What
causes heart disease?
A simple question?
Well, if you ask the same question to three different health professionals,
you may get three different answers.
Ask a cardiologist
and she/he may tell you that:
"Heart
disease is caused by hypertension, family history, and a build-up
of arterial plaque.”
On the other
hand, if you ask a public health nurse, nutritionist or fitness
instructor, he/she may tell you that:
"Heart
disease is caused by smoking, physical inactivity, excess alcohol
consumption and a high fat diet.”
But, on the
other hand, if you ask a social worker, social epidemiologist
or anti-poverty activist, you may get the following answer:
"Heart
disease is caused by stress, poverty, unemployment and social
isolation.”
Confused?
So are most
people when they are first introduced to the three models of health
that influence health promotion practice.
The biomedical model views health as the absence of diseases
or disorders.
The behavioural
model views health as the product of making healthy lifestyle
choices.
The socio-environmental
model views health as the product of social, economic and
environmental determinants that provide incentives and barriers
to the health of individuals and communities.
These models
represent three different ways of looking at health.
