Definition of Terms
Health, well-being, wellness, and health promotion are inter-related concepts. “Well-being” is the most comprehensive and was chosen deliberately to express the broad nature of the President’s Council for Well-being work. Definitions that have been adopted for consistent use:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Well-being is a dynamic, highly interdependent state that is created at the intersection of health in person, place and planet.
Wellness is functioning optimally within your current environment.
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.
Sources:
Health : World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution
Well-being : Definition developed by PCCW Executive Committee (2023) guided by the Okanagan Charter
Wellness : National Wellness Institute, http://www.nationalwellness.org/?page=six_dimensions
Health Promotion : World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/westernpacific/about/how-we-work/programmes/health-promotion