Summary notes of Cases 1-10
Module 1021
➔ Case 1:
Hypotheses
How did the thinking about health change over time:
- Throughout history health was viewed as first only the physical health and then the
absence of diseases and then the balance of elements between the physical, emotional and
mental well being
- Leonardi stated that the perception of health has changed after western medicine was
born
- Etymologically in english language, health is to “heal”
- After the second world war a very popular definition came up by the WHO that health “is
a state of complete mental,physical and social well being and not merely the absence of
disease”
- Another perspective about health was that which came by the OTTAWA CHARTER
stating that health became a resource for every life (a process) and not the object of living
(a state)
Which definitions are there about health? (Main ones are WHO, Matt,
Huber)
- Health is defined as “the state of optimum capacity of an individual for the effective
performance of the roles and tasks for which he has been socialized” (health being
compared to it being our optimum capacity to perform daily roles and tasks that we have
to do)
- WHO 1948 defines “the state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not
merely the absence of disease” (health is not when we do not have a disease but when we
are in a good state physically, psychologically and socially.
- Lennart Nordenfelt in 1987: Health as “the ability to achieve vital goals”. He described a
person’s vital goal as “a state of affairs that is such that it is a necessary condition for the
person’s minimal happiness in the long run”
- Machteld Huber in 2014 “ health as the ability to adapt and self manage oneself in the
light of physical, emotional and social challenges of life”
- Rene Dubos states that in his view “health is modus vivendi enabling imperfect men to
achieve a rewarding and not too painful existence while they cope with an imperfect
, world. Health and vigor can be achieved in the absence of modern sanitation and without
the help of western medicine. Man has in his nature the potentiality to reach a high level
of physical and mental well-being without nutritional abundance or physical comfort”.
- OTTAWA CHARTER DEFINITION OF HEALTH: how health became a resource for
everyday life and not the object of living.
- Antonovsky’s definition of health: health is a product of push(factors that push you down
such as life stressors) and pull factors (coping mechanism)
How are the definitions criticized:
- The Lennart Nordenfelt definition was criticized on the ground that it conceptualizes vital
goals as social, cultural and ethically relative and thus subjective and not normative. It
also does not have a specific set of vital goals. (hard to interpret)
- Limitations of the WHO definitions: →3 points of critisism
1- The absoluteness of the word “complete”, which is utopian and applicable most of the time
and contributed to medicalisation. Would leave most of us unhealthy most of the time.
2- (Outdated) the present demography of diseases which shows a transition from infectious
mainly chronic diseases that people may live with for decades. The definition declared the large
majority of people being ill
3- The difficulty with operationalisation, as “complete”is not measurable.
4- The WHO definition became unfit for dealing with the new challenges arising from the
growth of the aging rate and the increasing number of people in chronic illness
- Criticism of Huber’s definition: In her concept, health is no longer seen as absence of
presence of disease, but as the ability of people to cope with changing physical,
emotional and social life challenges. So the criticism was that it has NO implementation
strategy. The dimensions she mentioned can only be implied to an individual while health
is also in many times influenced by family, economic status and neighborhood effects
- Huber says that her definition of health should be used in health care systems but her
definition was more theoretical than to be applicable in practice.
➔ Factors that are shared between definitions of health:
- Health is dynamic
- Health is beyond disease
- Potentially achievable by everyone
- Include well being
- Based on person’S ability
,- Complex to define
➔ How do laymen and health professionals view health?
- Professionals are in a privileged position and they must make some selections about some
things, their role is to promote and assure longevity and minimize diseases and not
everything can be pursued
- The individual may pressure professionals into achieving unrealistic goals, because they
do not see things from a privileged point of view, they do not make the selections
- Individuals tends to think subjectively and not globally, while the professional must
consider everything when making decisions about policies
- Subjectivity in health
- Social and physical resources
➔ Can health be defined in one way? Why is it important to define
health?
- Health CANNOT be defined in one way, for some people health is a concept, status or
just a word, behavior, or even personal growth.
- Defining heath was and will always be a complex goal and many aspects have to be
considered
- “Standardized health”
➔ Why is it important to define health?
- Health might be a resource to support an individual’s function in wider society, rather
than an end in itself. A healthful lifestyle provides the means to lead a full life with
meaning and purpose
- The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental
rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief,
economic or social condition.
, ➔ Case 2:
Development and synonyms for the word public:
- Public is being seen synonyms to “population” or “citizens” of a place
- Population Etymology:
- Latin: populus / population = the people
- Biology: group of species / collection of human beings
- Social: collection of human beings
- Collective Etymology:
- Latin: colligere = being / standing together; collectivus = representing many
people
- Meaning: people formed together / number of people in a group
Key words and their meanings:
Public, adjective: relating to or involving people in general, rather than being limited to a
particular group of people; open to all persons.
- Synonyms: popular, general, common, communal, shared, joint, universal,
widespread
Population, noun: all the inhabitants of a particular place.
- Synonyms: inhabitants, residents, people, citizens, public, community, fold,
society, occupants, occupiers
Society, noun: the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered
community.
- Synonyms: the community, the public, the people, civilization, humankind,
mankind.
Collective, noun: a cooperative enterprise.
- Synonyms: body, group establishment, foundation, institute, institution
corporation, enterprise charity
