All modern concepts of health recognize health as more than the absence of disease, implying a maximum capacity of the individual for self-realization and self-fulfillment. This should equilibrate the human inner forces and possibilities with the feeling of pleasure or dissatisfaction in their relations with the environment (7). Social medicine and public health approach to health advocate that we should not only observe the health of the individuals, but also the health of the groups and the community, as a result of the interaction of the individuals with the social environment.
The holistic concept of health is contained in the expression of wholeness. Health is a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually to express the full range of one’s unique potentialities within the environment in which one lives. Both health and illness are dynamic processes and each person is located on a graduated scale or continuous spectrum (continuum) ranging from wellness and optimal functioning in every aspect of one’s life, at one end, to illness culminating in death, at the other (3,8).
The theory of salutogenesis takes a different view of what creates health and what factors support health, as opposed to the conventional approach of pathogenesis to study the factors that cause disease (9). To find the “origins of health”, one needs to search for factors that support the human health and welfare (10).
To establish social welfare and to facilitate, encourage, and secure individual autonomy and dignity are key challenges in the present time and society. The modern understanding of health became official when the World Health Organization (WHO), at the time of its establishment in 1948, included the definition of health in its Constitution. The definition was proposed by Dr Andrija Štampar, a prominent scholar from Croatia in the field of social medicine and public health and one of the founders of the WHO. This generally accepted definition states that “health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (11). This definition promoted for the first time that, in addition to physical and mental health, social welfare is an integral component of the overall health, because health is closely linked to the social environment and living and working conditions.
Respecting this definition as a global concept, many researchers and theorists subsequently advocated for adoption of working, practical, and operational definitions of health. In 1977, with the adoption of the WHO Global Strategy “Health for All by the Year 2000”, a pragmatic concept of health – the ability to conduct a socially and economically productive life – was accepted indirectly, which was an essential goal of this Strategy (12).
To define health in operational and working terms was vital for creating policies and programs for maintaining and improving health, and it considerably managed to exceed the widely rooted notion that health simply means the absence of disease. The Ottawa Charter from the 1st International Conference on Health Promotion, held in Ottawa, Canada, in 1986, says that health is created in the context of everyday life and environment, where people live, love, work, and play. Thus, active and interactive understanding of health was introduced. The goal of health promotion is to combine the approach for addressing the social determinants with the resolution and commitment to motivate and encourage the individuals and the community for their active approach toward health and embracing healthy lifestyles (13-16).
Within the last few decades, the WHO definition of health has been increasingly amended and supplemented by the fourth dimension – spiritual health. Generally speaking, spiritual health involves a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction with our own lives, system of values, self-confidence and self-esteem, self-awareness and presence, peacefulness and tranquility with dynamic emotional balance, both internal and toward the environment, morality and truthfulness, selflessness, positive emotions, compassion and willingness to help and support others, responsibility and contribution to the common good, and successful management of everyday life problems and demands as well as social stress (17).
The digital society, where information technology has led to fundamental societal shifts, is a carrier of particular characteristics. It got new organizing principles (relations and arenas) for public institutions and private agents, and it has also altered the relation between public and private (18). In digital society, information technology has become something more than a tool for communication, storage, and sharing of information. Therefore, it should not be reduced to another story we add to the former stories of society. Instead, the society has altered as such, and it needs to be described on its own terms.
To act as a citizen in a digital society presupposes having particular skills on how to get hold on knowledge and how to access, interpret, and use it in the online environment. In the digital society, knowledge is organized in dynamic tentative online infrastructures and made available to users through different search tools and engines and their operative algorithms. This means that digital society frames, alters, and produces knowledge in a complex way, and the individuals today need skills to read these continuously changing landscapes critically and navigate them safely (1,2,19,20). We have conceptualized this multidimensional, technology-enabled environment, open to individual access, as the knowledge landscapes (1). As a citizen, the individual needs to know how to navigate these knowledge landscapes to gain health-related information and be able to decide on strategies and services for one’s own life and the lives of others one cares for.
The wide array of producers contribute to the contents to be found online, which enables them to express their own thoughts and visions, in particular in regard to health. An important question is whether societally prescribed values and theoretical positions are also reflected in lay people’s empirical understandings and perceptions of health. Health professionals and politicians also need to know what people themselves perceive as the most important issues regarding health, in particular what health is, and which factors in people’s lives constitute health. This knowledge is needed to meet individuals in various health care settings and to deal with health issues across the digital realm.
