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Health Promotion International, Vol. 8, No. 2, 129-134, 1993
© Oxford University Press 1993

other

Towards an epidemiology of positive health

J. R. KEMM

Department of Public Health and Epidemiology

Address for correspondence: Address for correspondence: J. R. Kemm Department of Public Health and Epidemiology Medical School University of Birmingham Birmingham B15 2TJ United Kingdom

The ways in which operational definitions of negative health have been derived is examined in order to produce analogous definitions of positive health. The nature of positive and negative health has to be considered separately for the different dimensions of health (objective physical, objective mental, objective social and subjective).

Talk of positive or negative health presumes a state of ‘neutral’ health and ways in which this may be defined are discussed. Health variables may be unipolar (extending from neutral to positive or from neutral to negative) or bipolar (extending from negative to positive). Examples of bipolar indicators, positive unipolar and negative unipolar indicators are discussed for the different health dimensions. The positive health analogue of disease states is single state. Behavioural measures are currently related to negative health but there is no theoretical reason why in future there should not be evidence to link them to positive health.

In conclusion tentative definitions of health in the objective and subjective dimensions are offered together with a plea that alternative definitions should be stated in a way that provides a basis for collection of data with which to test them.

Key words: positive health; epidemology; health profiles


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