What is Health ?
The World Health Organization
defines health as follows:
“Health is the state of
complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of
disease and infirmity.”
Some have regretted that this
WHO definition of health is too static a formulation, others that it does not
refer to two others factors which affect health, namely the natural environment
and the transcendental property of the human mind.
M.R. Chakravarti from India
describes his concept of health in the following way: ..
“The
fundamental determinants of health, apart from the genetic constitution, are
nutrition, environment and lifestyle; the health of any rural Indian society is
directly linked to it, value system, cultural traditions, socio-economic set up
and political organizations. Each of these has a profound influence on the
health of an individual or community. Any health education programme cannot be
limited to health care delivery, but should also be directed to bring about the
cultural, economic, social and political transformation of the society as a
whole, through the process of education.”
Margaret
Brumby from Australia writes
as follows:
“Our current
research into students' perceptions of health, which involves extensive
individual interviews where students explain their understanding of factors
which they believe to be important to their own health, supports the emphasis
on the health of the individual defined mainly in physical terms. Indeed when
we asked them to explain what they thought would contribute to how long they
would live, a completely new dimension of categories emerged pollution, luck,
accidents, war, heredity all factors beyond an individual's control. What does
this finding mean as to how students value the quality of their future lives?”
She also adds:
"It is not very clear what
who actually meant by the term 'social well-being'. Health education programmes
seem to imply that 'social' means 'interpersonal'. Is not this a very narrow
interpretation."
Rex Meyer, also from Australia, writes:
"The
New South Wales educational system adopts a definition of health consistent
with the WHO view. This concept of 'wellness' is reflected in the NSW
definition that health is concerned with the total well-being of individuals
and their ability to enjoy a healthy lifestyle."
The NSW curriculum unit called “Health Studies” defines
health studies as:
"that part of the curriculum which is concerned with the development of the total well-being
development."
Within the area of Health
Studies, health education as such is defined more specifically as follows:
“Health
education provides learning experiences which
influence understanding, attitudes and behaviour in regard to individual, home,
school and community health.”
The following diagram from the current NSW syllabus
document summarizes this position:
Health education is dynamic in nature. Therefore, to be effective, it requires
interaction between the individual,
the home, the school and the community to increase the abilities
of people to make
informed decisions affecting their personal, family and community well-being, and this is reflected in the above.
In some countries, the
prevention of disease is the major concern and when that is the case, it is
reflected in the
curriculum, K.C. Pang of the University of Hong Kong writes:
“Health education is a method of conveying
to the community the knowledge that necessary for the prevention of disease, and the opportunity to lead a full
normal life, physically, mentally and socially. This education should include:
(a) a
basic knowledge of the normal functioning of the body.
(b) an
understanding of the more common ailments.
(c) the
effects that certain habits have on the system.
