Suboptimal health
Suboptimal health status (SHS), or sub-health (), is a therapeutic working concept which defines an intermediate stage between health and disease, which is not quite either status. Human persons who are sub-healthy have any of a range of uncomfortable symptoms but without any obvious and diagnosable illnesses which can be identified through standard medical observation methods. This concept was first presented as "the third state" by the scholar of former Soviet Union, Berkman, in the mid-1980s. It is also interpreted as different terms like "intermediate state", "grey state" or "a general malaise". Sub-health is a term which is widely used by Chinese people, or in connection with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Some feel that the notion of SHS has been invented to sell people medical products.
Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms considered indicators of SHS include aches, chronic fatigue, indigestion, sleep disorders, congestion, nervousness, distraction, nausea, and poor mood.
Population Health Status
Despite significant advances in medicine and public health, suboptimal health persists. Understanding health on a population level is an approach that seeks to improve the health of an entire population or subpopulation, to unravel variations in health outcomes, and to identify effective strategies for reducing or eliminating inequities both within and between population groups. Any foundation for understanding population health considers: 1) how population health is defined and measured; 2) the biological, behavioral, cultural, social, and environmental determinants of population health; 3) the role of healthcare and economic decision-making in population health; 4) and intervention and policy strategies for improving population health.
The parameters of measuring what we term 'health' and 'wellness' is a matter of ongoing health research and debate. Definition of terms is foundational, covering alternative medicine, workforce wellness, freedom from disease, and the U.N. definition of the highest achievable standard of individual and population well-being.
Engineers have proposed digital, handheld methods for many of those individuals to closely monitor their own health conditions, hoping to get need demands of both SHS groups and aging populations. Such a proposed healthcare system, which can provide self-monitoring of one's health status, early warning of disease, and even an instant report of the physiological signal analysis for individuals, is becoming more and more popular among many Chinese persons for whom it could be made available, in part because its theoretical foundations are based in traditional Chinese medicine.
See also
- Behavioral medicine
- Chronic illness
- Global Forum for Health Research
- Health
- Health promotion
- Malaise
- Self-rated health
- Severity of illness
- Sickness behavior
- Stress (biology)