Health & Wellness Overview

Study Notes

Health is a core concept and encompasses related ideas like wellness, illness, and disease.
Theories on health aim to explain the underlying dynamics at play.
Societal and environmental factors are crucial in determining health outcomes.
Healthy People 2030 guides national public health objectives by focusing on social determinants of health.
Epidemiology is the societal perspective on the study of health and disease.

Views health as a continuum with two ends: wellness and illness.
High-level wellness signifies a sense of well-being, fulfillment, and quality of life.
Adaptation at the other end represents coping with disease or disability through various levels of functioning.

Views health through a developmental lens, focusing on expanding consciousness, recognizing patterns, and pursuing personal transformation for growth and realization.
Individuals are perceived within a complex, interconnected system of person-environment interactions.
Various models, including the social-ecological model, contribute to this paradigm.

Emphasizes the interconnectedness between people and their physical and social environments.
Promotes health and well-being across multiple levels, including individual, family, community, and society.
Recognizes social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic status, education, physical environment, employment, support networks, and access to healthcare.

Pre-1940s: Health mainly focused on the absence of disease, with infectious illnesses predominating. Physicians functioned as independent primary care providers, and government involvement in public health and welfare began.
1940s-1950s: Health shifted to fulfilling roles. Physical examinations were common for fitness assessments, physicians were increasingly linked to hospitals, and federal involvement expanded with hospital construction and programs.
1960s to present: Health viewed as adaptation to the environment, emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion. Individual responsibility for lifestyle choices became central. Advanced practice nurses joined the healthcare workforce, cost control emerged as a government priority, and quality of life was incorporated as a component of health.

Emphasizes quality of life, both subjectively and objectively assessed.
Focus on functional health and health-related quality of life – self-rated health and functionality.
Resilience, the ability to manage stress and trauma, is a significant determinant of health.

Clinical: Emphasizes the absence of signs and symptoms of disease, with limited focus on prevention.
Role performance focuses on a person's ability to carry out societal roles, such as occupational health evaluations, school physicals, and medical excuses.
Adaptive: Focuses on one’s ability to adapt positively to changes in the environment (social, mental, and physiological) like how older adults adjust to various situations.

Emphasizes exuberant well-being to indicate optimal health.
Focuses on the interaction and interrelationships in multiple aspects of life.
Promotes comprehensive healthcare approaches that address broader health needs.
Integrates complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into practice.
Encompasses a broader definition of health and acknowledges diverse life circumstances.

Depicts health and illness as separate entities on a continuum.
Wellness: a state of optimal health characterized by a sense of well-being, fulfillment, and a high quality of life.