"What makes some people healthy and others unhealthy? How can we create a society in which everyone has a chance to live a long, healthy life? Determinants of health are factors that contribute to a person’s current state of health. These factors may be biological, socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioral, or social in nature. Scientists generally recognize five determinants of health of a population: genes and biology, health behaviors, social environment or social characteristics, physical environment or total ecology, and health services or medical care. Genes and biology include sex and age. Health behaviors include alcohol use, injection drug use, unprotected sex, and smoking. Social characteristics include discrimination, income, and gender. The physical environment includes where a person lives and crowding conditions. Health services include access to quality health care and having or not having insurance. Other factors that could be included are culture, social status, and healthy child development. Healthy People 2020 explores these questions by developing objectives that address the relationship between health status and biology, individual behavior, health services, social factors, and policies. It also emphasizes an ecological approach to disease prevention and health promotion, focusing on both individual-level and population-level determinants of health and interventions."