PUBLIC HEALTH AND SALUTOGENESIS

There is a need to identify ways and means to improve public health, which receives significant attention at the level of developing the legislative framework. But actual public health indicators show a number of problems. One of them is the formation of a healthy lifestyle for Russians, a necessary culture of health. A new scientific direction in the field of health, salutogenesis (“the origin of health”) is associated with the analysis of factors that determine physical and mental health in conditions of an insufficiently favorable external environment. This involves studying the health of healthy people, aimed at developing a person’s self-confidence, an active attitude to life, and a sense of responsibility for one’s health. The aim of the article is to include the topic of salutogenesis into scientific debate. Salutogenesis has become most widespread in a number of countries in the form of the salutogenic design concept, aimed at making people active creators of their own lives, able to use internal resources. In Russia, salutogenesis is realized in the activities of the “Healthy Cities, Districts and Towns” Association, in the existence of a number of scientific and educational departments in various cities.