Health Studies Overview

Health Studies Overview

• Health Studies encompasses the socio-cultural, economic, political, and environmental aspects of health, illness, and medicine.
• Researchers examine health issues at individual, community, national, and global levels using interdisciplinary approaches.

Disciplines in Health Studies

• Health Sciences include disciplines like nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, genetics, immunology, microbiology, geriatrics, family practice, and mental health care.
• Social Sciences contributing to Health Studies include sociology, health geography, medical anthropology, health psychology, and health economics.

Data Collection Methods

• Quantitative Data: Health records, statistics, census data, and survey questionnaires.
• Qualitative Data: Interviews, focus groups, observation techniques, and document analysis.

Defining Health

• WHO Definition (1948): A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• Alternative Definition 1 (Huber et al., 2011): The capacity to adapt and self-manage in the face of physical, mental, and social challenges.
• Alternative Definition 2 (Wills, Watson, & ScottSamuel): A condition where individuals achieve control over their lives through equitable distribution of power and resources.

Why Study Health?

• Health and illness are influenced by social, political, cultural, and economic factors beyond the biomedical perspective.
• Our socio-cultural practices shape our understanding of health and illness.
• Critical thinking challenges assumptions and explores diverse frameworks of health and illness.

Critical Thinking

• Involves reflection, judgment, and higher-level thinking: analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, and explanation.
• Critical approaches in health address pressing social and health issues affecting individuals and populations.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

• Disciplinarity: Different disciplines offer unique perspectives on a problem.
• Multidisciplinary: Several disciplines involved, but researchers work independently with limited interaction.
• Interdisciplinary: Researchers from multiple disciplines collaborate and inform each other's theories and methods.
• Transdisciplinary: Researchers work beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines.

Challenges of Collaboration

• Complex dynamics influence research questions, methods, and access to collaboration.
• Researchers need to address power structures and context-specific possibilities.

Conducting Health Research

• A good research question is clear, focused, researchable, and analytical, not too broad or narrow.
• Different disciplines have varying priorities and requirements for research questions.

Explore the multidisciplinary field of Health Studies, which examines the socio-cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors affecting health. This quiz covers various disciplines such as health sciences and social sciences, along with data collection methods used in health research.