NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 132 of 150

Correct — C, the depression theme carrying the slogan 'Let's Talk'. World Health Day falls on 7 April every year, and for 2017 the World Health Organization built the day around depression, running a year-long campaign that urged people who are unwell to talk about it and those around them to listen. WHO chose the subject because depression is among the leading causes of ill health worldwide, affects people of every age and income, and is still widely unrecognised and untreated — so the campaign's whole point was to make the conversation easier rather than to announce a new medical intervention.

• (a)Diabetes — A genuine World Health Day theme, but of 2016, when the campaign ran under the slogan 'Halt the rise: beat diabetes'. Wrong year.
• (b)Food Safety — Also a real theme, from 2015. The examiner has filled every option with an authentic WHO theme from a different year, so plausibility is no guide at all here.
• (d)Ageing and Health — The 2012 theme, campaigned with the line 'Good health adds life to years'. Correct subject, wrong year again.

World Health Day marks the founding of the World Health Organization. The First World Health Assembly in 1948 decided that 7 April would be observed each year from 1950, that being the date on which WHO's Constitution came into force. Each year the organisation picks a single public-health theme and builds a global campaign around it, which is why the day is a reliable source of examination questions.

Every option here is a real theme, so the item tests the year, not the subject. The efficient way to hold these is as a short chronological list rather than as isolated facts — food safety in 2015, diabetes in 2016, depression in 2017 — because examiners almost always set the distractors from adjacent years. As of the September 2017 examination the current theme was depression; WHO has named a fresh theme every year since, so this answer is tied to its year and should not be quoted as the present campaign.

• World Health Day is observed on 7 April, the date WHO's Constitution came into force in 1948.
• The First World Health Assembly fixed the observance in 1948, effective from 1950.
• The 2017 theme was depression, campaigned under the slogan 'Let's Talk'.
• The 2016 theme was diabetes and the 2015 theme was food safety.
• The 2012 theme was ageing and health, with the line 'Good health adds life to years'.

• Choosing the most plausible-sounding health topic when every option is a real theme from another year.
• Confusing World Health Day (7 April) with World Health Assembly sessions or with other health observances.
• Quoting the latest theme for an older paper; the theme changes annually.

Observance days are asked either as the date, as the theme of a named year, or as the organisation behind the day.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  World Health Day is observed every year on

  • (a)1 December
  • (b)7 April
  • (c)24 March
  • (d)31 May

  Answer(b) 7 April — the date on which the WHO Constitution came into force in 1948.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The World Health Day campaign 'Halt the rise: beat diabetes' belonged to which year?

  • (a)2014
  • (b)2015
  • (c)2016
  • (d)2017

  Answer(c) 2016 — food safety was the 2015 theme and depression the 2017 theme.