Defining Health Flashcards
What are the factors affecting our understanding of health?
Our education and training
Cultural factors
The context we live in
One’s own personal interests
Definition of illness
Illness refers to the subjective sense of feeling unwell. illness does not define a specific pathology but refers to a person’s subjective experience of it such as discomfort tiredness and general malaise
Two ways we classify illness and disease
Acute illness and chronic illness.
acute is typically characterized by severe symptoms of relatively short duration
chronic is one that lasts for an extended period usually 6 months or longer and often for person’s life.
How does Suchman describe five stages of illness
Stage 1 symptoms experiences Stage 2 assumption of the sick role confirmation from family and friends Stage 3 medical Care contact Stage 4 dependent llandro Stage 5 recovery or rehabilitation
The impact of illness on the client
Loss of autonomy self concept and Body Image changes lifestyle changes
Impact of illness family changes
-Role changes task reassignments -Increased demand on time. -Anxiety about outcomes -Change in social customs Loneliness and financial problems.
Define sickness
It is the way a patient reports symptoms which is influenced by his or her cultural background
so sickness refers to socially and culturally held Concepts or conceptions of health conditions for example of the dread of Cancer or the stigma of mental illness which in turn influence how the patient reacts to it
Definition of disease
Disease implies a focus on pathological processes that may or may not produce symptoms and that is held in a patient’s illness
for example a patient complains of tiredness and malaise his ILLNESS as he experiences it he consults a doctor about it because he believes that he might have a SICKNESS the doctor might attribute the patient’s symptoms to a Thyroid condition a DISEASE
Natural history of disease
This refers to the course of a disease over a period of time unaffected by treatment
The clinical course of a disease
- Exposure to pathogen
- From the biological onset of disease to when symptoms appear that is what we call the preclinical phase.
- From when symptoms appear to the outcome that’s the clinical phase
the clinical phase involves the diagnosis and therapy or treatment, possible Relapse, change in therapy outcomes or when the person is cured or they are living with the disease or deteriorated and died that’s all within the clinical phase
The stage of susceptibility
This involves the risk factors that favours the occurrence of a disease operating in this stage.
Host factors like the person their age, sex, race family history and nutritional status
the environmental factors or exposure to the infectious agents obesity high blood pressure or hypertension coronary artery disease
during this stage the person remains free of Clinical diseases
Stage of pre-symptomatic disease
Three important factors here the host the agent and the environment. These interact to initiate pathogenic changes that is adequate to cause a disease
that disease does NOT at this stage clinically manifest
Stage of Clinical disease
In this stage the particular signs and symptoms develop. during this stage a disease can be sub classified to its own security grades.
Stages of terminations
Disease terminate and follow the following trends:
- Spontaneous resolution no sequels
- Settles down but with some sequels
- and then the other one result in deaths of the patient
Lay definitions for health
Absence of disease
physical fitness
functional ability
Changing concepts of health
Biomedical concept and ecological concept
Biomedical concept
The absence of disease the human body here is looked at as a machine
The disease looked at as a consequence of the breakdown of the machine and the doctors task is to repair the machine
the limitation with this concept is it has minimised of role of Environmental social and psychological and cultural determinants of health
Ecological concept
Health is said to be a dynamic equilibrium between man and his environment disease here is considered to be the mal-adjustment of the human organisms to the environment
this concept supports the need for clean air safe water, ozonic layer in the atmosphere etc to protect us from exposure to unhealthy factors
What is health?
Oxford dictionary
= defines Health as a state of being well in body or mind
Webster
= defines health as the condition of being sound in body mind or spirit especially freedom from physical disease or pain.
Perkins
= defines health as a state of relative equilibrium of body, form and function which result from its successful dynamic adjustments to forces tending to disturb It is not passive interplay between body substance and forces impinging upon it but an active Response of body forces working towards readjustment.
The psychosocial concept
Says that health is not only a biomedical phenomenon, but one which is in influenced by social psychological, cultural, Economic and political factors of the people concerned.
Holistic concept
This concept looks at all the concept and combines them it combines the biomedical + ecological + psychosocial concept.
It has been defined as unified or multi-dimensional process involving the well-being of the whole person in the context of his environment holistic concept implies that all sectors of society have an effect on health
New philosophy of health
- Health is a fundamental human right
- Is essence of productive life
- Is intersectoral
- Is integral part of development
- Central to quality of life
- involves individuals state and international responsibility
- health and its maintenance is a major social investment
- health is a worldwide social goal
Health illness Continuum
The person’s perceived level of wellness
health and illness/disease opposite end of health Continuum will tug-of-war with each other.
wide range of health or illness.
Define wellness
The condition of good physical and mental health especially when maintained by proper diet exercise and good habits
