Concept of Health and Disease

Subject:- Community
Health Nursing
Topic:- Concept of Health and

Disease
PRESENTED BY,
MR. KAILASH NAGAR
ASSIST. PROF.
DEPT. OF COMMUNITY HEALTH NSG.
DINSHA PATEL COLLEGE OF NURSING, NADIAD
Concept of Health
• Biomedical concept
• Ecological concept
• Psychosocial concept
• Holistic concept
Biomedical concept
• Health is “absence of disease” ie if one is free
from disease than he is considered healthy.
• Based on germ theory of disease.
• Question – malnutrition, chronic disease,
accidents, drug abuse, mental illness ,
environmental pollution etc which lead to
ecological concept
Ecological concept
• Ecologists – health is dynamic equilibrium between
man and his environment, and disease is
maladjustment of the human organism to his
environment.
• “Health implies the relative absence of pain and

discomfort and a continuous adaptation and
adjustment to the environment to ensure optimal
function”
Ecological concept
• Raised two questions
– Imperfect man
– Imperfect environment
• History shows that improvement in human
adaptation to natural environment can lead to
longer and better quality of life- even with the
absence of modern health delivery services.
Psychosocial concept
• Development in social science – Health is not only
a biomedical phenomenon, but it is influenced by
• social,
• psychological,
• cultural,
• economic and
• political factors of the people concerned,
• “Health is both a biological and social
phenomenon”
Holistic concept
• Synthesis of all the above concepts,
• It recognizes the strength of social, economic,
political and environmental influences on
health
• Then came a many definitions of health

Definitions of Health
• “the condition of being sound in body, mind or spirit,
especially freedom from physical disease or pain”
(webster)
• “soundness of body or mind; that condition in which
its functions are duly and efficiently discharged”
( oxford)
• “ a condition or quality of the human organism
expressing the adequate functioning of the organism
in given conditions, genetic and environmental”
( operational def by WHO)
Health Definition
WHO define health
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely an
absence of disease or infirmity”
Dimension of Health
• Health is Multidimensional.
• WHO definition envisages
Physical Mental Social

dimension Dimension Dimension
Physical
dimension
http://images01.trafficz.com/cache/h3w4/500_1189535325_running.jpg
• The state of physical health implies the

notion of “perfect functioning” of the
body. It conceptualizes health biologically
as a state in which every cell and every
organ is functioning at optimum capacity
and in perfect harmony with the rest of
the body.
Mental
Dimension
http://cms.mumbaimirror.com/portalfiles/7/3/200710/Image/Mental%20Health.jpg
• Mental health is not mere absence of

mental illness.
• Good mental health is ability to respond to
the many varied experience of life with
flexibility and sense of purpose.
• “A state of balance between the individual
and the surrounding world, a state of harmony
between oneself and others, a coexistence
between the realities of the self and that of
other people and that of the environment”
Social dimension
• Social well-being implies harmony and
integration within the individual, between
each individual and other members of society
and between individuals and the world in
which they live.
• “quantity and quality of an individual’s
interpersonal ties and the extent of
involvement with the community.”
Spectrum of Health
Health and disease lie along a continum, and there is
no single cut-off point.
Positive health
Better Health
Freedom from sickness
Unrecognized sickness
Mild sickness
Severe sickness
Death
The Health sickness spectrum

Spectrum concept of health
• Emphasizes that the health of an individual is
not static.
• It is a dynamic phenomenon and a process of
continuous change.
Determinants of Health
• Health is multifactorial.
• The factors which influence health lie both
within the individual and externally in the
society in which he or she lives.
• The factors interact and these interactions
may be health- promoting or deleterious.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/images/prb05101_1-e.gif
http://www.ncahs.nsw.gov.au/images/imglib/public/determin%20health.jpg
Health
Indicatores
How is
health in a
given
community?
Indicators of Health
• Required to measure the health status of a
community.
• Compare health status of one country with
others
• For assessment of health care needs
• For allocation of resource
• Monitoring and evaluation of health services
Indicators
• Mortality indicators
• Morbidity indicators
• Disability rates
• Nutritional status indicators
• Health care delivery indicators
• Utilization rates
• Indicators of social and mental health
• Environmental indicators
• Socio-economic indicators
• Health policy indicators
• Indicators of quality of life
• others
Concept of disease
• Webster defines disease as “ a condition in
which body health is impaired, a departure
from a state of health, an alteration of human
body interrupting the performance of vital
functions.”
• Ecological point=“a maladjustment of the
human organism to the environment.”
WHO definition
• WHO defined health but not disease because:
• Sprectrum of disease ( many stages)
• Some acute, some insidious
• Carrier state, infect.
• Some are related to organisms, some other
cause.
Concept of Causation
http://www.educomputacion.cl/images/stories/biografias/luis%20pasteur/300px-Tableau_Louis_Pasteur.jpg
• Up to the time Louis
Pasteur (1922-1985),
• Super natural theory
• Theory of Humors
• Contagion
• Miasmatic
• Micro organisms.
• Germ Theory
Epidemiological Triad
• Germ theory has Environment
limitation-
• Not everyone exposed
to TB develops
Agent Host
http://www.askdatasystems.com/EPIDEMI/ep/epimod1.htm
The Agent
• “an organism, a substance or a force, the
presence or lack of which may initiate a
disease process or may cause it to continue.”
• May be single or multiple.
• Living or biological agests
• Nonliving or inanimate, ( nutrients, chemical
or physical agent)
Biological agents
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Cholera_bacteria_SEM.jpg
http://www.dermisil.com/images/scabies%20mite.jpg
Arthropods- Scabies Bacteria- Vibrio Cholerae
Fungi, Virus etc

