Ann Bowling (1997) Measuring Health ISBN 0335 19754
p4. The Concept of Positive Health
Health is usually referred to negatively as the absence of disease and sickness. All measures of health status take health as a baseline and then measure ill health. It is easier to measure departures from health rather than to find indices of health itself. When studying severely ill populations, the best strategy may be to employ measures of negative health status. However, only approximately 15% of a general population in a Western society will have chronic physical limitations, and some 10-20% will have substantial psychiatric impairment. (Stewart et al. 1978; Ware et al.1979). This relioance on a negative definition of health provides little information about the health of the remaining 80-90%of general populations. A positive conception of health is difficult to measure because of lack of agreement over its definition.
There is now a broad agreement that the concept of positive health is more than the mere absence of disease or disability and implies "completeness" and "full functioning" or "efficiency" of mind and body and social adjustment.Beyond this there is no accepted definition.