Cabinet Order No. 589 of 2014 on the Public Health Policy Guidelines 2014-2020

The Public Health Policy Guidelines 2014-2020 are a medium-term policy planning document, which is based on the World Health Organisation Regional Strategy for Europe "Health 2020" and has been drawn up in order to update the situation description included in the Public Health Policy Guidelines 2011-2017, formulation of the problems, objectives, policy results, the tasks defined in action directions, and to align them with the National Development Plan of Latvia 2014-2020 and the new financial planning period. The main causes of death of inhabitants of Latvia are non-communicable diseases: mainly cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumours and external causes of death. The development of non-communicable diseases is largely influenced by factors related to the lifestyle - unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity, and harmful habits (smoking, use of alcohol and drugs). The most efficient prevention measures for cardiovascular diseases are to quit smoking, regular physical activities, to choose healthy diet and to maintain adequate body weight.