The WHO’s definition of health: a baby to be retrieved from the bathwater?

[摘要] The Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) was adopted by the International Health Conference held in New York in 1946, signed by the representatives of 61 states, and entered into force in 1948.1Within its Constitution, the WHO declared health to be ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’,1 a definition that the international health agency staunchly stands by and ‘remains firmly committed to’ today.2Since this declaration, however, the WHO’s conceptualisation of health has received substantial and repeated criticism;3–5 as such, the WHO’s definition of health has been largely thrown out. However, might there be a baby to retrieve from the bathwater?PROBLEMS WITH THE WHO’S DEFINITION OF HEALTH Machteld Huber and colleagues, for example, decry the WHO’s definition of health as ‘no longer fit for purpose’, and point to the enormous rise in chronic disease prevalence since the definition was first coined, which would render a major proportion of the world’s population unhealthy despite them feeling entirely, or at least sufficiently, well.

[学科分类] 卫生学