What is self-care?

Self-care describes the role of individuals in preventing disease, managing their mental and physical health, and actively participating in their healthcare.

The concept was first recognised by WHO in 1983. WHO advocates for the value and potential contribution of self-care interventions within health systems, acknowledging its importance in times of major disruption, such as COVID-19. While self-care does not replace the healthcare system, it provides “additional choices and options for healthcare.” In a nutshell, self-care is healthcare.

Currently, self-care is not universally recognised and understood as a health intervention despite numerous evidence-based examples demonstrating its significant impact on health. These interventions include medicines, devices, diagnostics, and digital tools. Self-care actions also encompass practices, habits, and lifestyle choices. A wide array of ‘self-care tools’ exists, and the specific interventions vary from person to person and community to community, but all offer additional options and choices for healthcare.

Benefits of self-care for all

Self-care interventions provide greater choice, access, control, satisfaction, and affordable options to manage healthcare needs.  Educating and enabling individuals to optimise their health by managing common conditions through preventative self-care strategies empowers them to become better self-managers of their own health, making appropriate choices for themselves and their families. This can have a cascading effect on community health. 

Universal health coverage (UHC) ensures all people, everywhere, can access quality essential health services with financial protection. It is firmly rooted in the human right to health.  WHO has recognised self-care as a legitimate tool in the pursuit of UHC as it can both improve health outcomes and reduce the current burden placed on healthcare systems.

For more information and practical tools for self-care advocates to better understand and recognise the enablers of self-care, click here.

Non-communicable diseases

NCDs represent a significant global health crisis that impacts billions of people worldwide. A large proportion of NCDs are preventable by addressing the major NCD risk factors associated with unhealthy products — tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, and fossil fuel-related air pollution. However, this is contingent on governments choosing to protect populations against these unhealthy products through comprehensive policy design and implementation. To achieve this, we must reimagine care.

NCDs place a heavy economic burden on countries, decreasing productivity while simultaneously contributing to heavy costs on health systems. In total the five leading NCDs – CVD, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health conditions – have been estimated to cost $47 trillion between 2010-2030, an average of more than $2 trillion per year.²

Self-care is a powerful, low-cost strategy that empowers people to prevent, control, and manage NCDs through daily, sustainable behaviour change. We need policy interventions to strengthen health systems and empower individuals to incorporate self-care into their lives.

Current self-care activities are generating substantial global monetary savings as well as healthcare workforce savings, totalling at least approximately $119 billion per year.³

Unlike infections, which are often treated once, NCDs require daily, sustained behaviour change. The Continuum shows how self-care and NCDs are interlinked, demonstrating potential positive domino effects that can be reached. That’s where self-care is important as it brings consistency, structure, and long-term disease prevention into people’s hands.