Health is not an easily definable concept and needs to be seen in a holistic way to be better understood by the general population. The WHO definition of health is that health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (World Health Organization, 1995). One limitation of this definition that I found of interest was the aspect of social life and by including this notion of “social well-being” under its rubric, it turns the enduring problem of human happiness into one more medical problem, to be dealt with by scientific means (Callahan, 1973). The absence of disease or infirmity does by no means guarantee that an individual will have a good social well- being there are often times many other factors, psychologically and sociologically that contribute to this. In order to define health, there needs to be a complex and specific definition of all concepts of health. A proposed definition by Huber (2011) is the formulation of health as the ability to adapt and to self manage. This is a start of transforming WHO’s definition into something more relatable to the current times.
Another more contemporary definition that I found interesting and relevant to todays day is when health recognizes that disease and disability can and often do co-exist with health. In this new conception, health is transformed from a state that requires the absence of disease to a state where the central theme is the fullness of life (Bradley, 2018). Health integrates the mind, body, and spirit and all of these factors combined with sociological, psychological and economical states need to be included in the definition of health.
Below you can find an image directly from the cited World Health Organization web page explaining there values as a group and it is a great resource if you are looking to make a difference or become a part of WHO.
References
Bradley, K. L., Goetz, T., & Viswanathan, S. (2018). Toward a Contemporary Definition of Health. Military Medicine, 183(Suppl_3), 204-207. doi:10.1093/milmed/usy213
Callahan, D. (1973). The WHO Definition of 'Health'. The Hastings Center Studies, 1(3), 77-87. doi:10.2307/3527467
Huber, M., André Knottnerus, J., Green, L., Van Der Horst, H., Jadad, A. R., Kromhout, D., Leonard, B., Lorig, K., Loureiro, M. I., Van Der Meer, J. W. M., Schnabel, P., Smith, R., Van Weel, C., & Smid, H. (2011). How should we define health? BMJ (Online). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4163
World Health Organization. (1995). Constitution of the world health organization.
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