Learning intention Today you will learn about: The different concepts of good health. What a health continuum is and how health changes over time. How an individual’s circumstances affect their health. Success criteria You will be successful if: You can construct you own personal health continuum. Answer questions regarding to the dynamic nature of health. Show understanding by summarising information in your own words.

Relative Dynamic Subjective

Health is the result of a continually changing process. Your personal health can be represented as a continuum with your optimal health at one end and very poor health being at the other end. Optimal health Poor health

The subjective judgments that people make about their level of health demonstrate the relative nature of health, with our health being relative to others and ourselves over time. Relative nature of health refers to how we judge our health compared to other people or other points of time in our life. For example: Someone with breast cancer who has a breast removed in a mastectomy may consider her health poor compared to how it was previously or compared to other without cancer. However, she may consider her health good during her recovery compared to how it was while she was undergoing treatment.

Health is relative to our own circumstances and that of others, and our level of health is never static. Our health varies over time. Illnesses, accidents, personal experiences or environmental factors can impact our level of health any number of times during our lives from very well to well, off-colour to ill, very unwell to critically ill and then back to full health. These continual changes in our state of health mean that health is dynamic Dynamic nature of health refers to the constant fluctuations that occur in our level of health.

Complete task 5