Promoting Health and Wellness

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Introduction

According to WHO health is defined as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the presence of disease or infirmity." It is a valuable resource that allows people to lead individually, socially, and economically productive lives, providing them the freedom to work, learn and engage actively in family and community life. A wide range of factors affects health status like personal, economical, social, and environmental; some of the factors can be controlled while others cannot.

Various reasons have been cited for causing diseases in the medical history from miasma to the germs, including the contributing factors like poverty, lack of education, poor living conditions, etc. Henry E. Sigerist, the great medical historian in 1945 coined the term Health Promotion and defined the function of medicine as 1. promotion of health, 2. prevention of illness, 3.restoration of the sick and 4. rehabilitation. He stated health was promoted by providing a decent standard of living, good labor conditions, education, physical culture, means of rest and recreation and required the co-ordinated efforts of statesmen, labor, industry, educators and physicians.

Health and Wellness

Health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease."

Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, fueling the body, engaging the mind, and nurturing the spirit. It has 8 mutually interdependent dimensions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental. It is important to pay attention to all these dimensions, as neglect of any one with time will adversely affect the others, and ultimately one’s health, well-being, and quality of life. They do not, however, have to be equally balanced.

Health Promotion

Health promotion can be targeted towards priority health conditions involving a large population and promoting multiple interventions.

The issue-based approach works best with settings-based designs to address priority health problems by considering the complex health determinants such as behaviors, cultural beliefs, practices, etc. that operate in the places people live and work. It help facilitate the integration of health promotion actions into the social activities considering existing local situations and can be implemented in schools, workplaces, markets, residential areas.

The conceptual approach looks at the need of the whole population and targets specific interventions to address them comprehensively.

• Healthy population: promoting a healthy lifestyle, preventing risk factors (i.e., primordial prevention are measures that inhibit the emergence and establishment of environmental, economic, social, and behavioral conditions, cultural patterns of living known to increase the risk of disease), and prevention of disorders and health problems.
• Population with risk factors: health promotion, screening, action on risk factors, and maintaining healthy lifestyle.
• Population with symptoms: early detection, treatment, maintaining healthy lifestyle, disability limitation and rehabilitation.
• Population with known disease or disorder: management of disease, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and disability limitation and rehabilitation.

Health Promotion in Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases

In current scenarios, with the new diseases emerging, unfinished agenda of infectious diseases, and the unprecedented rise of noncommunicable chronic diseases promoting health has become essential.