Abstract
Objective: To maintain and promote general health, mental health must be also improved. This article presents an overview of the mental health-related presentations and discussions made in the 22nd IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion.
Contents: In many studies, mental health data were used as psychological variables to explain healthy behaviors. In these studies, associations were detected between mental health status and healthy behaviors such as appropriate health service use, better eating behavior and exercises. The variety of participants joined these studies; among them a study targeting Hispanic men who have sex with men was valuable. Moreover, poor mental health was associated with many high-risk behaviors while better mental health was associated with improved life style and other positive behaviors.
Conclusions: Mental health is a key to health promotion in Japan, too. As social environment and conditions have been dynamically changed, mental health research should be flexibly adapted to these changes and meet the needs of the current society.
