Afterword

While the concept of well-being has long been of interest to scientists and health practitioners, it often fails to capture attention and resources in the way that disease and death do. The vast majority of health-oriented research focuses on identifying and mitigating problems to reduce disease burden rather than identifying and developing strategies to enhance well-being per se. Discussion and research presented in the current volume make the case for shifting the focus to well-being. However, if we truly want to place well-being at the center of efforts to define and understand population health, we will need a robust ...