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.

The immune disorders triggering the etiological mechanisms of depression are complex, and their biological effects involve multiple systems. Advances in clinical research provided new clues to the immunological mechanisms underlying the onset of depression, and continuous basic research provided a theoretical basis.
An Article on the burden of mental disorders among young people, in the context of SDG 3, focusing specifically on substance use disorders and self-harm in Europe.
An Article on mental health morbidities in family carers of individuals with psychosis, in the context of SDG 3, focusing specifically on online psychoeducation.
An Article on suicide risk among individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds, in the context of SDG 3, highlighting the heterogeneity in risk among minority ethnic groups and the need to change the practice of homogenously grouping individuals together in research and the public discourse.
Background: Childhood traumatic events are risk factors for psychopathology, but large-scale studies of how childhood traumatic events relate to mental health and cognition in adulthood, and how the brain is involved, are needed. Methods: The associations between childhood traumatic events (such as abuse and neglect, and defined by the ‘Childhood Trauma’ questions in the UK Biobank database) and brain functional connectivity, mental health problems, and cognitive performance were investigated by a univariate correlation analysis with 19,535 participants aged 45–79 from the UK Biobank dataset.
Background: Over 85% of Kibera's population, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, is food insecure. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions, such as sack gardens, have the potential to diversify diets - in turn, improving household food security and diet quality. Furthermore, the sale of extra vegetables may provide an income for program participants. Objectives: The aim of this paper was to conduct a feasibility assessment and preliminary impact assessment of a nutrition-sensitive urban agriculture intervention that used sack gardens for women in Kibera.
This chapter aligns with Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation and Goal 3: Good health and well-being by arguing that SW resources, aquatic ecosystems, and unsuccessfully treated wastewater on water courses must be effectively treated to prevent hostile health risks that have long-term as well as short-term effects on human health.
This chapter aligns with Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, Goal 3: Good health and well-being, and Goal 14: Life below water by summarizing different types of wastewater, its effects on freshwater ecosystem, and remedies to reduce the effect of these effluents on freshwater ecosystem and indirectly on humans.
An Article in support of all SDGS, particularly SDGs 4, 13, and 17, assessing the interlinkages between the 17 SDGs and climate change.
Since the first-ever tax on junk foods was passed in 2014 the same-day purchasing patterns and trends on the Navajo Nation have improved and more than one-third of shoppers who were aware of the Healthy Diné Nation Act (HDNA) legislation attributed healthier shopping habits to the legislation, particularly related to beverages.

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