Determinants of Health: Theory, Understanding, Portrayal, Policy

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIII

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2. Toward a Seamless Salutology

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 1-24

3. A Natural Scientific Foundation for Participation and Empowerment

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 25-44

4. Understandings of the Preconditions for and Determinants of Health among Residents of Maastricht, The Netherlands

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 45-64

5. Indications of Social Variation in Understandings of the Preconditions for and Determinants of Health among Residents of Maastricht, The Netherlands

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 65-79

6. Representations of Preconditions for and Determinants of Health in the Dutch Press

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 81-94

7. What Do the Dutch Believe Determines their Health?

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 95-118

8. Theoretical and Practical Legitimacy of Public Participation in Dutch Health-Related Policy Formulation

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 119-162

9. Reflections on the Findings

   • Matthew J. Commers

   Pages 163-193

10. Back Matter

    Pages 195-211

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For decades, health professionals have asserted the importance of public participation in interventions for health. Medicine has pursued patient participation in clinical decision-making. In the public health realm, target groups have been asked to assist in the design and implementation of initiatives for health. In practice, however, patients and populations expect health professionals to give advice and - in some cases - to make decisions on their behalf. This implies limits to the ideal of participation. In this innovative work, the author contrasts public and professional understandings of health and the best ways to achieve health. The result is a model of lay participation in the structuring of medical and public health activity. The book is unique due to its policy-applicable, quantitative studies and its theoretical analysis of works by René Dubos and Aaron Antonovsky. It will be of value to professionals in health promotion, health education, medical anthropology, and social epidemiology.

• Aaron Antonovsky
• Public Health
• epidemiology
• etiology
• health
• intervention

• Commers Health Consulting, Maastricht, The Netherlands

  Matthew J. Commers

• Department of Health Education and Promotion, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

  Matthew J. Commers

Policies and ethics