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Health is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as being ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing’. There are many differing perceptions of health in society, some believe health is based on the presence of illness, whereas other people take into consideration their overall wellbeing, and strive to prevent illnesses.
Models of Health have been put into place with the aspiration of making a healthier individual or nation. These differ from simply treating any physical or biological illnesses, to looking at trying to make sure a person does not become ill in the first place.
The biomedical model is the main model of the NHS in focusing on making any person suffering from any illness better. First a diagnosis is needed
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Details of their social lifestyle, and any social causes to the illness do not need to be approached giving the individual a view that they never need to change any habits they have on their health, as the NHS will always provide free treatment, regardless of their lifestyle.
The social model was developed to take into consideration the cultural, environmental and social factors of a person when looking at their health. The main focus is to make sure a community as a whole has broad health knowledge and can then promote this onto themselves. The social model uses collaboration from different sectors such as school nurses, NHS posters, adverts and health and safety guidelines in order to make sure a person is educated about illnesses from all different social
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Icek Ajzen said there are three factors to consider when predicting whether a person will perform an unhealthy behaviour. He looked at the attitude a person had towards the unhealthy act, as well as what’s socially expected of them and the behaviour control the individual has. For instance, if a person favours a behaviour the more likely they are to then perform this behaviour, the individual will also be influenced by the views of others around them, in relation to this act. The last factor will be the perceived behaviour control of that person, as to whether they then control their own behaviour, or begin to submit to the specific
Health behaviour is defined as ‘behaviour patterns, actions, and habits that relate to health maintenance to health restoration and to health improvement’ (Gochman, 1997). An individual’s behaviour towards their health is influenced by their social, cultural and physical environments. Behaviours are categorised as being health-enhancing or health-impairing. Engaging in health- enhancing behaviours, for instance, taking regular exercise and eating a balanced diet, can lead to increased health benefits and reductions in illness. Alternatively, health-impairing behaviours, such as excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and high dietary fat consumption, can have detrimental consequences on health and increase an individual’s susceptibility to disease.
The biomedical model of health has been criticised because it fails to include the psychological and social causes relating to an individual’s medical illness or health, looking only at the biological causes (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Therefore, sociologists being aware of the impacts of social structure and lifestyle on health have put in various efforts to place the study of ‘the social’ at the core of health and healthcare examination.
As discussed, it is clear that when it comes to public health the lines are often quite blurred. The Biomedical Model and the Lifestyle Theory Model both have their advantages however a common theme throughout both models is that they are both too reductionist in their approach to health. They failed to consider other health models viewpoints, or incorporate external factors such as the social gradient into their reasoning behind the cause and effect of bad health. Therefore instead of trying to categorise health into definite ‘health models’, health needs to be accepted more for what it is - a forever changing and adapting concept.
Health is described as physical and mental well-being and freedom from disease, pain or defect. However, such descriptions only superficially define the actual meaning of health. There may be many occasions when individuals are not necessarily ill or in pain but may be overweight, stressed or emotionally unstable. Health is a quality of life involving dynamic interaction and interdependence among the individual’s physical state, their mental and emotional reactions, and the social context in which the individual exists. There are many factors that influence your health, but three major components contribute to general well-being: Self-awareness, a balanced diet and, regular physical activity.
In this essay I am going to investigate whether health is easily defined as the absence of disease or physical injury. According to Health psychology (2009) ‘World Health Organisation defined health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. In order to achieve good physical a nutrition diet is needed, healthy BMI, rest and adequate physical exercise is needed.
Puffjacket. ( 2010) Why Is Health Difficult To Define? [online] Available at: http://www.etudier.com/dissertations/Why-Is-Health-Difficult-To-Define/35259.html [Accessed:5 Jan 2014].
The notion of health is contextual and an interactive, dynamic process between person and environment (Schim et al, 2007). Both wellness and illness are conceptualized by the ‘person’, existing on a continuum across the lifespan (Arnold & Boggs, 2001).
It is fairly difficult to define health as there are no agreements between scholars. This is why many sociologists focus their research on the different issues and problems of ill health.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with the most commonly used definition for health, which has not changed for over 60 years. They say that it is ‘’a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’’ (WHO, 1948), therefore meaning there are many more things to consider with health other than just death rates.
In society today, there is an extensive range of definitions of health and wellbeing which can be seen as both positive and negative. A Holistic view can also be identified and defined. These definitions of health have changed over time and will carry on changing within the future. According to where a family lives or their social class everyone will have different meanings and views of health and wellbeing. This may be due to what one person perceives as being healthy as another person may not. Channel 4 learning (no date) describes that a positive view of health can be seen as when a person is more likely to achieve and sustain physical fitness from exercising and are mentally stable. Therefor a negative view can be described when a person is free from illness, disease, mental distress or anything which may be a symptom of not having good health. The holistic view of health sees the person as a whole instead of just directing at one area and therefore combines physical, social, intellectual and emotional factors together. Consequently, if a person has emotional difficulties such as how they interact with other people or how they may feel but are physically fit and free from illness does not mean that they are healthy overall as one factor has difficulties. It is also vital to consider the two main theoretical concepts known as the medical and social model of health. Polity books (no date) describes that the medical model views health in terms of disease, diagnosis and then treatment and very much views a body to be separate from psychological processes. Causes of ill-health within the body are seen to require expert interference from a doctor to provide treatment to prevent or kill of an illness within the body. The Social model...
In 1948 the World Health Organisation (WHO) defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. (World Health Organization. 1946). Illness is what
The health of an individual and their communities is affected by several elements which combine together. Whether an individual is healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment.1 To a greater extent, factors such as where an individual lives, their relationships with family and friends, the state of their environment, income, genetics and level of education all have significant impacts on health, however the more frequently considered factors such as access and use of health care facilities regularly have less of an impact.6 Determinants of health is a term which was introduced in the 1970s as part of a broader analysis of research and policy on public health. Researchers argued that there was a lot of attention and too much expenditure on health being dedicated to individuals and their illnesses, and little or no investment in populations and their health. It was decided that public health should be more concerned with social policies and social determinants than with health facilities and the outcomes of diseases.7 The determinants of health include social and economic environment, physical environment and an individual’s behaviour and characteristics. The environment of an individual determines their health, holding responsible an individual for having poor health or acknowledging them for good health is inappropriate. Individuals are not likely to be able to control several of the determinants of health. These determinants that make individuals healthy or not include the factors above, and numerous others.6
The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (Who,1946).
This also requires the person to be socially and economically productive in order to be seen as healthy. According to Mildred Blaxter (1990), there are different ways of defining health. Furthermore, disease can be seen as the presence of an abnormality in part of the body or where there is a harmful physical change in the body such as broken bones. So, illness is the physical state of disease, that is to say, the symptoms that a person feels because of the disease. However, there is some limitation of these definitions which is not merely an absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing.
As described by Ghezzi, “A health system is the organization of people, institutions, and resources to deliver services that will meet the health needs of target populations” (Ghezzi). Healthcare, in a way, can change someone from the dark side to the light or from the negative side to the positive side. The importance of health care and the maintenance of it is not always recognized. Healthcare as a whole includes all of the regularly scheduled doctor appointments, hospital visits, and more. Every country is different from one another in many aspects and health, or well-being, is just one of the many.