Health and Disease: Etymology and Definition

Etymology and Concept of Health

• The etymological origin of the word 'health' is unknown.
• Traditionally, health was understood as the absence of disease.

WHO's Concept of Health

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.

Historical Definitions of Health

• Sigerist and Stampar's definitions of health differed from the traditional understanding, as they included social and environmental factors.
• Stampar's 1945 definition considers health as a state of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being.

Contributions to the Concept of Health

• Milton Terris contributed to the concept of health by considering it as a dynamic concept, which changes over time.

Etymology and Concept of Illness

• The etymological origin of the term 'illness' is unknown.

Suchman's Stages of Illness

• One of the stages in Suchman's stages of illness is "symptomatic awareness".

Disease Prevention

• The main focus of primary disease prevention is to prevent disease from occurring.
• Tertiary prevention aims to achieve rehabilitation and minimizing disability.

Disease Prevention Goals

• The primary goal of secondary disease prevention is to diagnose and treat diseases early.
• One of the primary goals of disease prevention is to reduce the incidence of disease.
• Incidence refers to the number of new cases of a disease occurring within a population during a specified period.

Disease Prevalence

• Prevalence refers to the total number of cases of a disease present in a population at a specific point in time or over a specified period.