Depression is a major illness with health and social effects similar to those for chronic diseases like hypertension, congestive heart failure or diabetes. The Global Burden of Disease Programme of WHO indicates that depressive disorders are among the most important causes of death and disability in both...
Day care is considered to be an important component of psychiatric services, but the evidence on different forms of day care is not easy to interpret. This review evaluates five main forms of day care for adults with severe mental disorders: acute psychiatric day hospital care, transitional psychiatric d...
The well-established links between poor health, poor housing and poverty suggest that housing improvements in disadvantaged areas or social housing may provide a population-based strategy to improve health and reduce health inequalities. Housing improvements that reduce exposure to specific hazards may l...
Injury is a serious public health problem in Europe, with the greatest burden on the young, the older people, and those living in the most deprived circumstances. However, it is largely unappreciated as a significant public health problem. Injuries are not inevitable – they can be prevented or controll...
Osteoporosis – an excessive decrease in bone mass – is more common in women than in men. It is a particularly common condition among elderly women in affluent countries. Osteoporosis is a risk factor for fractures, which occur most commonly at the wrist, spine and hip. Other important risk factors fo...
Overweight and obesity are increasingly prevalent in Europe. In the European Region, the growing prevalence of overweight – a body mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2 – ranges from about 25% to 75% of the adult population. Up to a third of the adult population, about 130 million people, are obese – with...
Suicide is a serious global public health problem; it is associated with an array of factors,
including mental illness, social isolation, physical illness, substance abuse, family violence
and access to means of suicide. The epidemiology of suicide rates varies across countries and
regions; those in east...
School health promotion, based on a wide range of research and practice, has evolved over the course of the last 50 years, alongside health promotion in other settings. During the 1990s, WHO, working jointly with the European Commission and the Council of Europe, developed the health promoting schools in...
During the last decades the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in Europe has grown. Although it is possibly levelling off in some areas of Europe, the scale of childhood obesity and its associated morbidities and costs remains considerable. Obese children and adolescents are more likely than ...
During recent years, the use of mobile phones has increased substantially and has been paralleled by a growing concern about the effects on health attributed to exposure to the electromagnetic fields produced by them and their base stations. Demonstrating that radiation causes adverse effects on health w...
