Why defining health and well-being is important—and why it isn’t
When I joined the Hart team in May, I started paying close attention to how the terms “health” and “well-being” (or “wellness”) are used — in healthcare, in media, in the fitness industry, in government documentation and even in my own life.
Even though opinions might be mixed elsewhere, health-related fields do differentiate between the terms. These differences are important to know so you can better understand things like your health benefits and health insurance.
But when it comes to making improvements to my own health, I believe knowing the definition down to the letter isn’t as crucial as simply making myself more aware of my health on a daily basis.
So how does the health industry define health and well-being?
In the health industry, health refers to the state of your physical body and whether or not it’s free of illness and disease. This is why health providers categorize care, services and benefits related to a person’s physical health under “health.”
Well-being or wellness is an overall balance of several factors: physical, social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual and occupational. Hence, care, services and benefits related to mental health, emotional health, etc., tend to be categorized under “wellness” or “well-being.”
Hart’s experts asked the public for their own definitions
Hart’s own Research Team surveyed a random sample of more than 400 people (not necessarily employed in a health-related field) about the terms health and well-being.
Our researchers discovered more than 50 percent of survey participants agreed the two terms were different [see “Relationship between well-being and health” diagram below]. (Even though they couldn’t necessarily agree on a common definition.)
Of the participants who said health and well-being were different, some were able to describe how they felt the two were different:
- Approximately 1 out of 3 participants indicated health to be a part of well-being [see “Reasons given for health being different from well-being” diagram below].
- In contrast, about 4 out of 10 participants said the difference was that health referred more to the physical and well-being referred more to the mental or spiritual [see “Reasons given for health being different from well-being” diagram below].
Why the definitions are — and aren’t — important
I’m in the same camp as the survey participants who asserted that health and well-being are distinct.
Of course, some people will continue to use the terms health and well-being and wellness interchangeably. Employee wellness expert Bob Merberg, for example, recently published an article called “Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing Are the Same Thing.”
But Merberg closes his essay with an idea that is, in my opinion, the bottom line to this whole discussion of defining health and wellness. He writes:
“Health, wellness, well-being: In the end, what we call it won’t matter as much as how we think of it … and how we act on it.”
Being aware of my personal health and well-being and maintaining my enthusiasm in improving it is far more valuable and productive to me than worrying about the definitions themselves.
This is why I see the benefits of activity trackers, the Hart app, and other health-related products and services to be twofold:
- They lead to real improvements if used as intended.
- They get us thinking about our health and well-being/wellness more often in the first place — which is the true starting point of progress.
What do you think is most important? And how do you define health and well-being?
I’d be interested in hearing your opinion! Please leave a comment. Also, if you liked this post, click the 💚 below. Follow me and the Healthy Thoughts blog for more articles on health, wellness, technology and more.
