Individual Health Management

DEFINITION OF HEALTH AND HEALTH-RELATED ASPECTS

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (1977)

HEALTH is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE FACULTY OF MEDICINE (1978)

HEALTH is a condition of soundness of body and mind which enables their functions to be optimally discharged.

HEALTH NEEDS are the requirements of individuals and groups in relation to maintenance or achievement of health.

HEALTH CARE includes all factors (physical, psychological, social, environment) which contribute positively to health.

HEALTH CARE DELIVERY includes all the mechanisms by which agencies external to the individual contribute to his health.

WILLIAM G. HARLESS (1977)

HEALTH may be defined as harmony of the whole body - body, mind, emotions, senses, spirit. (Illness is disharmony of the whole person which has meaning in the context of the total life experience of the individual. Physical disease and emotional suffering have an individual message for each patient.)

THE HEALTH CARE SITUATION includes the health care professionals with medical expertise and knowledge of biological systems, and the patient with internal healing resources and

knowledge of his total life situation, which includes the illness. The purpose of the humanistic health care situation is synthesis of these dimensions through open sharing of information, free choice, and personal involvement of the patient and the practitioner.

HEALING. The patient is not simply a body with a disease and the humanistic health professional is not simply a scientific problem solver with knowledge of medicine. Both patient and health professional are whole human beings and the full human potential of their relationship depends on their sharing of medical knowledge and expertise and on their total human interaction.

INDIVIDUAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT

Reynaldo O. Joson, M.D.

PROBLEM:

An individual or a person with a health problem consulted a physician. What should the physician do to manage this person's health problem? What are the general steps in the management of an individual with a health problem?

INDIVIDUAL WITH A HEALTH PROBLEM ---------------------> PHYSICIAN

GENERAL STEPS IN INDIVIDUAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT

1. Analysis of the health problem - DIAGNOSIS

What is the nature?

What is the cause?

2. Strategies to solve the health problem - TREATMENT

Planning

Implementation

3. Assessment of outcome of treatment - EVALUATION

4. Health maintenance - HEALTH MAINTENANCE

Anything unusual or any complaint related to the human body may be perceived as a health problem by the person who owns the body or by his relatives.

A person who has a health problem and who consults a physician is considered a patient by the physician.

The first thing that a physician must do to the patient is to determine the nature of the health problem in terms of what is it and what is the cause. In medical parlance, the physician is doing a diagnosis.

The usual tools that a physician uses in the diagnosis of a patient's problem are the following:

1. Interview

The physician questioning the patient or his relatives to get data that will provide clue as to the nature of the problem.

2. Physical examination

The physician using his four senses (looking, palpating, smelling,and listening) to examine the patient's body to get data that will provide clue as to the nature of the problem.

3. Laboratory examination

The physician using equipments and machines to examine the patient's body to get data that will provide clue as to the nature of the problem.

All data gathered from the various diagnostic tools are analyzed by the physician to come out with a diagnosis.

A diagnosis describes the nature of the patient's health problem and its possible cause.

If there are multiple problems, the physician decides whether these problems will be tackled simultaneously or sequentially.

For every diagnosis or health problem, there are usually more than one possible solutions. The physician must select one which he thinks is best for the patient. He then implements the plan to solve the patient's health problem. At this stage, he is doing treatment.

Treatment modalities may be broadly classified into operative and non-operative treatment. Non-operative treatment includes the use of drugs, exercises, advices, or machines that do not cut into the human body.

After treatment, the physician must assess the outcome or the result of treatment.

There are three possible general outcomes after treatment. These are, namely: complete recovery, incomplete recovery or disability, and death.

After treatment too, the physician tries to maintain the patient's health through health education, check-up, and other means.

*What are the objectives of the physician in managing an individual's health?

If the starting point in the management consists of a health problem, then the physician treats and rehabilitates to promote cure (complete recovery) after which he tries to maintain the

patient's health.

If the starting point in the management consists of a healthy individual, then the physician tries to maintain the healthy status of the individual.

CONCEPT OF HEALTH AND DISEASE IN INDIVIDUALS

Reynaldo O. Joson, M.D.

The beginning, the life, and the end of human being:

Conception -----------------------------------------------> Death

Birth Growth Ageing

Scenarios of health and disease in individuals:

Disease --------------------------------------------------> Death

Health ------------------------------> Disease -----------> Death

Health -------> Disease ----> Recovery -----> Disease ----> Death

Health -------> Disease ----> Disability ---> Disease ----> Death

Criteria in categorizing individuals as healthy and sick:

Healthy Sick or ill

Individual Individual

Disease (-) (+)

Physical well-being (+) (-)

Mental well-being (+) (-)

Social well-being (+) (-)

Socially productive (+) (-)

Economically productive (+) (-)

Disease

- Any condition that can kill an individual or person.

- Any condition that can cripple an individual so as to prevent him from being socially and economically productive.

- Any condition that can hurt an individual so as to prevent him from being socially and economically productive.

Normal versus abnormal

Usual Findings ---> No complaint

Socially and economically productive

------> NORMAL

Unusual Findings ---> No complaint

Socially and economically productive

------> NORMAL

Unusual Findings ---> With complaint

Not socially and economically productive

------> ABNORMAL

General causes of health problems in individuals:

Degree of Preventability

Genetic causes (-) to (+)

Environmental causes (+)

Self-induced causes (+)

Factors that promote diseases in individuals:

Genetic factors

Environmental factors

The place - the place of work, the residence, the community; the sanitary conditions; the presence of factors that are considered risks for disease development.

The people interacting with the individual - the family and the people in the neighborhood and in the community; the health status of these people; their health practices and beliefs.

Occupational hazards

Social ills

Self-induced factors

Personal health practices and beliefs that have a bearing on disease prevention and promotion.

• Hygienic practices

• Drugs

• Alcohol

• Smoking

• Diet

• Exercises

• Relaxation

Factors that promote health in individuals:

Control of environmental factors that promote disease.

Control of self-induced factors that promote disease.

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