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Health Definition Who 1984

Posted in Uncategorized | August 27th, 2011

Can anyone help me with WHO’s definition of Health?

I know WHO’s definition of Health

‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’

But I believe there was an old definition (at around 1948), that got changed for something more appropriate in 1984, the definition that it is now *above*

I can’t find that old definition anywhere. Yet, I came across it a couple of years back.

Can anyone help me?

WHO definition of Health:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The correct bibliographic citation for the definition is:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.

The Definition has not been amended since 1948.

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/analytics/WHForum_1988_9(1)_29-34.pdf

BUT!

Widespread dissatisfaction with health services in the later 1960s and early 1970s led to an effort to find an alternative approach to standard health care, and eventually the joint WHO/UNICEF conference in Alma-Ata in 1979.

The goal of Health for All (HFA), adopted by member states at the 1977 World Health Assembly, called for the attainment by all people of the world of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life. In 1978, WHO and UNICEF cosponsored the historic International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC) in Alma-Ata, at which the international development community adopted PHC as the key to attaining the goal of Health for All by the year 2000.
PHC, as defined at the Alma-Ata conference, called for a revolutionary redefinition of health care. Instead of the traditional “from-the-top-down” approach to medical service, it embraced the principles of social justice, equity, self-reliance, appropriate technology, decentralization, community involvement, intersectoral collaboration, and affordable cost. The Alma-Ata Declaration on PHC envisaged a minimum package of eight elements:
(1) education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them;
(2) promotion of food supply and proper nutrition;
(3) an adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation;
(4) maternal and child health, including family planning;
(5) immunization against the major infectious diseases;
(6) prevention and control of locally endemic diseases;
(7) appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and
(8) provision of essential drugs.

Where appropriate, the employment of lay health workers from the community should be trained to tackle specific tasks, including education, and to provide first-level care, with appropriate referrals to secondary and tertiary health facilities.