Models of health and health theory: Focus on integrative models

Abstract

Models of health help us by providing a conceptual framework to the way we interpret and investigate health and illness. Some models, urge us to consider primarily physical and biological aspects of wellness and illness, while others incorporate or even focus on social, spiritual, emotional, and other aspects of wellness and illness. Integrative medical practitioners tend to prefer models that focus on a variety of factors or dimensions of health. The most popular and widely embraced tend to focus, at a minimum, on biological, social and psychological dimensions of health. Models which also incorporate spiritual dimensions of health are also gaining popularity in both clinical practice and in the medical literature. The models in this chapter (other than the biomedical model which they are contrasted with) are all consistent with the principles of integrative health principles and will help us expand our views of health and wellness.