Health policies and Health For All strategies in the Nordic countries.
In the 1980s all five Nordic countries expressed, at the highest political level, their commitment to WHO's program Health for All (HFA) by the Year 2000. This program aims at improving the prerequisites for a healthier and longer life by changing lifestyles, decreasing environmental hazards and by shifting the emphasis in health care from specialized services towards primary health care. Following their policy statements all the Nordic countries formulated national HFA strategies during the latter half of the 1980s. This paper looks at the background and the formulation and implementation of these strategies, covering the period up until the end of the 1980s. The implementation of national strategies seems to be a slow and difficult process. The monitoring of progress toward accepted healthy policy goals is not easy, because measurable objectives or targets are mostly missing.
Salmela
R
R
University of Tampere, Finland.
D003710:Demography; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries; D014944:World Health Organization