Assess The Importance Of Health In The 20th Century

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Health before the 20th century was seen as simply the absence of infirmity and diseases. During the 20th century there came a major decline in mortality caused by infectious disease and big improvements on living conditions. People then began to recognise that health can actually have a positive aspect to it.and no longer just concentrating on physical health .Wolfgang book. Illness is most commonly defined as cases that are recorded by visits to the gp or hospitals social division pg 330
The uk government uses a comprehensive definition of health. Consisting of both mental and physical health, not just concentrating on whether people are ill or have an illness but to include how well and healthy people are. They now acknowledge the fact that health is not just about the presence or absence of a disease or peoples life expectancy. Now recognising how social factors have an impact on a person health both mentally and physically. Government uploads pdf our health and wellbeing

The who defined health as… a state of complete physical, mental and social being and not merely the absence of disease
There are two key parts to this definition. The first being that it highlights the principles and standards for health, now this definition was no longer traditionally defining health in negative terms. Secondly it acknowledges that how an individual feels about their own personal health can vary and be dependant and consist of different layers, now including social wellbeing. The who’s definition is classed as a positive health definition.

Words people used to describe what state our bodies are in…health, illness, unwell, unfit, and fit. Unwell (Kaplan, et al, 2203).
Kleeinman, 1978 defined illness as” referring to the
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(Acheson 1998). Social division book pg