Moduel 1.2 Flashcards
What is health?
WHO: “State of complete physical, mental, and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Dynamic: Health can be viewed as a dynamic position on a continuum of physical, social, spiritual, emotional & mental well-being.
This means that health in each of these areas changes from time to time depending on circumstances, and that each of the areas that comprise total health may be at a different spot on the continuum in relation to the other areas. This means for example, that an individual may have excellent physical health while having poor or only fair emotional health.
Right to Health: The United Nations for example, states that all individuals have the right to the maximum attainable level of health.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this definition?
Can you imagine a person who does not meet this definition of “healthy”, but may consider themselves healthy?
Here’s an example: think of a person who has a chronic illness like diabetes, which is under control and doesn’t impact their ability to function.
Health can be a spectrum.
Holistic nursing
is nursing practice that has as its goal the healing of the whole person. Holism involves understanding the relationships among the biological, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of a person, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that a person is an integrated being who is interacting with internal and external environments”.
Health Promotion
is defined as …the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health so that physical, social, spiritual, emotional & mental well-being is achieved.
Health promotion initiatives generally use multiple strategies, such as: List 3
Information Education Skill development Media Community development Advocacy Healthy public policy and policy development Adjustments to the environment
Social determinants of health
are those determinants that are specifically related to societal factors.
Ex:Early childhood development Education Employment/working conditions Food security Health care services Housing shortages Income and equitable distribution Social exclusion Social safety nets Unemployment Employment security
Determinants of health
is a factors that influence health
Ex: Income and social status Social support networks Education Employment/working conditions Social environments Physical environments Personal health practices and coping skills Healthy child development Biology and genetic endowment Health services Gender Culture
How does income influence health?
- Income appears to be one of the primary determinants of health status & longevity
- People with less wealth generally have poorer health & live shorter lives than people with higher incomes.
- At each rung up the income ladder, Canadians have less sickness, longer life expectancies and improved health.
Reasons:
-High income determines living conditions such as safe housing and ability to buy sufficient good food.
- People who live below the poverty line often live where there are higher rates of environmental contamination (e.g. ‘poor neighbourhoods’ are often found near industrial areas)
- People with higher incomes can afford transportation to get to medical appointments. To get to appointments, people on limited income often rely on public transportation, and struggle to find child care to attend those appointments (or have to take children with them on public transport). This is particularly problematic in rural areas.
- Lower income families have less access to physical activities, which can become quite expensive. They often describe having less leisure time to engage in physical activities.
How does social Status influence health? What about social Support?
STATUS:
A British survey of civil servants found that for most major categories of disease (cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, etc.), health increased with job rank; at each step up the job hierarchy.
For example, those one step down from the top had heart disease rates four times higher than those at the top
SOCIAL:
Support from family, friends and communities is associated with better health.
Some research suggests that the more social contacts that people have, the lower their premature death rates.
Social support networks may be important in helping people solve problems and deal with adversity, contributing to the maintenance of physical and emotional health.
The caring and respect that occurs in social relationships can contribute to a sense of wellbeing that seems to act as a buffer against health problems.
Low availability of emotional support and low social participation are associated with all-cause mortality.
Social stability, community safety and cohesiveness provide a supportive society that reduces potential risks to good health.
How does education/Working Conditions influence health
EDUCATION:
- Health status and life expectancy improve
- increases an individual’s and family’s opportunities for job and income security and satisfaction.
- It improves people’s ability to access and understand information to help keep them healthy.
- gives people good problem solving and coping mechanisms
WORKING CONDITIONS:
- Unemployment, stressful or unsafe work are associated with poorer health and reduced life expectancy.
- People who have more control over their work circumstances and fewer stress-related demands of the job are healthier and often live longer
How can our physical enviornment influence our health?
Ex with Manitoba First Nations
At certain levels of exposure, contaminants in our air, water, food and soil can cause a variety of adverse health affects, including cancer, birth defects, respiratory illnesses and gastrointestinal ailments.
In Manitoba First Nations communities, higher rates of shigellosis (an acute infection of the intestine by shigella bacteria; characterized by diarrhea and fever and abdominal pains, a form of dysentery) have been associated with inadequate sewage removal systems, substandard water delivery systems and overcrowded housing.
Many communicable diseases can be traced to poor water quality. In 1999, 65 First Nations and Inuit communities were under a boil water advisory for an average of 183 days. This also affected the amount of water available to each person, so that in some cases, people are forced to choose between cleaning and cooking, with the choice potentially impacting health status.
What genetic factors could influence health?
Because the child’s brain continues to develop throughout early childhood, exposure to healthy physical and social environmental factors is important.
A loving, secure environment, particularly during the first 18 months helps children to develop trust, self-esteem, emotional control and the ability to have positive relationships with others later in life.
Positive stimulation early in life has been associated with improved learning, behaviour and health into adulthood.
ENDOWMENT
In some cases genetic endowment predisposes individuals to particular diseases or health problems.
In other cases, genetic makeup is associated with longevity and greater ability to combat chronic disease processes.
GENDER
Gender-related norms, roles & attitudes, influence health practices.
Women generally live longer than men, but are more likely to suffer depression, stress overload, chronic conditions such as arthritis and allergies, and injuries and death resulting from family violence.
Men are more likely to die prematurely than women, largely as a result of heart disease, fatal unintentional injuries, cancer and suicide.
CULTURE:
Some persons or groups may face additional health risks due to a socio-economic environment, which is largely determined by dominant cultural values that contribute to the perpetuation of conditions such as marginalization, stigmatization, loss or devaluation of language and culture and lack of access to culturally appropriate health care services
Culture
The sum total of the learned ways of doing, feeling, and thinking, past and present, of a social group within a given period of time. These ways are transmitted between generations or individuals and groups
A shared way of thinking or doing things. The group can change and evolve over time
Culture is not just ethnic. Religious groups, youth culture.
5 Characteristics of Culture
1) Culture is learned
mostly from interactions with other people, beginning with family & friends
through our cultural stories, folk-tales and legends. They are usually value-laden and teach what the culture deems to be important.
2) Culture is transmitted from generation to generation
3) Culture is based on symbols
culture is learned and passed on to other generations through its languages, images and icons (e.g. dances, rituals, clothing, food)
4) Culture is ethnocentric
Our own culture is a perceptual filter through which all other groups are interpreted and judged.
5) Culture is subject to change
Cultures are dynamic and change with contact with outside sources.
Core Elements of Culture 3
Cultural Values
They guide the way that we see things and the way that we behave; they provide stability. They are commonly reflected in what we believe about family, religion, human nature, work & leisure, gender roles, nature & the environment.
Worldview
A worldview is a culture’s orientation toward such things as God, nature, death, the universe, & other philosophical issues that are concerned with the meaning of life and “being”.
Social Organizations
The Family
The family helps the culture teach the child what the world looks like and his or her place in that world.
