Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-r5d9c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-06T06:33:43.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Wellness Measurement

from Part I - Approach to Wellness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Timothy P. Melchert
Edited by
Waguih William IsHak
Waguih William IsHak
Affiliation:
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Get access

Summary

Incorporating wellness into considerations of health, healthcare, and social policy has reached an exciting point. Aristotle, Buddha, and other philosophers, sages, and religious leaders throughout history developed great insights into the topic, but only in recent decades has the construct of wellness been examined and clarified through systematic empirical research. There are still major debates regarding several aspects of the topic, but it is now widely considered a measurable construct that should play a role in healthcare and social policy. This volume represents another step forward in bringing wellness into the mainstream of health and healthcare.

Wellness often means different things to different people, and the causes of wellness and the components that comprise well-being continue to be vigorously debated. Philosophical and theological arguments dominated the debate for centuries, with little resolution on important aspects of the subject, and up until recently it was widely believed that too little was known to include considerations of wellness in healthcare practice or policy.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
The Handbook of Wellness Medicine , pp. 37 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

World Health Organization. Constitution of the World Health Organization. Geneva, World Health Organization; 1948.Google Scholar
Seligman, MEP, Csikszentmihalyi, M. Positive psychology: an introduction. Am Psychologist 2000; 55(1): 5–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Engel, G. The need for a new medical mode: a challenge for biomedicine. Science 1977; 196: 129–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melchert, TP. Biopsychosocial Practice: A Science-Based Framework for Behavioral Health Care. Washington, DC, American Psychological Association; 2015.Google Scholar
Holt-Lundstad, J, Smith, TB, Baker, M, Harris, T, Stephenson, D. Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspect Psychol Sci 2015; 10: 227–237.Google Scholar
Cigna. New Cigna study reveals loneliness at epidemic levels in America. 2018. www.cigna.com/newsroom/news-releases/2018/new-cigna-study-reveals-loneliness-at-epidemic-levels-in-america (accessed April 21, 2020).Google Scholar
Kahneman, D, Deaton, A. High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. PNAS 2010; 107: 16489–16493.Google Scholar
OECD. OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-Being. Paris, OECD Publishing; 2013.Google Scholar
Ware, JE, Sherbourne, CD. The MOS 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Med Care 1992 30(6): 473–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WHOQOL Group. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL): development and general psychometric properties. Soc Sci Med 1998; 46(12): 1569–1585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heintzelman, SJ, King, LA. Life is pretty meaningful. Am Psychologist 2014; 69: 561–574.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumeister, RF, Landau, MJ. Finding the meaning of meaning: emerging insights on four grand questions. Rev Gen Psychol 2018; 22: 1–10.Google Scholar
Diener, ED, Emmons, RA, Larsen, RJ, Griffin, S. The Satisfaction with Life Scale. J Personality Assess 1985; 49(1): 71–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooke, PJ, Melchert, TP, Connor, K. Measuring well-being: a review of instruments. Counsel Psychologist 2016; 44(5): 730–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linton, M, Dieppe, P, Medina-Lara, A. Review of 99 self-report measures for assessing well-being in adults: exploring dimensions of well-being and developments over time. BMJ Open 2016; 6: 1–16.Google Scholar
Hooker, SA, Masters, KS, Park, CL. A meaningful life is a healthy life: a conceptual model linking meaning and meaning salience to health. Rev Gen Psychol 2018; 22: 11–24.Google Scholar
Fortney, JC, Unützer, J, Wrenn, G, et al. A tipping point for measurement-based care. Psychiatric Serv 2017; 68(2): 179–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
von Hippel, W. The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy. New York, Harper Wave; 2018.Google Scholar
Wrangham, R. The Good Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution. New York, Pantheon; 2019.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×