Teaching About Health or Teaching How to Be Healthy?

In the United States, the prevailing view of health, including the design of the U.S. healthcare system, has historically posited that to improve health one must focus on better understanding what causes poor health or disease. This emphasis on disease reduction or risk prevention, also known as a pathogenic approach to health. This article introduces the salutogenic approach which, instead, focuses on the steps necessary to help individuals become healthy and well.