There
are four major dimensions of health included in the WHO definition of
health-physical, mental, social and spiritual. Besides these much more may be
cited, e.g., vocational, political, philosophical, cultural, socioeconomic,
environment, educational, nutritional, curative and preventive.
1. Physical dimension:
It is concerned with physical health and conceptualizes
health biologically as a state in which every cell and every organ
are functioning at optimum capacity and in perfect harmony with the rest of the
body.
2. Mental dimension
It conceptualizes that mental health is not the mere
absence of mental illness. It defines mental health as "A state of balance
between the individual and the surrounding world, a state of harmony between
oneself and others, a coexistence between the realities of the self and that of
other people, and that of the environment".
A recent concept of mental dimension is
that psychological factors can induce all kinds of illness, not
simply mental ones, such as essential hypertension, peptic ulcer and bronchial asthma.
3. Social dimension:
It conceptualizes that a human being cannot achieve in isolation
his or her full potential in any aspect of his or her life including
health. Social health takes into account that every individual is a
part of a family which again is a component of a community and society at
large. Thus, health has a component of social well-being.
The social dimension of health includes the levels of social
skills of an individual, social functioning and the ability to see
oneself as a member of a large society.
4. Spiritual dimension:
As a spiritual dimension of human civilization has an important
role in fashioning and meaning human life both as an individual and as a member
of the society, so it has an impact on health and disease.
Spiritual dimension includes human integrity, principles and
ethics, meaning and purpose of human existence, commitment to a higher being
and certain beliefs and concepts that are not subject to ordinary reasoning.
