Evolution of understanding the concept of health: An introduction for designing strategies to improve public health in Iran

Abstract

The first step in designing any program, including national health promotion strategies, is a deep understanding of health and disease. It requires the acquisition of up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of health by studying the history and evolutionary revolutions of scientific and experimental knowledge in the field of defining health, understanding the factors and processes that lead to the formation of health, the risks that threaten health and ultimately create disease. This article is the first article in a series of articles related to the development of Iran's national health promotion strategies. It reviews the history related to health, public health and health promotion, and provides a summary of the latest contemporary vital knowledge related to health, which we believe, all students, professionals, researchers, managers and policy makers pay health should be equipped with.

Keywords

• health
• public health
• health promotion