The Determinants of Health: G Dahlgren and M Whitehead, Policies and strategies to promote social equity in health, Institute of Futures Studies, Stockholm, 1991
One of the first concepts I remember studying in public health was the difference between illness and disease. As I understand the difference, disease is a biological concept with physical manifestations in the body. Illness, on the other hand, is the experience of being sick.
Why does this matter? Health is not simply the absence of disease as there are many factors that contribute to overall health and wellbeing. Understanding the difference between disease and illness impacts the way we market behavior change. An interesting example, related to AIDS patients, is discussed in The Illness Narratives . The author focuses on how AIDS patients were less concerned with their physical T-cell count and premature death than they were with the personal and social consequences of their disease.
The author shares the intimate story of one man living with AIDS. The man was devastated by the fact that he could no longer take road trips for fear of diarrhea while driving. His devastation resulted from the perceived lack of independence not the fact that his prognosis was fatal.
We must remember that people do not value health universally. But people do have some universal values such as freedom, independence and control. If we can frame health where the absence of disease is freedom (not just good health) then we will have an easier time selling our product.
Let’s work together as marketing and public health professions to sell a product to the public they actually want.
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