Health and healthcare in the past

The World Health Organisation's 1946 definition of health, often referred to as fundamental in modern societies, embraces ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.’ This definition is vague. Exactly what should be included in these three named aspects and with which strategies health is to be achieved can be widely discussed. The point here, however, is that the definition includes more than just the absence of disease. Irrespective of the debate surrounding how the definition should be perceived or practised, it is clear that, since the 1940s, concepts of health emphasise the experience of health conditions. This view proclaims a distinct shift in thoughts and attitudes, from a perspective in which disease and illness were natural parts of human life, as was the case in early modern times, towards a perspective in which the normal human condition is the absence of disease. In earlier periods, the overall responsibility for a subject's health was obscure, and the possible measures to ensure health are at best a matter of relief and remedy. In more recent times, health has become a governmental responsibility with attempts for treatment improvements as well as preventive measures. This shift can also be illuminated linguistically. In the Swedish language of the sixteenth century, the concept of health alludes primarily to material welfare and prosperity – something desirable but almost completely dependent on God's will. In the early modern era, disease and poverty were inextricably linked.