Research on individual perceptions regarding health and illness has been accumulating for some time, and it is becoming apparent that they have significant consequences on the person’s health behavior (21). It is found that gender and age influence people’s perceptions of health as much as their background and environmental factors. Overall, lay people’s perspective on health and illness should not be viewed as constructs on opposite ends of a single continuum, but rather as two distinct but overlapping constructs (22). Experiences of health are more intangible and elusive than experiences of illness, making the former much more challenging to study (23). Health could be taken for granted and not brought to the persons attention before it’s challenged in situations characterized mainly by the actual or threat of change, disease, or loss.
Zahra et al (24) studied lay people’s perceptions of health and factors affecting health across 29 countries. People belonging to different backgrounds had different perceptions regarding determinants of health. The highest percentage of people agreed that environment was the determinant of health, which was consistent with the scientific view of increased burden of diseases caused by environmental factors. Fugelli & Ingstad (25,26) conducted a multi-sited ethnographic study to explore lay people’s perceptions of health in different contexts, environments, and sites. They interviewed people in their own homes, in five different locations in Norway, in rural areas, small and big cities, people from different socioeconomic and cultural background, living on the coast, inland, in fishing-, agriculture- and industrial communities. They identified six essential elements in people’s conceptualization of health in their actual situations: well-being, function, nature, a sense of humor, coping, and having energy.
The lay perspective on health appears to be characterized by three qualities: wholeness, pragmatism, and individualism. Wholeness is related to health as a holistic phenomenon. Health is an aspect interwoven with all other aspects of life, everyday life, working life, family life, and community life. Health is viewed a resource and a total, personal, situation-specific phenomenon. Absence of disease is not enough – the life situation as a whole must be taken into consideration. Family functioning and children’s welfare is an important part of experiencing health as wholeness. To be able to live according to one’s personal values is also an important issue. Pragmatism reflects the health as a relative phenomenon. Health is experienced and evaluated according to what people find reasonable to expect, given their age, medical conditions, and social situation. In this way, health is not necessarily freedom from disease or loss of functional abilities. Other positive values in life can compensate for different types of losses. Most people are realistic in their life-expectations. Finally, individualism relates to health as a highly personal phenomenon. The perception of health depends on who you are as a person. To be part of a society and to feel close to some other persons seems to be important to all. Furthermore, values are individual and, as every human being is unique, strategies for improving health must be individualized.
The digital society allows different perspectives to co-exist and dynamically evolve in the different forms of online environment. Subsequently, the different views on health are present online in the same time, competing for attention of the visitors, users, and creators of the digital content. Some of these ideas, although seemingly new and appealing, frequently represent refurbished historical concepts. Moreover, every public health-related intervention should consider its online context. To be able to identify and recognize the individual understanding of health is important, in particular when this conception of health contradicts recommendations for diseases that need medical intervention.
The plurality of health definitions reflects the variety of contexts in which health is elaborated. A concept ‘home context’ is the context in which the concept originates. It makes sense predominantly inside but not necessarily outside its home context. Conceptualizing is a verbal act that sets out to identify and shape phenomena’s border and content. The conceptualization localizes and attributes identity, content, or meaning. The definitions of health obviously reflect socially and culturally constructed and tentative categories. The relation between an individual and society is implied in most concepts of health. In particular, in the digital environment, critical analysis of health concepts helps us to understand better health policies and politics and their consequences. As they frequently represent societal powers rather than phenomenological differences, they are accordingly accepted, criticized, or even rejected.
Today’s society is a complex, high-cost, high-tech society where citizens constantly need to learn and update their knowledge and skills to be able to manage their own lives. As digital society is built on software that is constantly renewed or replaced by new software, navigation has become a new ‘skill of hunting and gathering’. To appreciate concepts and conceptualizations, knowledge has become a key quality in digital society. The health concepts – particularly concepts we use to explain, treat, heal or cope with disease – are words we also use as search tools. A feature of digital society is that past and present categories and understandings are available at the same time, undermining the traditional western schooling system, where accumulation of past knowledge is understood and acknowledged as predecessor to present, updated knowledge. We refer to this syncreticity, co-existence of different views without hierarchy and without precedence, as “digital anachronism”. Subsequently, public information and public interventions in regard to health should consider this variety of approaches online and thus themselves be explicit and also argue for why and how a particular approach to health is chosen. The definitions of health presented here are also understood as navigation-tools to be applied within online environment. Being aware of them can help the navigator to understand and interpret the information, texts, or documents that occur in online encounters of the health related issues.
