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CONCEPT OF HEALTH AND DISEASE

FOR BPHARM STUDENTS
AUGUST 2019
Professor Yohana Mashalla, MD, PhD
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine

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 Learning objectives
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 To define health and disease/illness

 To describe the concept of health and disease
 To describe characteristics of good health
 To describe factors affecting health and illness
 To describe the consequences of illness

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 Concepts and definition
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 Concepts
 A healthy person is one
who is physically and
mentally fit in all
respects.
 Good health makes a
man happy and
cheerful but some-times
a healthy person can
also fall ill.
 The illness(or sickness) is
called disease
 WHO definitions:
 Health is a state of
complete physical,
mental, and social well
being, not merely the
absence of disease or
infirmity
 Disease: pathological
change in structure &/or
function
 Illness: response of
person to disease
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 MODELS OF HEALTH & ILLNESS
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 Agent-Host-  Health Belief Model

Environment
 Health Promotion
 Health/Illness Model
Continuum

 High-Level Wellness
Model

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 Characteristics of good health
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 Health as balance means:
 “The difference parts and
functions of the body and
mind interlock harmoniously
and keep each other in
check”
 The person must:
 Have capability to do
work
 Feels himself efficient
to take decisions and
work accordingly
 Remain in sound mental
condition
 Remain free from any
disease
 Not suffer from mental
tension
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 Requirements for good health
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 Good health is essential

for Leading purposeful
life
 The following are
essential for maintaining
good health
 Nutrition

 Exercise and rest

 Good habits
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 Maintaining good health
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 Nutrition:
 Nutritive materials
provide energy to work
 Take care of following
factors for maintaining his
good health:-
 Taking rest in time
 Eating balanced diet
 Should take bath daily
 Food should be fresh
 Malnutrition due to:
 Deficiency:
 Lack of various minerals and
vitamins cause various disease,
these diseases called deficiency
diseases.
 Excess
 Haemochromatosis
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 Vitamin deficiency and diseases
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 Vitamin deficiency associated diseases

Vitamin deficiency Disease
A Night blindness
B1 Beri Beri
B2 Cracking skin
B12 Anaemia
C Scurvy
D Rickets
K Haemorrhage
E Sterility

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 Factors affecting health and illness
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 Physical Dimension  Risk factors:

 Age: children vs adults
 Emotional Dimension
 Genetics
 Intellectual Dimension  Physiologic

 Environmental  Health habits

 Lifestyle
Dimension
 Environment
 Sociocultural Dimension
 Spiritual Dimension
 Basic Human Needs

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 Factors affecting health
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 Social and economic  Socio-economic factors:

factors  Superstition
 Environmental factors  Religious and social beliefs
 Personal factors  Poverty
 Hereditary factors  Lack of social support
 In absence of proper
treatment and care, effect
of disease can make the
patient serious
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 Factors affecting health
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 Environmental factors:  Hereditary factors

 Further divided into:
 Internal factors-
Homeostasis
 External factors
 Temperature, air quality,
humidity, exposure in
work environment etc
 Transfer diseases from
one generation to
other Generation e.g.
 Color blindness,
 Haemophilia
 Diabetes
 Hypertension
 Some cancers
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 Factors affecting health
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 Personal factors
 Eating
 Sleeping habits

 Stress

 Sedentary life

 Smoking habits

 Drinking habits

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 What is disease?
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 A disease is a type of internal state which is either

an impairment of normal bodily functional ability
e.g.
 A reduction of one or more functional abilities
below typical efficiency; or
 A limitation on functional ability caused by
environmental agents

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 Disease onset
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 Acute illness
 Generally rapid onset of
symptoms
 Last only relatively short
time
Illness Behaviors
Stage 1: Experiencing
symptoms
Stage 2: Assuming sick role
Stage 3: Assuming
dependent role
Stage 4: achieving
recovery & rehab
 Chronic illness
 Physical and mental
alterations in health WITH
one or more of the
following:
 Permanent change
 Causes or is caused by,
irreversible alterations in
normal anatomy and
physiology
 Requires special need for
rehab
 Requires long period of
care or support
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 Prevention
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 Levels of prevention:
 Primary preventative care
 Aims to avoid the development of a disease or disability in
healthy individuals by health promotion activities, such as
encouraging less consumption of sugars to reduce caries risk,
diabetes etc
 Secondary preventive care
 Aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already
occurred through early detection and treatment (regular
examination, screening etc

 Tertiary preventative care

 Aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has
lasting effects through rehabilitation

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 Consequences of disease/illness
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 Levels: [Self Directed Learning]

 Individuallevel
 Family level

 Community level

 National level

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