BELIEFS, VALUES, AND HEALTH

ILLNESS AND DISEASE

Illness and Disease

• Basic Concepts

• Illness: Recognized by a person’s own perceptions and evaluations of how he or she feels.

• Disease: The presence of disease is based on professional evaluation.

• Agent: An infectious disease cannot occur without the presence of at least one factor, i.e. the agent.

• Host: The host is the organism that becomes sick.

• Environment: Environment is external to the host. It includes the physical, social, cultural and economic aspects of the environment.

• Risk factors: Attributes that increase the likelihood of developing a particular disease or negative health condition at some time in the future.

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Wellness Model: The model emphasizes efforts and programs geared toward prevention of disease and maintenance of an optimum state of well-being.

Primary prevention: Primary prevention refers to activities undertaken to reduce the probability that a disease will subsequently develop.

Secondary prevention: Refers to early diagnosis and the treatment of disease.

Tertiary prevention: Refers to rehabilitation activities and the monitoring of treatments to prevent complications.

Medical Model: Delivery of health care that places the primary emphasis on the treatment of disease and the relief of symptoms instead of prevention of disease and promotion of optimum health.

Statistical Information

Estimated Per Capita Health Expenditures, by Age and Sex, 1995

Leading Causes of Disability Among Persons Aged 15 Years or Older, United States, 1991–1992

• View overheads “Leading Cause of Death by Age Group”

• End of lecture for August 31st , 2011, 6th Period

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