Determinants of Health: Theory, Understanding, Portrayal, Policy (International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, 13)

For decades, health professionals have asserted the importance of public participation in interventions for health. Medicine has pursued patient participation in clinical decision-making. In the public health realm, target groups have been asked to assist in the design and implementation of initiatives for health. In practice, however, patients and populations expect health professionals to give advice and - in some cases - to make decisions on their behalf. This implies limits to the ideal of participation. In this innovative work, the author contrasts public and professional understandings of health and the best ways to achieve health. The result is a model of lay participation in the structuring of medical and public health activity. The book is unique due to its policy-applicable, quantitative studies and its theoretical analysis of works by René Dubos and Aaron Antonovsky. It will be of value to professionals in health promotion, health education, medical anthropology, and social epidemiology. "For decades, health professionals have asserted the importance of public participation in interventions for health. Medicine has pursued patient participation in clinical decision-making. In the public health realm, target groups have been asked to assist in the design and implementation of initiatives for health. In practice, however, patients and populations expect health professionals to give advice and - in some cases - to make decisions on their behalf. This implies limits to the ideal of participation. In this innovative work, the author contrasts public and professional understandings of health and the best ways to achieve health. The result is a model of lay participation in the structuring of medical and public health activity. The book is unique due to its policy-applicable, quantitative studies and its theoretical analysis of works by René Dubos and Aaron Antonovsky. It will be of value to professionals in health promotion, health education, medical anthropology, and social epidemiology"--Font no determinada Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Toward a Seamless Salutology....Pages 1-24 A Natural Scientific Foundation for Participation and Empowerment....Pages 25-44 Understandings of the Preconditions for and Determinants of Health among Residents of Maastricht, The Netherlands....Pages 45-64 Indications of Social Variation in Understandings of the Preconditions for and Determinants of Health among Residents of Maastricht, The Netherlands....Pages 65-79 Representations of Preconditions for and Determinants of Health in the Dutch Press....Pages 81-94 What Do the Dutch Believe Determines their Health?....Pages 95-118 Theoretical and Practical Legitimacy of Public Participation in Dutch Health-Related Policy Formulation....Pages 119-162 Reflections on the Findings....Pages 163-193 Back Matter....Pages 195-211