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The concept of health holds different meanings for different people and groups. These meaning of health have also changed over time. when notions of health and health promotion are being challenged and expanded in new ways. For much of recent western history, health has been viewed in the physical sense only. That is, good health has been connected to the smooth mechanical operation of the body, while ill health has been attributed to a breakdown in this machine. Health in this sense has been defined as the absence of disease or illness and is seen in medical terms. According to this view, creating health for people means providing medical care to treat or prevent disease and illness. During this period, there was an emphasis on providing clean water, improved sanitation and housing. In the late 1940s the World Health Organization challenged this physically and medically oriented view of health. They stated that health is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is not merely the absence of disease . Health and the person were seen more holistically and not just in physical terms. The 1970s was a time of focusing on the prevention of disease and illness by emphasizing the importance of the lifestyles and behavior of the individual. Specific behaviors which were seen to increase risk of disease, such as smoking, lack of fitness and unhealthy eating habits, were targeted. Creating health meant providing not only medical health care, but health promotion programs and policies which would help people maintain healthy behaviors and lifestyles. While this individualistic healthy lifestyles approach to health worked for some , people experiencing poverty, unemployment, underemployment or little control over the conditions of their daily lives benefited little from it. This was largely because both the healthy lifestyles approach and the medical approach to health ignored the social and environmental conditions affecting the health of people. | 
