Health as a driving economic force

This chapter illustrates the contribution which could be made to realising the Lisbon Strategy of the European Union for growth and jobs by innovative healthcare policy favouring a preventive orientation of healthcare. The prevention and control of risk factors for chronic diseases, as well as their potential impact on the quality of human capital as a union of health and education, are discussed. Human capital refers to health and education both of the individual, and of the population as a whole