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WHAT IS HEALTH

WHAT IS HEALTH. QUICK WRITE: What do you think of when you hear the word health. What did you do this summer that may have improved your overall health?. Aims.

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WHAT IS HEALTH

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  1. WHAT IS HEALTH • QUICK WRITE: • What do you think of when you hear the word health. • What did you do this summer that may have improved your overall health?

  2. Aims • Explore the notion of health from a variety of perspectives including professional and lay viewpoints related to age, gender, social class and culture. • Appreciate that there are a range of views about the nature of health. • Introduce the concept of “models” of health. • Highlight the Evans and Stoddart model to set the scene for future lectures.

  3. Personal health beliefs Think about the last time you experienced yourself as “healthy”. Jot down a few phrases that describe the feeling, and the context.

  4. Who is the healthiest?

  5. Defining health • Official or professional definitions • Popular or lay definitions.

  6. Negative, Professional Definitions • So called bio-medical or scientific view of health. • Health as the absence of disease. • Health as the absence of illness.

  7. Definitions • Disease – presence of pathology or abnormality in a body part • Illness – feelings of anxiety, pain or distress usually associated with a disease

  8. Positive/Holistic, Professional Definitions World Health Organisation, 1947 • “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being rather than solely as absence of disease”

  9. Professional Definitions Positive/holistic views • Health as an ideal state • Health as physical and mental fitness • Health as a commodity • Health as personal strength or ability • Health as the basis for personal potential.

  10. Lay beliefs - being healthy / being ill • 9000 individuals questioned:- • Absence of disease. • Physical fitness • Functional ability Blaxter (1995)

  11. Health beliefs change throughout the life-course

  12. Lay health beliefs - Age • Older people concentrated on functional ability • Younger people tended to speak of health in terms of physical strength and fitness Blaxter (1995)

  13. Lay health beliefs - social class. • People living in difficult economic and social circumstances regard health as functional – the ability to be productive, to cope and take care of others. Blaxter & Paterson (1982) • Women of higher social class or with higher educational qualifications have a more multidimensional view of health. Blaxter (1995)

  14. Lay health beliefs - gender. • Men and women appear to think about health differently • Women may find the concept of health more interesting • Women include a social aspect to health. Blaxter (1995)

  15. The causes or determinants of health So far we have discussed what we mean by “health” Now I want you to think about what may cause some people to be healthy while others are not

  16. Main learning points • Health is conceived differently depending on whether you are a professional or not, where you live, what circumstances you find yourself living in, how old you are and whether you are a man or a woman. • There are a variety of “models” of health which have sprung from social scientists and others attempting to define what health is and what causes health and ill health.

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