Health and Illness
All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
—Chief Seattle Suqwamish and Duwamish
■ Objectives
1. Understand health and illness and the social determinants that affect them. 2. Reexamine and redefine the concepts of health and illness. 3. Understand the multiple relationships between health and illness. 4. Associate the concepts of good and evil and light and dark with health and
illness. 5. Describe significant components of Healthy People 2020. 6. Analyze the concept of health disparities. 7. Analyze the Health Belief Model from both the provider and patient points
of view. 8. Analyze the classical sick roles as described by Parsons, Alksen, and Suchman. 9. Analyze the natural history of the health-illness trajectory.
The opening images for this chapter represent—“The Four Corners of Health and Illness”—facets of health and illness in various stages along the health/illness continuum. Figure 4–1 is suggestive of maintaining health and the fresh, well- balanced food, especially fresh vegetables that must be included in a healthy diet. One of the greatest signs of a healthy person is that of being able to accomplish demanding physical challenges; in Figure 4–2, the bicycles are reminders of the