CONCEPT OF HEALTH

Prem Ranjan Lecturer

Sahyog College of
Medical Sciences
CONCEPT OF HEALTH
• The various terms used in relation
to health are discussed below :

• HYGIENE
• The word hygiene is derived from
the Greek word Hygeia –the Goddess
of health who loooks after the health
of people. The word hygiene has
been defined as Hygiene is the
science and art of preserving and
improving health.
• Personal hygiene is the term used
for improvement of hygiene of an
individual or a person like care of skin
,hair , teeth ,eyes, ear, hands, feet
and private parts. Social hygiene is
also dealing with problems or sex
especially for control of venereal
diseases.
2. HEALTH

According to World Health Organisation (WHO)

Health is a state of complete physical , mental and social well- being
and not merely absence of disease or infirmity.
The important factors for promoting and maintaining good health
include :
 Supply of fresh air, light and potable water.
 Balanced diet.
 Proper healthful shelter.
 Adequate clothing.
 Hygienic environmental sanitation.
 Protection from communicable and non-communicable diseases.
 Adequate physical activity, rest and relaxation according to
individual needs.
 Suitable occupation with job satisfaction.
 Good and simple habits with leisure and pleasure.
COMPONENTS OF HEALTH
1. PHYSICAL HEALTH
 Physical health means that an individual should be physically fit.
 Physical health is an important component of total health. It includes hygiene of
different parts of the body such as skin ,hair, teeth ,eyes , hands, feet, rest and sleep,
exercise and recreation.
 Thus physical health means that an individual should be free from sickness and
disease including communicable and non- commuunicable diseases and there should
be not any deformity of the body like crippling of the limbs or damaged eyes.
2. Mental health
 Mental health is an important component of total health.
 Mental health is important for an individual to enable him to lead a happy , contened
and healthy social life and to withstand the stress and strains of life in a satisfactory
manner.
 Mental health is defined as the ability of the individual to make personal social
adjustment.
Characteristics of a Mentally healthy Person
o A mentally healthy person feels contained, satisfied , happy calm and cheerful.
o A mentally healthy person is able to think for himself and take his own decisions.
o He faces problems and tries to solve them intelligently.
o A mentally healthy person is able to adjust with other people, make sincere and long
lasting friends and does not feel isolated.
o A mentally healthy person adjusts himself successfully to the changing situations and
does not get upset when things go wrong, whereas some people react sharply , lose
their temper, talk loudly and make everybody around uncomfortable.
Types of Mental Illness
 Major mental Disorders
a. Schizophrenia
b. Manic depressive psychosis
c. Paronia
 Minor Mental disorders
a. Neurosis
b. Personality disorders

SCHIZOPHRENIA :-
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by disturbances in
thinking, mood, perception and at times ,of posture. The patient lives in
dream world of his own.

MANIC DEPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS :-

It’s a several mental illness causing repeated episodes of extreme depression,
excitement or both.

PARONIA :-
It’s a several mental disorder which is associated with extreme suspicion and
the patient live in a world of delusion by others.

NEUROSIS:-
It’s a mental illness in which insight is retained but there is a maladaptive
way of behaving or thinking that causes suffering.

Personality disorder:-
This is the habit or tendencies and maladjusted pattern of behavior,
persisting through many years
3. Social Health
• Social wellbeing implies “ Quality and quantity of an individuals
interpersonal ties and the extent of involvement with the community”.
• Social health takes into account that every individual is a part of a family
and a wider community and focuses on social and economic conditions
and well being of the “Whole Person” in the context of his social network.
• Social Health is rooted in “Positive material environment” (focusing on
financial and residential matters) and “Positive human environment”
which is concerned with social network of the individual.

