a brief presentation discussing about difference between health and ill health.

1. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
PRESENTATION
HEALTH AND ILL HEATH IN
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Kaishu Okubo
Nguyen Huu Nghia
Duong Cong Man
Bui Quoc Thien

2. What is health?
Health is a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or
-> What is ill-health ?

3. Different types of ill-health
- Disease
- Illness
- Sickness
Are different types of ill-health naturally
given or culturally ?

4. What are the differences between disease,
illness and sickness?
“Disease … is a pathological process, most often physical as in throat infection, or cancer of the bronchus, sometimes
undetermined in origin, as in schizophrenia. The quality which identifies disease is some deviation from a biological
There is an objectivity about disease which doctors are able to see, touch, measure, smell. Diseases are valued as the
facts in the medical view…
“Illness … is a feeling, an experience of unhealth which is entirely personal, interior to the person of the patient. Often it
accompanies disease, but the disease may be undeclared, as in the early stages of cancer or tuberculosis or diabetes.
Sometimes illness exists where no disease can be found. Traditional medical education has made the deafening silence of
illness-in-the-absence-of-disease unbearable to the clinician. The patient can offer the doctor nothing to satisfy his
“Sickness … is the external and public mode of unhealth. Sickness is a social role, a status, a negotiated position in the
world, a bargain struck between the person henceforward called ‘sick’, and a society which is prepared to recognise and
sustain him. The security of this role depends on a number of factors, not least the possession of that much treasured
the disease. Sickness based on illness alone is a most uncertain status. But even the possession of disease does not
guarantee equity in sickness. Those with a chronic disease are much less secure than those with an acute one; those with
psychiatric disease than those with a surgical one … . Best is an acute physical disease in a young man quickly
by recovery or death—either will do, both are equally regarded.”

5. How have different aspects of health been
changing during history?
Different aspects of health nowadays.
 Physical health – Healthy body
 Mental health – Healthy thoughts
 Emotional health – Healthy feelings
 Spiritual health – Healthy connection to your intuition, God or spirit
 Relationships health – Healthy relationships with other people, friends,
family, spouse, etc.
 Sexual health – Healthy sex and intimate life

6. Health and illness in different culture?
 What is the definition of health in different culture?
 What is the definition of illness in different culture?

7. What is the definition of health?
 The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.“
 Therefore, if any of physical, mental and social is not in state
of complete, it is disease or illness.

8. What about other culture?
 Traditional Chinese medicine:
 Base on Yin and yang and Five Phases theory
 “Holds that the body's vital energy circulates through channels, called meridians,
that have branches connected to bodily organs and functions."

11. Does Western culture have the only
proper and right approach toward health
and illness?
 Approach.
 Diagnosis.
 Treatment.
 Prevention of disease.
What make western medicine different from other?
 Culture is a pattern of ideas, customs and behaviours shared by a particular
people or society. It is constantly evolving.
 The influence of culture on health is vast. It affects perceptions of health, illness
and death, beliefs about causes of disease, approaches to health promotion,
how illness and pain are experienced and expressed, where patients seek help,
and the types of treatment patients prefer.

12. Are mental disorders universal or local
phenomena?
 A diagnosis by a mental health professional of a behavioral or mental pattern that
may cause suffering or a poor ability to function in life
 Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal social behavior and
failure to understand what is real. Symptoms: hearing voices, delutions,
and disorganized thinking and speech, loss of train of thought, sentences only
loosely connected in meaning, speech that is not understandable, social withdrawal,
sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment
 The reports on the WHO studies state that course and outcome of schizophrenia are
more favorable in developing countries.

13.  Mental disorders can be universal or local phenomena
 Example: eating disorder (anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa) or dissociative
identity disorder

14.  http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/55.pdf
 http://mh.bmj.com/content/26/1/9.long
 https://alishacampbell.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/p2-explain-different-
sociological-approaches-to-health-and-ill-health/
 http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html
 https://healthcontext.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/what-are-the-5-aspects-of-
health-and-some-ways-of-maintaining-good-health/
 http://www.mnchurches.org/refugee/healing/wp-content/uploads/Day-2-
Helman.pdf