Reinventing public health: a new perspective on the health of Canadians and its international impact.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the Canadian origins of the Lalonde Report and its impact on British and American health promotion activities.


METHODS
A brief history of the development of key Canadian documents and their use by politicians and public health activists in the United Kingdom and United States.


METHODS
This paper focuses on the impact of the Canadian model on Canada, the United Kingdom and United States.


RESULTS
This paper argues that internal political and economic forces are as important as international trends in determining healthcare policy initiatives.


CONCLUSIONS
In the 1970s all the English-speaking developed nations were facing deficits as curative costs rose. Adopting health promotion policies permitted them to shift responsibility back to local governments and individuals while limiting their expenditures. Health and community activists, however, used this concept to broaden their focus to include the social, economic and political determinants of health and thus reinvented public health discourse and practice for the 21st century.
MacDougall
Heather
H
Department of History, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. hmacdoug@uwaterloo.ca
D002170:Canada; D035082:Federal Government / Q000266:history; D006291:Health Policy / Q000266:history; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States