Understanding Disease, Illness, and Health

Disease, Illness, and Sickness

• Disease is a medical diagnosis based on observable signs and symptoms.
• Illness is the individual experience of perceived health problems, like feeling unwell.
• Sickness is the social role and performance of illness, including seeking medical help and assuming the "sick role."

Health Definitions

• Health can be defined as a state of harmony with nature, the absence of disease, complete well-being, or functional adequacy.

Humoral Theory

• Galen's theory links four elements (water, air, fire, earth) to four bodily humors (phlegm, blood, yellow bile, black bile).
• Health is achieved by balancing these humors.
• Imbalance leads to illness.

World Health Organization (WHO) Definition

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.
• This definition is criticized for being simplistic and not practical for everyday life.

Key Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalism: Views society as a stable system with agreed-upon roles. Sickness disrupts this stability, and medical professionals and patients have specific roles to restore balance.
• Conflict (Marxist): Highlights social division and conflict, arguing that access to healthcare is unequal due to power imbalances. Capitalism contributes to health inequalities.
• Interactionism: Focuses on how individuals negotiate meaning and consensus in medical interactions. It considers how patients experience and understand health and illness within their unique contexts.
• Interpretivism: Emphasizes understanding patients' individual experiences and interpretations of health and illness within their social and cultural settings.
• Feminism: Examines the gendered nature of healthcare systems, highlighting gendered patterns and experiences of illness, and women's traditional roles as caregivers.
• Post-structuralism/Postmodernism: Rejects grand theories and focuses on discourses and the crisis of legitimization. It explores fragmentation of the world and identity, the surveillance aspect of medicine, consumerism, and new understandings of the body.

Social Aspects of Illness

• The document explores social interpretations of health, illness, and the medical profession, including how lay people understand and experience health within household affairs, personal care, mobility, and other social contexts.

This quiz explores the distinctions between disease, illness, and sickness, providing a comprehensive understanding of health definitions. It also covers classical theories such as the humoral theory and critiques of the WHO definition of health. Test your knowledge on these important health concepts.