The Meanings of Health and Its Promotion
Meanings of health?
Health means different things to different people. For this reason it is very difficult to define health in a way that satisfies everyone. To an elderly person health might mean mobility; for a person with a mental illness health might mean having social contact with peers; for a young person health might equate more to physical activity or body image. People from different backgrounds might impact health as the adherence to different cultural or behavioural values, while people in isolated communities might see health as access to fresh food and health services.
Relative and Dynamic Nature of Health
Dynamic Health is the result of the continually changing process it refers to the constant fluctuations that occur in our level of health.
Relative Health refer to how we judge our health compared to other people or other points of time in our life.
Relative nature of health
Health can be viewed as relative. Relative means in relation to another period of time, in relation to your potential or in relation to others. Relative to your peers, are you healthy? Relative to your level of health five years ago, are you healthy?
Dynamic nature of health
As mentioned earlier, WHO (World Health Organisation) defines health as 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. This statement implies that a person cannot be considered healthy unless he or she has a complete state of well-being. This leads us to question whether a person is diabetic, epileptic or recovering from a heart attack, for example, can be considered healthy. Our state of health changes over time, so we can say it is dynamic.
The interactions between the dimensions
As noted earlier, health can be seen as an interaction between the dimensions of health. If the status of one dimension is compromised, the other dimensions will be affected. For instance, when we have a severe cold, we are less likely to want
Health means different things to different people. For this reason it is very difficult to define health in a way that satisfies everyone. To an elderly person health might mean mobility; for a person with a mental illness health might mean having social contact with peers; for a young person health might equate more to physical activity or body image. People from different backgrounds might impact health as the adherence to different cultural or behavioural values, while people in isolated communities might see health as access to fresh food and health services.
Relative and Dynamic Nature of Health
Dynamic Health is the result of the continually changing process it refers to the constant fluctuations that occur in our level of health.
Relative Health refer to how we judge our health compared to other people or other points of time in our life.
Relative nature of health
Health can be viewed as relative. Relative means in relation to another period of time, in relation to your potential or in relation to others. Relative to your peers, are you healthy? Relative to your level of health five years ago, are you healthy?
Dynamic nature of health
As mentioned earlier, WHO (World Health Organisation) defines health as 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. This statement implies that a person cannot be considered healthy unless he or she has a complete state of well-being. This leads us to question whether a person is diabetic, epileptic or recovering from a heart attack, for example, can be considered healthy. Our state of health changes over time, so we can say it is dynamic.
The interactions between the dimensions
As noted earlier, health can be seen as an interaction between the dimensions of health. If the status of one dimension is compromised, the other dimensions will be affected. For instance, when we have a severe cold, we are less likely to want