Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dimensions of Health
Dimensions of Health
DIMENSIONS OF HEALTH
▪ There are 5 dimensions of health:
▪ Physical
▪ Mental
▪ Emotional
▪ Spiritual
▪ Social
▪ These 5 dimensions provide a full picture of health as a change in any dimension affects the others. This
interrelationship is a key aspect that you need to understand
PHYSICAL
▪ The physical dimension of health refers to the bodily aspect.
▪ It refers to the more traditional definitions of health as the absence of disease and injury. Physical health
ranges in quality along a continuum where a combination of diseases such as cancer, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease or hypertension are at one end and a person who is at optimum physical condition
(think health not fitness) is at the other.
▪ Physical health can affect the other dimensions of health as a decline in physical health can result in a
decline in other forms of health. E.g. a person who suddenly gets the flu is often isolated socially as to not
infect others, struggles to focus in order to study or learn anything new, and may feel sad as a result of
their isolation.
MENTAL
▪ Therefore the relative nature of health is when a person decides that an elite sports person is healthier
than their friend who is into tennis.
▪ The dynamic nature of health refers to the fact that the health status of anyone is continually changing
and can change dramatically with little notice. A person may well have been healthy yesterday, but today
there was a dramatic event that has caused ill to their health. This could be an injury, illness, bullying,
divorce or being kicked off a sports team.
▪ Health however changes more slowly. Think of how elderly reminisce about how they used to go to the
gym, played at an elite level, used to eat healthier etc.
▪ Some people develop lifestyle diseases, most of which slowly develop. Others may change for the better –
start to eat healthy and partake in regular exercise, leading to a positive impact on health.
THE HEALTH CONTINUUM
The health continuum ‘measures’ our health status at any moment in time. We are continually moving along this
continuum.
It enables us to rank our level of wellness or illness at any given point in our lives
ACTIVITY
▪ Referring to the dynamic nature of health, and the dimensions of health, explain why health may be
viewed as a continuum. (10 lines)