Numerous factors have an impact on human health. They have been divided into four groups, which affect the state of our health proportionally as follows:
- lifestyle: 50%;
- natural and social environment, work and studying 20%;
- genetic factors: 20%;
- the work of the health service: 10%.
These values were drawn up on the basis of the Lalonde Report, A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians, compiled in 1974 by Canada’s then Minister of National Health and Welfare, Marc Lalonde. The report threw a new light on public health, presenting the concept of a healthy population as a state which cannot be achieved solely by increasing health care funding. Four groups of factors were distinguished and then investigated in order to establish the extent of their impact.