[EQ] How should we define health?

How should we define health?

Machteld Huber, J André Knottnerus, Lawrence Green, Henriëtte van der Horst, Alejandro R Jadad, Daan Kromhout, Brian Leonard, Kate Lorig, Maria Isabel Loureiro, Jos W M van der Meer, Paul Schnabel, Richard Smith, Chris van Weel, Henk Smid ***

BMJ 2011;343:doi:10.1136/bmj.d4163 (Published 26 July 2011)

Available at: http://bit.ly/ntDVhi

“…..Just as environmental scientists describe the health of the earth as the capacity of a complex system to maintain a stable environment within a relatively narrow range,21 we propose the formulation of health as the ability to adapt and to self manage.

 

This could be a starting point for a similarly fresh, 21st century way of conceptualising human health with a set of dynamic features and dimensions that can be measured. Discussion about this should continue and involve other stakeholders, including patients and lay members of the public….”

What is health?

Fiona Godlee

BMJ 2011;343:doi:10.1136/bmj.d4817 (Published 27 July 2011)

Available at: http://bit.ly/rgh8aq  

“…….Edwin Heathcote is the architecture correspondent for the Financial Times. He describes one approach to maximising human health—the development of “age friendly” cities (doi:10.1136/bmj.d4418). This initiative aims to reverse the trend of removing or excluding older people from active life in cities. How can these people be brought back so that not only they but also the city survive and flourish? The answer, it turns out, is not the current vogue for ramps, big bold signs, benches, and lots of green space.

 

This week’s articles are the start of six weeks’ coverage building up to the UN summit on non-communicable diseases in September. Other articles will focus on how we should be tackling the key shared risk factors behind the global epidemic of chronic disease—poor diet, alcohol, tobacco, and physical inactivity…”

 

 

*** Authors:

1   Louis Bolk Institute, Department of Healthcare and Nutrition, Driebergen, Netherlands

2   Department of General Practice, Maastricht University, Scientific Council for Government Policy, The Hague, Netherlands

3   Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, USA

4   Department of General Practice, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands

5   Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada

6   Department of Public Health Research, Wageningen University, The Hague, Netherlands

7   Pharmacology Department, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

8   Stanford Patient Education Research Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA

9   National School of Public Health/New University of Lisbon, Portugal

10 General Internal Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

11 Netherlands Institute for Social Research, The Hague, Netherlands

12 UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative, London, UK

13 Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre

14 Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, The Hague, Netherlands

 

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