Health, Illness, and Disease – Adjusting the Coordinates

2013 ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Lukas Kaelin
Keyword(s):  
Illness And Disease

Health, Illness, and Disease

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Donald Boudreau ◽  
Eric J. Cassell ◽  
Abraham Fuks
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Contemporary Practice ◽  
Illness And Disease ◽  
Negative Sense

This introduction discusses traditional meanings of the following concepts: health, sickness, disease, suffering, and healing. The point is made that “disease” is an abstract phenomenon, albeit one that is critically important to the contemporary practice of medicine. Unfortunately, the term disease has often come to occupy the center of physicians’ preoccupations. Currently, health is considered in a negative sense, as an “absence of disease.” This chapter proposes a new and bold definition of sickness, one that revolves around the notion of function. This opens up possibilities for the goals of physicians and for medical education to be truly person centered.

The making and unmaking of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: On the mismatch between illness and disease. Results from an Italian study

2021 ◽  
pp. 136345932110483
Author(s):  
Mario Cardano ◽  
Eleonora Rossero
Keyword(s):  
Hashimoto’S Thyroiditis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Hashimoto's Thyroiditis ◽  
Diagnostic Process ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Hierarchy Of Evidence ◽  
Illness And Disease

The diagnostic process in contemporary medical practice is increasingly technical, specialised and relying on population-based ranges of biological normalcy. Disease is defined according to a hierarchy of evidence that privileges specialist knowledge and marginalises subjective experiences of illness. Medical and individual definitions of the situation can conflict in two ways: (i) a diagnosis is made in the absence of symptoms, (ii) individual suffering does not constitute ‘real’ disease if it is not validated by scientific evidence. This article investigates how the discrepancy between specialist and embodied knowledge is experienced and tentatively solved by patients’ self-narratives. Starting from the analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with people affected by autoimmune diseases, we focus on the subgroup affected by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Applying the most-different-systems design, we confront two flesh-and-blood ideal-types of illness narratives characterised by a mismatch between illness and disease. Their diagnostic trajectories are outlined and discussed as poles of a continuum of experiences resulting from different configurations of medical evidence of disease and subjective evidence of illness.

The epidemiology of illness and disease

2018 ◽  
pp. 87-90
Author(s):  
Joachim P Sturmberg ◽  
Carmel M Martin
Keyword(s):  
Illness And Disease

Yoruba Disease Classifications for Planning in Health Care

1983 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Brieger ◽  
Jayashree Ramakrishna ◽  
Joshua D. Adeniyi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Disease Classification ◽  
General Point ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Illness And Disease ◽  
Point Of Departure

An understanding of local concepts of illness and disease that underlie disease classification systems is essential for designing culturally relevant training programs in primary health care. Prior to training personnel in primary health care in Idere, Nigeria, residents were interviewed revealing that two main groups of disease exist. Generally, arun is serious, chronic and contagious, while aisan represents temporary indispositions. When given seventeen conditions to classify, respondents clearly demarked five as arun and five as aisan while the remainder fell in a grey area in between. Ironically, malaria which is a dangerous disease to young children, was classified as aisan. The disease classification system is being used as a general point of departure for discussion during training. Concerning training on the specific diseases, appropriate ideas are reinforced while others are modified all within the context of the local classification system.

scholarly journals Biomedicine, self and society: An agenda for collaboration and engagement

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyn Pickersgill ◽  
Sarah Chan ◽  
Gill Haddow ◽  
Graeme Laurie ◽  
Devi Sridhar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Science Society ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Global Movements ◽  
Law And Science ◽  
Illness And Disease

The commitment of massive resources – financial, social, organisational, and human – drives developments in biomedicine. Fundamental transformations in the generation and application of knowledge are challenging our understandings and experiences of health, illness, and disease as well as the organisation of research and care. Coupled with the accelerated pace of change, it is pressing that we build authentic collaborations across and between the biomedical sciences, humanities and social sciences, and wider society. It is only in this way that we can ask and answer the penetrating questions that will shape improvements in human health now and in the decades ahead. We delineate the need for such commitments across five key areas of human and societal experience that impact on and are impacted by developments in biomedicine: disease; bodies; global movements and institutions; law; and, science-society engagements. Interactions between ideas, researchers, and communities across and within these domains can provide a way into creating the new knowledges, methods, and partnerships we believe are essential if the promises of biomedicine are to be realised.

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