Definitions of Health and Wellness

Definitions of Health

• WHO (World Health Organization) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.
• Jadad defines health as the ability to adapt and manage challenges in social, physical, and emotional aspects of life.
• Rattan defines health as maintaining adequate physical and mental independence in daily tasks.
• Biomedical perspective focuses on anatomical, physiological, and psychological integrity, primarily through medical technology.
• Wellness prioritizes the ability to fulfill aspirations, meet needs, and adapt to the environment.
• Salutogenic approach emphasizes factors that support health and well-being, including biophysical, social, environmental, and psychological factors.
• First Nations perspective emphasizes a holistic vision of wellness, encompassing individual, balance, values, ties to environment, and people.
• Biosocial considers biological factors and related social conditions related to illness.

Definition of Wellbeing

• WHO defines well-being as a positive experience for individuals and communities, a resource for daily life, and determined by social, economic, and environmental conditions.

Field of Health

• Health encompasses biology, environment, lifestyle, and health care systems.

Prerequisites to Health

• Peace, shelter, food, equity, and income are prerequisites to health, as outlined in the Ottawa Charter.

Determinants of Health

• Determinants are personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence life expectancy and population health. Examples include income, social status, gender, race, education, and childhood experiences.

Social Determinants of Health

• Social determinants address the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental conditions in which people live, emphasizing access to power, resources, and decision-making. Examples include income, education, food security, housing, and employment conditions.

Global Health

• Focuses on improving health and achieving equity across different countries.
• Includes international health, public health, and population health.
• Involves generating new knowledge, distributing knowledge, and solving global health problems.

Global Burden of Disease

• Addresses the cumulative consequences of a wide range of diseases globally. Factors include interaction and interdependence of people.

Built Environment

• Involves human made aspect of communities, such as city design and layout.
• Includes green spaces, transportation infrastructure, and development that support active transport, connectivity, safety, convenience, and accessibility.

Non-Communicable Diseases

• Long-lasting (chronic) diseases resulting from a complex interplay of genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioral factors. Examples include tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and specific diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes

• Chronic metabolic condition characterized by elevated blood sugar levels, potentially leading to serious organ damage over time.
• Type 1 diabetes results in insufficient insulin production.
• Type 2 diabetes involves the body's inability to properly use insulin.
• Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy.
• Secondary diabetes develops as a consequence of other conditions.

Chronic respiratory Diseases

• Affect airways and other lung structures, such as asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Mental Health

• Includes all mental states, disorders, and disabilities.
• Determinants include genetic factors, skills, use of substances, violence, inequality, economic crisis, etc..
• Promotion via factors such as, quality education, work safety, social interaction, and community cohesion
• Risk factors could include poverty, forced displacement, etc.
• COVID-19 may impact mental health negatively.

Mental Health Condition

• Clinical significant disturbances in cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior.

Communicable Diseases

• Preventable diseases caused by microbes, transmitted directly or indirectly.

Syphilis and Tuberculosis

• Infectious diseases transmitted through various ways.

Neglected Tropical Diseases

• Group of pathogens prevalent among impoverished communities, often in tropical regions.

HIV/AIDS

• Chronic infection attacking the body's immune system.
• AIDS represents the advanced stage.
• Symptoms range from initial infection to serious illness.

Long Covid Condition

• Symptoms persist for three months or more following COVID-19 infection.

Lifestyle

• Way of living based on behavior patterns influenced by characteristics, social interactions, socioeconomic status, and environment

Risk Factors

• Increased susceptibility to certain diseases or injuries.

Emerging Diseases

• Diseases that have not been reported previously or that are rapidly spreading, e.g Lyme disease, MPox, HIV.

Re- Emerging Diseases

• Return of diseases that were once treatable or controllable (e.g. Malaria, tuberculosis).

Mental Health Disorders

• Clinical significant disturbances in cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior

Interventions

• Strategies/measures to control, treat, or prevent issues. Includes rapid diagnostics, measures of control, partnerships, interventions.

Addiction

• Condition associated with chronic brain dysfunction and inability to quit behaviors.

Indigenous Health

• Based on factors such as language, culture, place, geography, and self-identity (self-determination).

Injury Prevention

• Involves physical damage due to exceeding physiological tolerance thresholds.

Road Traffic Injuries

• Leading cause of death for certain age groups.

Health Promotion

• Addressing behaviors and the environment. Includes different stages.

Covid & Opioid Overdose

• Risky behaviors during the pandemic.

Empowerment for Health

• Process/approach where people gain better control over decisions and actions concerning their health.

Health Education/ Communication

• Strategies to address health concerns by educating, improving knowledge, and developing health specific skills.

Advocacy for Health

• Actions/strategies to obtain political support for health, support, and social acceptance of specific health initiatives and policies.

Health Policies

• Formal statements/procedures impacting health.

Environmental Health

• Branches of public health addressing environment-related issues.

Sustainable solutions

• Solutions to climate change and broader environmental risks.

Women's Health

• Specific health concerns including gender bias and gender-based violence, missing or incomplete evidence regarding impact on women, and specific related issues like female genital mutilation, sexual violence, adolescent pregnancies, and maternal mortality.

Childhood Health

• Leading causes of death for children and issues associated, with a focus on different factors such as access to health care, caregiving practices, the importance of early childhood development, risk factors, and leading causes of death among children.

Aging

• Population of people experiencing old-age, factors including access to support services and possible increased incidence of gender based violence.