Health – Meaning and Definition

All the communities have their concepts of health. Traditionally health is conceived as ‘absence of disease’. At the individual level, it cannot be said that health occupies an important place. It is usually subjugated to other needs defined as more important e.g. wealth, power, prestige, knowledge, security etc. Health is often taken for granted and its value is not fully understood unless it is lost.

Health is one of those terms which most people find it difficult to define, although they are confident of its meaning. Therefore many definitions of health have been offered from time to time. Some of them are:

Definitions of Health

  • “The condition of being sound in body, in mind and spirit, especially freedom from physical disease or pain” (Webster).
  • “Soundness of body or mind, that conditions in which its function are duly and efficiently discharged” (Oxford English dictionary).
  • Health is a condition or quality of human organism expressing the adequate functioning of the organism in given condition, genetic and environmental.

The absence of disease alone does not indicate good health. A healthy person should have a sound body and mind. The widely accepted definition of health is that given by the World Health Organisation. It defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well- being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.”

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