Health promotion involves public policy that addresses health determinants such as income, housing, food security, employment, and quality working conditions.  Health promotion is aligned with health equity and can be a focus of NGOs dedicated to social justice or human rights. Health promotion is focused on preventative healthcare rather than a medical model of curative care.

There is a tendency among public health officials and governments—and this is especially the case in neoliberal nations such as Canada and the USA—to reduce health promotion to health education and social marketing focused on changing behavioral risk factors.