequalities and their determinants occur – and in some cases are widening – in many parts of the Region. Avoidable inequalities that can be addressed by current knowledge are in fact health inequities. In response to this situation, the countries in the Region adopted the new European health policy, Health 2020, in 2012; its aim is to improve the health and well-being of populations,
reduce health inequities and ensure sustainable people-centred health systems. By describing health in Europe, this report provides policy-makers and public health professionals with the epidemiological evidence base that underpins Health 2020 and its six overarching targets. Further, it works to incorporate well-being in Health 2020 by quantifying a European target and relevant indicators. The report describes the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s work with partners and experts to develop a common concept and approach to well-being that both allow for valid measurement and yield information useful to policy-makers and in programme evaluation. It sets out the agreed approach to monitoring progress towards Health 2020, outlines the collaborative agenda to address the challenges ahead and makes the case for measuring well-being as a marker of progress in health.
The European health report 2012 | Charting the way to well-being
The WHO Regional Office for Europe
The European health report
2012
Charting the way to well-being
The World Health Organization was established in 1948 as the specialized agency of the United Nations serving as the directing and coordinating authority for international health matters and public health. One of WHO’s constitutional functions is to provide objective and reliable information and advice in the field of human health. It fulfils this responsibility in part through its publications programmes, seeking to help countries make policies that benefit public health and address their most pressing public health concerns. The WHO Regional Office for Europe is one of six regional offices throughout the world, each with its own programme geared to the particular health problems of the countries it serves. The European Region embraces nearly 900 million people living in an area stretching from the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Mediterranean Sea in the south and from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. The European programme of WHO supports all countries in the Region in developing and sustaining their own health policies, systems and programmes; preventing and overcoming threats to health; preparing for future health challenges; and advocating and implementing public health activities. To ensure the widest possible availability of authoritative information and guidance on health matters, WHO secures broad international distribution of its publications and encourages their translation and adaptation. By helping to promote and protect health and prevent and control disease, WHO’s books contribute to achieving the Organization’s principal objective – the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health.