NeuroSpice is a social networking app for neurodivergent people. It was created by Valence Vibrations, a company that specializes in creating technology for neurodivergent people. The app was launched in 2022 and has quickly become a popular resource for neurodivergent people from all over the world.
NeuroSpice is a safe and inclusive space where neurodivergent people can connect with each other, share their experiences, and find support. The app has a variety of features that make it a valuable tool for neurodivergent people, including:
NeuroSpice is a valuable resource for neurodivergent people. It provides a safe and inclusive space where neurodivergent people can connect with each other, share their experiences, and find support. The app is a powerful tool for neurodivergent people who are looking to live their best lives.
Personal Health TrackingIn addition to the features listed above, NeuroSpice also offers a variety of other benefits for neurodivergent people, including:
Increased social support: NeuroSpice can help neurodivergent people connect with others who share their experiences, which can provide much-needed social support.
Improved mental health: NeuroSpice can help neurodivergent people improve their mental health by providing them with a safe space to connect with others, share their experiences, and find support.
Overall, NeuroSpice is a valuable resource for neurodivergent people. It provides a safe and inclusive space where neurodivergent people can connect with each other, share their experiences, and find support. The app is a powerful tool for neurodivergent people who are looking to live their best lives.
NeuroSpice has been a lifesaver for me. I've been able to connect with other neurodivergent people who understand what I'm going through, and I've found so much support and resources on the app. - Jessica, 25
NeuroSpice has helped me feel less alone. I used to feel like I was the only one who was neurodivergent, but now I know that there are other people out there who understand what I'm going through. - John, 30
NeuroSpice has helped me improve my mental health. I used to be really isolated and depressed, but now I have a community of people who support me and help me through tough times. - Sarah, 22
NeuroSpice has helped me improve my mental health. I used to be really isolated and depressed, but now I have a community of people who support me and help me through tough times. - Sarah, 22
If you are a neurodivergent person, I encourage you to check out NeuroSpice. It is a valuable resource that can help you connect with others, share your experiences, and find support.
Health data analytics is the process of collecting, storing, and analyzing data from a variety of sources to improve patient care, make better decisions, and identify new opportunities. This data can come from electronic health records (EHRs), claims data, wearable devices, and other sources.
Health data analytics is a rapidly growing field, and there are many opportunities for professionals with the right skills. If you are interested in a career in health data analytics, there are a few things you can do to prepare. First, you should get a degree in a related field, such as health informatics, statistics, or computer science. Second, you should gain experience working with data. This can be done by volunteering at a local hospital or clinic, or by getting a job in a data-related field. Finally, you should stay up-to-date on the latest trends in health data analytics. There are many online resources that can help you do this.
Identifying patients at risk for developing certain diseases or conditions: Health data analytics can be used to identify patients who are at risk for developing certain diseases or conditions. This information can be used to target patients with preventive care, such as screenings or vaccinations. For example, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that using health data analytics to identify patients at risk for heart disease could save up to $10 billion per year.
Predicting which patients are most likely to benefit from certain treatments: Health data analytics can be used to predict which patients are most likely to benefit from certain treatments. This information can be used to personalize treatment plans and improve outcomes. For example, a study by the Mayo Clinic found that using health data analytics to predict which patients would benefit from a certain type of cancer treatment could improve survival rates by 20%.
Improving the accuracy of diagnoses: Health data analytics can be used to improve the accuracy of diagnoses. This information can be used to reduce the number of misdiagnoses and improve patient outcomes. For example, a study by the University of Pennsylvania found that using health data analytics to improve the accuracy of diagnoses could save up to $1 billion per year.
Reducing the cost of care: Health data analytics can be used to reduce the cost of care. This information can be used to identify areas where costs can be cut, such as by reducing unnecessary tests or procedures. For example, a study by the RAND Corporation found that using health data analytics to reduce the cost of care could save up to $300 billion per year.
Improving patient satisfaction: Health data analytics can be used to improve patient satisfaction. This information can be used to identify areas where patients are unhappy and make changes to improve the patient experience. For example, a study by the University of Michigan found that using health data analytics to improve patient satisfaction could lead to a 10% increase in patient retention.
Health data analytics is a powerful tool that can be used to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare. As the field continues to grow, we can expect to see even more innovative and effective uses of health data analytics in the years to come.
