Health and wellbeing

Health and well-being have a central role in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the United Nations, emphasizing the integral part they play in building a sustainable future. The third SDG explicitly calls for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. This goal encompasses a wide range of health objectives, from reducing maternal and child mortality rates, combatting disease epidemics, to improving mental health and well-being. But beyond SDG 3, health is intrinsically linked with almost all the other goals.

When addressing SDG 1, which aims to end poverty, one cannot neglect the social determinants of health. Economic hardship often translates into poor nutrition, inadequate housing, and limited access to health care, leading to a vicious cycle of poverty and poor health. Similarly, achieving SDG 2, ending hunger, also contributes to better health through adequate nutrition, essential for physical and mental development and the prevention of various diseases.

Conversely, the repercussions of climate change, encapsulated in SDG 13, profoundly impact health. Rising global temperatures can lead to increased spread of infectious diseases, compromised food and water supplies, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, all posing severe health risks. Conversely, the promotion of good health can also mitigate climate change through the reduction of carbon-intensive lifestyles and adoption of healthier, more sustainable behaviors.

SDG 5, advocating for gender equality, also has substantial health implications. Ensuring women's access to sexual and reproductive health services not only improves their health outcomes, but also contributes to societal and economic development. Furthermore, achieving SDG 4, quality education, is also critical for health promotion. Education fosters health literacy, empowering individuals to make informed health decisions, hence improving overall community health.

Lastly, SDG 17 underlines the importance of partnerships for achieving these goals. Multi-sector collaboration is vital to integrate health considerations into all policies and practices. Stakeholders from various sectors, including health, education, agriculture, finance, and urban planning, need to align their efforts in creating sustainable environments that foster health and well-being.

Hence, the relationship between health, well-being, and the SDGs is reciprocal. Improving health and well-being helps in achieving sustainable development, and vice versa. In this context, health and well-being are not just outcomes but are also powerful enablers of sustainable development. For the world to truly thrive, it must recognize and act upon these interconnections.

This Series paper supports SDGs 3 and 10 by describing health-care coverage and quality across the four countries, quantifying inequalities in these outcomes by socioeconomic status within country, and assessing the contribution of government, social security, and private health sectors to observed inequality.
This study indicates that among people with higher levels of disability, engaging in physical activity is linked to more effective stress coping through enhanced self-efficacy. However, this effect was not observed among people with low levels of disability.
In this Viewpoint, an international panel of clinicians, scientists, and community members with lived experiences of autism reviewed the challenges in identifying autism in individuals who are assigned female at birth and proposed clinical and research directions to promote the health, development, and wellbeing of these individuals.
This paper assess parental and guardian perceptions of dental health service accessibility among primary school students Saudi Arabia.
This Article supports SDG 3 by providing robust evidence of health-care financing policies deployed by 15 countries representing all WHO regions and offering an overview and illustrative examples of the modifications made to these policies for countries to rapidly mobilise fiscal resources for health.
This Health Policy paper supports SDG 3 by calling for greater coordination and coherence using a UHC+ lens to suggest new approaches to funding that can extend beyond biomedical health services to include the cross-cutting determinants of health.
The study underscores the importance of understanding VOC emissions from flame retardant industrial parks to address potential carcinogenic risks and formulate effective reduction strategies, contributing to both Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).
The research on enveloped viruses' response to environmental factors supports SDG 3 by informing effective disinfection strategies, crucial for preventing disease spread and promoting public health.
This study supports SDG 3, 6, and 16 by providing a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the association between conflict and the incidence of cholera in Yemen, highlighting how conflict-related destruction has compounded water, sanitation, and hygiene issues in Yemen.
This content aligns with Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing by explaining the different contributions to the mitochondrial toxic profile produced either by the virus or by the antiretroviral treatment.

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