Chemical Agents
http://www.hedegaard.com/Minerals/Species/ArsenicJachymov.jpg
External Internal
Arsenic
Alcohol Endocrine glands

Physical Agents
• Atmospheric pressure,
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Friction
• Radiation
• Sound
http://academic.reed.edu/physics/courses/phys100/Lab%20Manuals/Friction/friction.jpg
The Host
• Man him self
• Demographic characterisitics
• Genetic factors
• Socio economic factors
• Life style.
Environment
• Internal
• External
Multifactorial causation
• Not a new concept
• Pettenkofer of Munich (1819-1901) was the
early proponent of this concept.
• Germ theory overshadowed this concept
• Now back to multifactorial causation.
( Aetiology- Social, economic, cultural, genetic
and psychological ect.)
Web of Causation
• Suggested by MacMahon and Pugh in their
book “Epidemiologic Principles and
Methods”
• Concept ideally suits in the study of
chronic disease.
• Where the disease agent is not known.
• Web of Causation considers all the
predisposing factors of any typeand their
complex interrelationship with each other.
Web of Causation
Change in life style Stress
Abundance of Smoking
food Lack of physical Emotional Aging and other factors
exercise disturbances
Obesity Hyper Tension
Increased catacholamines
Hyperlipidaemia Thrombotic tendency
Coronary Changes in walls of arteries

Coronary occlusion
Arteriosclerosis
Myocardial ischaemia
Myocardial infarction
Web of causation for myocardial infarction

Natural History of Disease
• Disease results from a complex interaction
between man, an agent and the
environment.
• Natural history of disease signifies the way
in which a disease evolves over time from
the earliest stage of its prepathogenesis
phase to its termination as recovery,
disability or death, in the absence of
treatment or prevention.
Natural history of disease
Period of pre-pathogenesis Period of
Pathogenesis
Death
D
Agent Host Chronic state
is
ea Defect
se Environment
Disability
Pr Illness
o
Signs & symptoms
ce
ss Recovery
Levels of Primary Secondary

Tertiary Prevention
prevention prevention Prevention
Modes of Health Early Disability Rehabilitation
Intervention Promotion Diagnosis limitation
Iceberg of disease
Concept of Control
• Disease control describes operations aimed at
reducing:
1. The incidence of disease
2. The duration of disease, and consequently the risk
of transmission
3. The effects of infection, including both the physical
and psychosocial complications
4. The financial burden to the community.
Disease elimination
• Between control and eradication, an
intermediate goal = elimination.
• Elimination is used to describe interruption of
transmission of disease
• Eg: elimination of measles, polio.
Disease eradication
• Literally means to “tear out by roots”
• Implies termination of all transmission of
infection by extermination of the infectious
agent
• Till now small pox has been eradicated.
Concept of prevention
Prevention depends on
• Knowledge of causation,
• Dynamics of transmission
• Identification of risk factors and risk groups
• Availability of prophylactic or early detection
and
• Treatment measures.
Level of Prevention
• Primordial prevention
• Primary prevention
• Secondary prevention
• Tertiary prevention
Primordial prevention
• Prevention of the emergence or development
of risk factors in countries or population
groups in which they have not yet appeared.
• Eg; obesity, hypertension- prevented by
avoiding smoking, physical exercise.
Primary prevention
• Action taken prior to the onset of disease,
which removes the possibility that a disease
will ever occur.
• Eg reduction in BP. For CVD.
Secondary prevention
• Action which halts the progress of a disease at
its incipient stage and prevents complications
• Early diagnosis– through- screening tests

Tertiary prevention
• When the disease process has advanced beyond its
early stages.
• All measures available to reduce or limit impairments
and disabilities, minimise suffering caused by existing
departure from good health and to promote the
patients adjustment to irremediable conditions
• Disability-- leprosy

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Subject:- Community

Topic:- Concept of Health and

• “Health implies the relative absence of pain and

• Then came a many definitions of health

• WHO definition envisages

Physical Mental Social

• The state of physical health implies the

• Mental health is not mere absence of

The Health sickness spectrum

• Germ theory has Environment

Arthropods- Scabies Bacteria- Vibrio Cholerae

Fungi, Virus etc

Alcohol Endocrine glands

Obesity Hyper Tension

Coronary Changes in walls of arteries

Web of causation for myocardial infarction

Levels of Primary Secondary

• Early diagnosis– through- screening tests

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