Center for Public Health Sciences, University of Linköping

Abstract

In health promoting work the objective is to achieve a better health in the target group. This is the case independent of whether the health promoting intervention is done in the local community, in a special setting such as a school or if the concern is the outcome of hospital care. In all these instances the final goal is the same; a better health for the targeted individuals . In the case of hospital care the goal, health, is not always explicitly expressed as the objective of the activities. Often the stated aim is disease specific, or simply given as a function of a hospital activity. One reason is that although the word, health, is used rather generally by lay people, the concept of health has been the object of profound analyses by philosophers and ethicists. Different interpretations of the concept have separated the different professions who are concerned with practical application of the different health concepts. Conflicts have arisen with regard to the "ownership" of the health concept. This has often led to a polarisation between those who are concerned with health promotion, who may represent a nominalistic and holistic approach and those who are concerned with the treatment of illnesses, who represent a essentialistic or fundamentalistic approach. Therefore health has been regarded as "difficult to measure" or downright impossible to measure. This has severe implications for a health service which has health as its objective and outcome. As a consequence, for instance, it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of different sets of action. In recent years methods which measures self-rated health have been developed. They have turned out to have good predictive value with regard to survival and future disease. These methods may be useful in the development of health gain measures. In 1948 WHO defined health as not only the absence of disease, but also as "a condition of complete physical, mental and social well-being". Hereby health was divided into two elements - that which is defined professionally; absence of disease, and - that which is defined by individuals themselves: well-being Measuring health gain involves measuring the extent to which an intervention has had an effect on the individual's health. The measure of health is then a balanced combination of traditional medical professional assessment and the patient's self-rated health, as measured with validated psychometric instruments. The "users'" perspective is needed to know if an intervention has been meaningful for a particular individual or group of individuals from the perspective of well-being.

Keywords

Health Promting Hospitals,Self-rated Health. Health measurements

Contact

Kristenson Margareta

Institution

Center for Public Health Sciences, University of Linköping

Postaddress

Folkhälsovetenskapligt Centrum

City

SE-581 85 Linköping

Country

Sweden

E-mail

Margareta.Kristensson@fhvc.lio.se

Phone

+ 46 13 22 50 75

Fax

+ 46 13 22 50 95