Many factors combine together to affect the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Whether people are healthy or not is determined by their circumstances and environment. To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health and well-being, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access and use of health care services often have less of an impact. Thus the context of people’s lives determines their health, and so blaming individuals for having poor health or crediting them for good health is inappropriate. Individuals are unlikely to be able to directly control many of the determinants of health.
This section includes information on:
- Accidents and injuries
- Diet, nutrition and health
- Immunisation
- Tobacco smoking
- Physical activity
- Alcohol
- Obesity
- Drug misuse
In Wales, the Welsh Health Survey is a source of information about the health and related lifestyle of people living in Wales. The most recent survey for 2007 can be found here.