ReviewTheoretical medicine and bioethics2007
A two-dimensional theory of health.
Review in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Are Health Nudges (Dis)Empowering?Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Article
- Parents' Perceptions of What Health Means for Adolescents with Depression-A Qualitative Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Cooperation in Return-to-work Interventions for Common Mental Disorders: An Ideal Theory Analysis of Actors, Goals, and Ethical Obstacles.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2025Article
- Belonging, happiness, freedom and empowerment-a qualitative study of patients' understanding of health in early rheumatoid arthritis.BMC rheumatology · 2024Article
- Professional beliefs of physicians and allied health professionals and their willingness to promote health in primary care: a cross-sectional survey.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Parents' Experiences of Direct and Indirect Implications of Sleep Quality on the Health of Children with ADHD: A Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Right by your side? - the relational scope of health and wellbeing as congruence, complement and coincidence.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2021Article
- Health and capabilities: a conceptual clarification.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2020Article
- Behavior Change or Empowerment: On the Ethics of Health-Promotion Goals.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2016Article
- On the downplay of suffering in Nordenfelt's theory of illness.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2013Article
- Getting the balance right: thick and thin approaches to harmonizing state particularism and the human right to health.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2012Article
- Health and morality: two conceptually distinct categories?Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2012Article
- The concept of work ability.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2011Article
- Hunting for health, well-being, and quality of life.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2011Article
- Health promotion and disease prevention: logically different conceptions?Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2010Article
- The diseased embodied mind: constructing a conception of mental disease in relation to the person.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2010Article
- Health promotion or disease prevention: a real difference for public health practice?Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2010Article
- Molecular medicine and concepts of disease: the ethical value of a conceptual analysis of emerging biomedical technologies.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2010Article
- Empowerment: a conceptual discussion.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The starting point for the contemporary debate about theories of health should be the holistic theory of Lennart Nordenfelt, claims George Khushf, not the refuted theory of Christopher Boorse. The present paper is an attempt to challenge Nordenfelt and to present an alternative theory to his and other theories, including Boorse's. The main problems with Nordenfelt's theory are that it is relativistic, that it leads to counter-intuitive results as to what goals can count as healthy, that it focuses on the wrong kind of abilities, that it makes measuring health extra difficult, and that it does not give us a sufficient account of health, at most a necessary one. The alternative theory proposed is two-dimensional. First, health is to have developed the abilities and dispositions that members of one's culture typically develop, and be able to use them, in acceptable circumstances; and second, health is to experience positive moods and sensations, the kinds that have internal causes. The theory solves the problems attached to Nordenfelt's theory by not being individual relativistic, by eliminating the goals in the definition, by giving an alternative interpretation of "ability," by making health easier to measure, and by adding the dimension of well-being that, together with health as ability, not only gives us a necessary, but also a sufficient, account of health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
17909986What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.