Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
position of the biomedical approach to healthcare in general (Clarke
2003) and in Ireland in particular (Tucker 1995; Hyde 2005; O'
Donnell 2005, Tovey & Share 2003).
What is Health?
As previously stated Mildred Blaxter is one of the most prominent
researchers in this area having written extensively about her work
in the UK (1982, 1983, 1990, 1997). Of particular interest here is
her survey reported in 1990. She randomly sampled addresses from
electoral registers in the UK and, with a response rate of over 70
per cent, assembled a final sample of 9003 respondents. For this
research two home visits took place, the first one by a nurse who
collected information on height, weight, blood pressure and pulse
rate. The nurse also left a questionnaire to be self-completed with
the respondents together with a stamped address envelope, which
was to be returned by post, as soon as possible by the respondent.
This questionnaire asked respondents to access their own
personality and mental health status.
During the second home visit the respondents participated in a long
(2 hours), open ended, structured interview about health-related
behaviour. This interview investigated respondents’ behaviours like
smoking, exercise, diet and how they rated their own health. The
study concluded that while individuals have many different
definitions of health they could be classified into four categories
outlined below.
Health is being free of symptoms of illness, for example I
don’t have a headache or a backache
Health is not having a disease/disability, for example I have
no medically diagnosed condition such as a broken leg or
arthritis
Health is being physically fit, for example I am physically fit
enough to play sport
Health is psychological and social well-being, for example I
feel emotionally stable and able to cope with life
Blaxter suggests that these definitions can be classified as negative
or positive views of health with the first two categories outlined
above being negative, and the latter two, positive. She appears to
mean negative in the sense of the absence of illness or physical
injury and positive in that respondents felt that they could carry out
activities either physical, or to cope with whatever life happened to
throw at them. Blaxter also noted that conceptions of health varied
over the life course with differences based on age and gender
particularly salient. For instance young men were more likely to
link health to physical strength and fitness. On the other hand
- 586 -