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 article contributes to the debate around the use of participatory approaches by giving a tool (cameras) to the most marginalized to revitalize traditional foods (mostly nonmarket and even noncultivated) as a response to food insecurity and possibly malnutrition.
Experience of domestic violence has been suggested as a risk factor for diabetes. Longitudinal data from 5782 Australian women over 20 years were analysed. Childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence predicted subsequent diabetes. The association was only partly attenuated when obesity was taken into account. Awareness of a history of abuse may help in the management of obesity and diabetes in women.
Elsevier,

The Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment
2022, Pages 322-337

This content aligns with Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing as well as Goal 10: Reducing Inequalities by providing a biopsychosocial approach that is key to optimal outcomes for patients with psychiatric illnesses.
Elsevier,

Current Opinion in Psychology,
Volume 48,
2022,
101460

This article ties to SDG 3, by offering a framework to better understand the health disparities and appropriate interventions for refugee children
This study found a high prevalence of hepatitis C among patients on chronic hemodialysis in Lima, Peru. The results emphasize the need for interventions to reduce disease progression and improve treatment for these patients.
Examines multiple forms of adolescent violence perpetration across gender, racial/ethnic, and sexual identities. Boys reported greater rates of perpetration than girls, except for teen dating violence. Perpetration rates did not differ for intersection of gender by race/ethnicity. Perpetration rates varied across racial/ethnic, sexual, and gender minority students compared to non-minority students.
Elsevier,

Journal of Creativity, Volume 32, Issue 2, August  2022, article 100027.

How creatives were able to adapt their skills to maintain good mental health during the COVID pandemic.
The findings suggest that providing characteristics of ‘nature’, ‘refuge’, and ‘prospect’ in urban green spaces (UGSs) may provide restorative effects and mental benefits to teenagers.

Journal of Creativity, Volume 31, December 2021, article 100008

The importance of developing play skills for good mental health in children
The variations in organizational features and processes linked to implementation activities across two clinics provided an opportunity to examine how and why different contextual factors help or hinder the implementation process. Findings from this study demonstrate that successful implementation of an integrated depression and diabetes care model is feasible in a low-resource setting, while the revised program theories provide an explanatory framework of coordinated care implementation processes that can inform future efforts to disseminate and scale this care model.

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