Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze different guidelines from rector institutions related with health risk factors, changes in lifestyles and its impact in chronic diseases in the last three decades. Technical documents and policy guidelines were reviewed since 1978 as well as World Health Organization (WHO) reports in health promotion and the prevention of chronic diseases. Chilean Ministry of Health, Universities and other institutions documents were reviewed at the national level and health promotion policies were analyzed. In conclusion, the Health Promotion Policy was incorporated in 1997 with the creation of the National Board for Health Promotion also named VIDA CHILE, in 1998, with important advances until 2003 in implementation of national and regional VIDA CHILE, including VIDA CHILE programs in 341 counties throughout the country. Plans of health promotion involving projects in food and nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and psychosocial and environmental problems were developed in each county. These accomplishments were possible thanks to an agreement between the Government of Chile and the academic sector. Since the year 2003, the Health Promotion Policy continued working at the regional and local level thanks to trained human resources, the support of the Ministry of Health and the local governments. At the world level, in the Bangkok meeting carried out in 2005, WHO incorporated the determinants of health with the purpose of decreasing inequities in the globalized world, modifying the concept of health promotion, and shifting the emphasis in the behavior of the population to a more structural vision of the determinants of health. The authors propose to integrate both concepts (health promotion and determinants of health) developing a State Policy similar to the policy utilized for the eradication of undernutrition in Chile, with a broad consensus and continuity on time, with an strategic agreement among Government, academic and private sector.