Study Planning Advice: Daily Q&A | How to Understand and Improve the System of Health Promotion Policies and Institutions

　　BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) — The “Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” propose “improving the policy and institutional framework for health promotion.” This is an essential requirement for implementing the Party’s new-era guidelines on health and wellness—“prioritizing the grassroots, driving progress through reform and innovation, emphasizing prevention, giving equal weight to traditional Chinese and Western medicine, integrating health into all policies, and promoting co-construction and shared benefits by the people”—as well as an inevitable choice for advancing the Healthy China Strategy and the strategy of prioritizing health. It also constitutes a key measure to shift the focus from disease treatment to safeguarding and enhancing the people’s health.

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to “improve national health policies” and “establish a comprehensive system for health impact assessment.” The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China explicitly calls for “perfecting policies that promote the health of the people.” The Basic Medical and Health Care and Health Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China, promulgated in 2019, dedicates an entire chapter to requirements related to health promotion. At present, driven by industrialization, urbanization, population aging, and changes in people’s lifestyles and modes of production, the socioeconomic and ecological factors influencing health have become increasingly diverse and complex. Consequently, the burden of chronic noncommunicable diseases on residents is growing more pronounced, while the situation regarding the prevention and control of major infectious diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS remains grave. Issues like mental health, occupational health, and endemic diseases also demand urgent attention. Meanwhile, health promotion spans multiple departments and sectors, yet the policy and institutional framework for proactively advancing health remains incomplete; inconsistencies persist across interdepartmental policies and measures, and the societal climate of actively safeguarding health still requires further strengthening. Unhealthy dietary habits, insufficient physical activity, overweight and obesity, and psychological and mental disorders—along with major infectious diseases—have all emerged as significant challenges to public health and to economic and social development. To address these issues, it is essential to shift the focus upstream and systematically reduce the risk of illness among the population, enabling the broad masses to avoid disease altogether, experience fewer illnesses, delay the onset of disease, and steer clear of serious conditions, thus entering the era of socialist modernization in a state of robust physical and mental well‑being. This can be concretely advanced and implemented through the following key dimensions.

　　First, prioritize the implementation of the health‑first development strategy as a top priority in economic and social development. Actively advance the implementation of the Party’s guidelines on health and wellness for the new era, and carry out the measures outlined at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee to put the health‑first development strategy into practice. Treat safeguarding and promoting public health as a key performance indicator for local Party committees, governments, and relevant departments in upholding the new development philosophy and driving high‑quality development. Incorporate indicators such as changes in average life expectancy, infant and child mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, control of infectious and chronic diseases, and the development of childcare services into the core components of performance management. Promote the establishment and refinement of a comprehensive policy and legal framework covering planning, investment, governance, and performance evaluation to support health‑first development. Accelerate the adoption of lifestyles, modes of production, and models of economic and social development, as well as governance systems, that are conducive to health, ensuring that China’s health outcomes consistently rank ahead of other economic and social development indicators on the global stage.

　　Second, we will improve the policy and institutional framework for health promotion. We will actively advance the implementation of relevant provisions of the Basic Medical and Health Care and Health Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China, refine institutional mechanisms that feature Party leadership, government guidance, broad social mobilization, and active individual participation, clarify responsibilities and safeguards at each stage—including disease prevention and resource allocation—strengthen cross-sectoral collaboration, and enhance coordinated governance and efficient regulation oriented toward health promotion. We will also promote legislation on health impact assessment, encourage localities to establish comprehensive systems for monitoring, surveying, and assessing diseases and health risk factors, formulate integrated measures for the prevention and control of health risk factors, strengthen early identification of health risks and proactive interventions, and further improve the public service system for national fitness that covers both urban and rural areas.

　　Third, we will improve the social mobilization mechanisms for health promotion. We will vigorously advance the Healthy China Initiative and the Patriotic Health Campaign, and comprehensively implement the Rational Diet Action, the National Nutrition Plan, and the Healthy Weight Management Action. We will carry out comprehensive efforts to build healthy towns and communities, ensure that public health committees under village (residential) committees achieve full coverage and function effectively, promote proven practices such as health management groups and health‑point systems, and integrate health and wellness into grassroots public services and governance frameworks.

　　Fourth, we will improve and comprehensively strengthen the institutional framework for enhancing residents’ health literacy. We will bolster specialized health education institutions, institutional mechanisms, and human resource capacity, integrate health education into the national education system, and encourage basic social units—such as communities, schools, government agencies, and enterprises and public institutions—to proactively disseminate health knowledge. We will innovate the formats and channels for communicating science-based health information, establish a comprehensive system for the release of health‑related knowledge and core messages at all levels, and encourage media outlets to conduct extensive public‑service campaigns on health issues, develop and standardize dedicated health‑focused programming, and enhance health‑education outreach by medical professionals, ensuring that health knowledge reaches every household. We will guide the public in embracing the principle that “each individual is primarily responsible for their own health,” raise awareness of personal disease‑risk prevention, and foster autonomous, self‑disciplined healthy lifestyles—characterized by balanced nutrition, appropriate physical activity, smoking cessation and moderate alcohol consumption, and psychological well‑being—so as to achieve, by 2030, a nationwide health‑literacy rate exceeding 40 percent, further narrow the urban–rural and regional disparities in health literacy, and promote the widespread adoption of healthy lifestyles.

[Editor-in-charge: Wang Mengmeng]

Source: Xinhua Net