Contemporary Health Studies

An Introduction

Louise Warwick-Booth, Ruth Cross, Diane Lowcock

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781509539543
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Contemporary Health Studies provides an accessible introduction to current issues and key debates in understanding and promoting health. Its up-to-date, global focus places a strong emphasis on the social, political and environmental dimensions of health.

Part One sets the scene by looking closely at the definition of 'health' and outlining the aims and purpose of health studies. Part Two explores the different disciplines that underpin health studies, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology and health psychology, incorporating new theoretical frameworks to help readers understand health. Part Three applies this knowledge to address the determinants of health, including chapters on individual factors, the role of public health, the latest policy influences on health and the growing importance of the global context. Each chapter contains contemporary statistics and evidence alongside carefully developed learning features designed to highlight the fundamentals of each topic, to apply these to in-depth case studies – from global antibiotic resistance to the challenge and promise of digital data –, and to pose questions for reflection and debate.

Contemporary Health Studies is an essential guide for undergraduate health students written by three authors who have a wealth of teaching experience in this subject area. Their book will inspire readers to consider the human experience of health within contemporary global society as it is mediated by individual, societal and global contexts.

Part I
Understanding and Promoting Health

The first part of this book critically examines a range of issues that address the overall question ‘what is health?’ It is divided into three chapters and, together, these chapters set the scene for the whole book and the general context of the discussion within it. The question ‘what is health?’ is key to any text about health studies and this is why a substantial part of this book is devoted to addressing it.

Chapter 1 specifically explores the question ‘what is health?’ This chapter offers an overview and a critical in-depth discussion about the nature of health, how we define it and how we experience it. This chapter facilitates deeper reflection on a term that is used a lot and often taken for granted. It considers how health is defined and the different things that might influence definitions, as well as how we understand and experience health. The chapter challenges the singular, but widely held assumption that health is the absence of disease and offers a variety of different understandings and explanations as alternatives. It draws on both lay and theoretical perspectives illustrating contrasting and competing ideas and constructing a debate about health that moves beyond received wisdom.

After considering what health is in the first chapter, chapter 2 considers the contemporary threats to health and provides an overview of the main issues and challenges in relation to public health within the twenty-first century across the UK and much further afield. The nature of threats is conceptualized and then changing patterns of health threats are analysed. The chapter outlines the contemporary threats to public health including climate change, population growth and poverty. The chapter examines both communicable and non-communicable diseases and evaluates the threat of these to contemporary societies. The chapter also considers issues such as emerging epidemics and the implications of these for public health. Finally, lifestyle

diseases as a threat to health are discussed critically.

The final chapter in this section, chapter 3, Investigating Health, goes on to discuss how health might be investigated, measured and researched. This chapter gives an overview of the importance of research in relation to health and introduces the research process as a whole. The various methods and processes by which health information is gathered and analysed are presented, illustrating the importance of researching health for health studies. Quantitative and qualitative approaches to researching health are presented and critiqued, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of different data-gathering techniques. The chapter provides a clear outline of the research process for students, who can use this to inform the development of their dissertations at undergraduate level.

1
What is Health?

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Key learning outcomes

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• understand and articulate the complexities of health as a concept
• reflect on, define and defend your own perspective on health
• summarize and critique key debates about the concept of health within the literature, drawing on theoretical and lay understandings

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Overview

This chapter addresses the key question ‘what is health?’ There are no easy, straightforward answers to this. Trying to define health relies on developing understanding about a wide range of perspectives, subjectivities and experiences that are, in turn, socially, historically, culturally and temporally located. Nevertheless, this chapter will try to uncover some of the inherent complexities in attempting to understand what we mean by ‘health’. To do so, an array of different materials will be drawn upon in order to make sense of what it is we are trying to ‘capture’ (or, in the first instance, ‘define’). It is important for several different reasons to consider how health is conceptualized and understood, including understanding how people experience health and how to promote it. We return to the question of why it is important at the end of this chapter. Before you go any further take some time to do learning task 1.1.

Definitions of health

Health has been called ‘an abstract concept’ that people can find difficult to define (Earle, 2007a: 38). You may appreciate this more fully having completed learning task 1.1. Nonetheless different attempts have been made. One of the most frequently referenced definitions of health is the classic one offered by the World Health Organization. Health is defined as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’ (WHO, 1948 cited in WHO, 2006). One of the strengths of this definition is its all-encompassing breadth. It moves away from the notion that being healthy is simply about not being ill. In this sense it has a more positive, holistic view about what health is. Notably it also takes into account different dimensions of health including social and mental health which, although difficult to define (Green et al., 2019), are very important dimensions of health. However, the WHO definition has also been criticized on many counts; for example, as being unattainable, idealistic and utopian (Huber, 2011; Lucas and Lloyd, 2005). According to this definition, is it possible for anyone ever actually to be healthy? In addition there are other dimensions of health that are not considered in this definition such as sexual and emotional (Scriven, 2017). Spiritual health is also neglected; however, this dimension of health is increasingly recognized as being an important factor for health experience (Nunes et al., 2018) and there have been calls for the WHO to revise the definition of health to include spiritual well-being (Chirico, 2016). Despite the criticisms levelled at the WHO’s definition of health it has stood the test of time in many respects, largely because subsequent developments in the WHO agenda have broadened understandings about health. For example, in the Ottawa Charter (WHO, 1986) it was acknowledged that ‘health is created in the context of everyday life and environment, where people live, love, work and play’.

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Learning task 1.1

Defining health

Statement:

Health is one of those things that most people assume they understand. But if we just stop and consider it for a moment and try to focus on it, it starts to float about in our minds (Johnson, 2007: 45)

Reflect on your own understanding of what ‘health’ is. Think about the following:

1. What does the word ‘health’ mean to you?
2. What does it mean to you, to be ‘healthy’?
3. Can you come up with a definition that captures what you mean by ‘health’? If you can, try not to focus on this in terms of health as being only the absence of disease (or there being something ‘wrong’).

Write your ideas down and you can refer back them as you read this chapter.

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Health can be viewed positively or negatively. Green et al. (2019) refer to this as dichotomous differences in approaches to defining health. On the one hand there are positive approaches to defining health (health as well-being or as an asset) and on the other hand there are more negative definitions of health – those that are illness or disease oriented. When health is viewed in a negative way, definitions will tend to focus on health as absence of disease. When health is viewed in a more positive way definitions tend to be broader and take into account concepts such as ‘well-being’. The World Health Organization definition outlined earlier is an example of a more positive definition and marks a shift in understanding awa...