4. Spiritual Health
• Spiritual health in this context, refers to that part of the individual which
reaches out and strives for meaning and purpose in life.
• This dimension seems to defy concrete definition. It includes:
a) Integrity.
b) Principles of Ethics .
c) Purpose in life.
d) Commitment to some higher being .
e) Belief in concepts that are not subject to “state of the art” explanation.
5. Emotional health
• Emotional dimensions were seen one in the same thing Initially mental
but as more research becomes available a definite difference is emerging.
Mental health can be seen as “Knowing” or “Cognition”, while Emotional
health refers to “Feeling”.
6. Vocational
• Importance of this dimension is exposed when individuals suddenly loose
their jobs or are faced with mandatory retirement. For some this
dimension may merely be a source of income but for others it may be
source of self worth and life success. Goal achievement and self
realization in work are source of satisfaction and enhanced self esteem.
7. Other Dimensions include Philosophical, Cultural, Socioeconomic,
environmental, educational, nutritional, curative and preventive.
POSITIVE HEALTH
• The state of positive health implies the notion of “perfect functioning of the body and
mind”.
• It includes all the three aspects which are in a perfect state and include
a) Biological.
b) Psychological and Social.
• Positive health is however a mirage, because everything in our life is subject to
change.
• Health is a Relative Concept (For example Newborn Baby in India weighs 2.8Kg on
an average compared to 3.5Kg in developed countries and yet compares favorably in
health).

CONCEPT OF WELL BEING

• WHO definition of health introduces the concept of “well being”. It has both subjective
and objective components.
• Standard of Living
 Spiritual, educational, recreational and other services may be used individually as
measures of socioeconomic status and collectively as an index of the standard of living.
 The standard of living depends on the per capita GNP.
• Level of Living
 It consists of nine components:
 health, food consumption, education, occupation and working conditions, housing, social
security, clothing, recreation and leisure and human rights. These objective
characteristics are believed to influence human well being.
• Quality of Life
 It is a subjective component and is defined by WHO as “ The condition of life resulting
from the combination of the effects of the complete range of factors such as those
determining health, happiness (including comfort in the physical environment and a
satisfying occupation), education, social and intellectual attainments, freedom of action,
justice and freedom of expression.
 INDIACTORS OF HEALTH
Health indicators are the factors which give information and are required to assess the health of the community as
well as to find out how far a given person is healthy. They also required for comparision of health between the
communities and also in the same community over certain period of time. The indiacators of health are as follows :
 Mortality indicators (Death Rate)
Mortality rate of children of any country is the direct indicator for gauging the state of development of the country.A
high mortality rate of children in a country indicates that the country is undeveloped or under-developed.The death
rate of infants (children below one year of age) is called Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and the death rate of children
below 5 years of age is called Under Five Mortality Rate (UFMR). Infant Mortality rate is calculate as follows

No. of deaths registered or estimated of children below one year of age in area
Infant Mortality Rate = * 1000
No. of live births registered or estimated during the year in the area

Crude death rate may be defined as the number of deaths per 1000 population per year in a given community.

No. of deaths in the year

Death rate = *1000
Mean population during the year

 Morbidity Rate (Disease Rate )

The morbidity rate is the number of cases of a disease found to occur in a stated number of population, usually given
as cases per 1,000,00 or per million. Annual figures for morbidity rate give the incidence of the disease , which is the
number of cases reported in the year.

 Health care services indicators

Health care services indicators are determined from doctor –population ratio, doctor-nurse ratio, population health
care center ratio, population –bed ratio etc.
What is Disease ?
The meaning of “Disease” is “without
ease” (uneasiness) either a
Physiological /Psychological
dysfunction.

Illness -Not only presence of disease

but involvement of
individual's perceptions and
behavior in response to
disease are included. Disease
is very subjective.
Sickness- includes a state of social
dysfunction too. i.e. the role,
an individual assumes when
ill.
The environment related to disease-
This refers not only to the
environment the man
lives. Various environmental factors
are categorized as follows.
 Physical Environment
Physical aspects of environment air, water, light , heat, radiation, gravity,
pressure, and chemical agents etc. Man tries a great deal to control these
factors.
 Biological Environment
Certain diseases do not occur in some areas because agents or vectors can not
exist in that environment due to biological reasons. Biological
environment includes Infectious agents of diseases, reservoirs of
infective agents, vectors that transmit diseases, plants and animals.
 Social Environment
The social factors relevant to health include socio-economic status, social
customs, traditional believes, etc.

Natural History of Disease

Refers to the course of a disease over a period of time, unaffected by
treatment. Disease occurrence is usually insidious. Chronic diseases
evolve over a long period and have their own progression. The history
and time period that it spread is different from disease to disease. Most
of the diseases pass through the following pattern.
1. Stage of susceptibility- Risk factors that favors the occurrence of a disease are operating in this stage.
 Host factors:- Age, sex, race, family history, nutritional status.
 Environmental factors : Exposure to infectious -agents, (infections) obesity, (HT, DM, coronary artery
diseases).
During this stage, the person remains free of clinical diseases.

2. Stage of pre-symptomatic disease - Three important factors i.e.. Host, agent and environment interact
to initiate pathogenic changes that is adequate to cause a disease. Still the disease does not clinically
manifest.
3. Stage of clinical disease-In this stage, the particular signs and symptoms develop. During this stage a
disease can be sub-classified into its own severity grades.
 CONCEPT OF PREVENTION OF DISEASES
“Prevention is better than cure” According to this suitable prevention measures must be taken for the occurrence and
spread of diseases. The factors that are hazardous to health must be taken care of Now-a-days the concept of
prevention has become broad based and is defined of three levels which include :
• Primary prevention
Primary prevention aims to prevent disease or injury before it ever occurs. This is done by preventing exposures to
hazards that cause disease or injury, altering unhealthy or unsafe behaviour that can lead to disease or injury, and
increasing resistance to disease or injury should exposure occur. Examples include:
 legislation and enforcement to ban or control the use of hazardous products (e.g. asbestos) or to mandate safe
and healthy practices (e.g. use of seatbelts and bike helmets)
 education about healthy and safe habits (e.g. eating well, exercising regularly, not smoking)
 immunization against infectious diseases.
• Secondary prevention
Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already occurred. This is done by
detecting and treating disease or injury as soon as possible to halt or slow its progress, encouraging personal
strategies to prevent re-injury or recurrence, and implementing programs to return people to their original health
and function to prevent long-term problems. Examples include:
 regular exams and screening tests to detect disease in its earliest stages (e.g. mammograms to detect breast
cancer)
 daily, low-dose aspirins and/or diet and exercise programs to prevent further heart attacks or strokes
 suitably modified work so injured or ill workers can return safely to their jobs.
• Tertiary prevention
Tertiary prevention aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has lasting effects. This is done by
helping people manage long-term, often-complex health problems and injuries (e.g. chronic diseases, permanent
impairments) in order to improve as much as possible their ability to function, their quality of life and their life
expectancy. Examples include:
 cardiac or stroke rehabilitation programs, chronic disease management programs (e.g. for diabetes, arthritis,
depression, etc.)
 support groups that allow members to share strategies for living well
 vocational rehabilitation programs to retrain workers for new jobs when they have recovered as much as
possible.
Health educations
Health education is defined as a process of imparting information about health in such a way that
the people are motivated to use the information for the protection and promotion of health of
individual, their families and communities. Every community health workers, be it a doctor ,
nurse or pharmacist is a health educator.
Our government has setup community health centers throughout the country to impart health
education, vaccination facilities and to treat common diseases.
Aims and objects of Health education
 Health should be realized as a valuable asset and essential for life in the community.
 To make awareness about the skills, knowledge and attitude so that the people may solve
health problems by their own actions and efforts.
 To encourage the public to take benefit of health services for the benefit of individuals and
community as a whole e.g. family planning programme etc.
 To provide information and create awareness among the public so as to relive them from
misconceptions, doubts and ignorance.
 To create healthy habits and change their modes of life.

Area of health education

 It gives knowledge regarding structure and function of the body and tells how to keep
physically and mentally fit , about exercise, rest and sleep; harmful effects of alcohol,
tobacco and drugs on the body.
 It gives knowledge regarding various nutrients present in different food material and
making a balanced diet from available foods.
 It gives information about the cause of various common disease, how they spread and
protection from the disease.
 It imparts knowledge about personal and environmental hygiene.
 It imparts knowledge about causes and protection from environmental pollution.
 It gives knowledge about the best use of health services provided by the government or
voluntary organizations.
 Health education provides knowledge on First aid in accidental cases and handling of
emergency situations like childbirth.
METHODS OF HEALTH EDUCATION
Health education can be imparted by following methods
A. Methods of Group Teaching
 Lectures
 Films and charts
 Radio
 T.V
 Flash cards
 Cinema slides
 Group discussions
 Panel discussions
 Symposium
 Demonstrations

B. Methods of Education of the General Public

 Posters
 Health magazines
 Press
 Films
 Radio & T.V
 Health exhibitions
 Health museums
 Through songs ,drama etc.
Thank you