This chapter explains why it is critical to measure health outcomes. It includes a review of the current measurement landscape in health care in the context of the Donabedian framework for assessing health care quality. It also reorients the reader to a focus on measuring outcomes and outlines why measuring outcomes can be challenging but must be done. The chapter also provides the reader with prompts for self-reflection on their outcome measurement aspirations and describes who the intended audience is for the guide.

This chapter describes what it means to measure the outcomes that matter most to people and describes the Capability, Comfort, and Calm outcome measurement framework developed by Elizabeth Teisberg and Scott Wallace. This framework orients measurement and improvement efforts around achieving health and the outcomes that matter most to patients. It also helps reframe existing measurement efforts into a framework that facilitates measuring the results of health care. This chapter outlines the following key principles in measuring health outcomes: measure at the individual patient level and measure during the course of care.

Focusing on the Republic, this chapter argues that Plato regards psychological health, or the virtue of justice, as the necessary – and sufficient – condition of a human life worth living. This healthy condition amounts to a good exercise of soul’s function (ergon), which is premised on a good exercise of an individual’s function, or job, in the city. This account allows even peasants or craftsman in Plato’s ideal city to have a life worth living, even though they fall short of the best possible human life lived by the rulers-philosophers. It is argued that this non-elitist account of a life worth living is compatible with the famous claim from Plato’s Apology that an unexamined life is not worth living for humans. For in the ideal city all citizens live an examined life, at the very least in the sense of being ruled by the wise philosophers. At the same time, Plato decisively denied the possibility that the mere fact of being alive, or the fact of having a soul, would be a good. It can be a good, if a life is lived well, or it can be an evil, if a life is lived badly.

In this book we explore how different kinds of parasites affected the key civilizations that flourished across the world over the last 10,000 years. Ancient parasites can be recovered from mummies, skeletons, latrines, coprolites, and chamber pots. Analysis may involve microscopy, ELISA, proteomics, and recovery of DNA. A huge range of parasites can infect humans, ranging from helminths (worms), single-celled protozoa such as malaria and dysentery, and ectoparasites such as lice and fleas. Different parasites will have varying impact upon health depending upon the proportion of a society affected and the physiological consequences of infection upon the body. Here the concept of Disabilit-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) is employed to estimate the health impact of parasites in past societies, and compare them. This should allow us for the first time to propose which past civilizations may have experienced the greatest health burden from the parasites affecting their populations.

This chapter begins by discussing the challenges of distinguishing between two very distinct concepts, namely passion and addiction, and goes on to consider some of the reasons why people may exercise. The common features that are shared by neurobiology of exercise and of addiction are then examined. The phenomenon of exercise addiction (EA), which may be regarded as belonging to the cluster of behavioural addictions, is discussed, and a number of different conceptualized models of the development of EA are described. Finally, several possible treatments that are more commonly used for other behavioural addictions are suggested as potentially being suitable for use in the management of EA. The need to focus on prevention strategies is highlighted, as is the importance of promoting a balanced way of life, by focusing on the importance of understanding and shaping the environment in which we live.

Potential health benefits of sex and sex-related behaviours, and consideration of what we might mean by “normal” - or what might be a healthy definition of normality.

This chapter looks at the wide topic of public interest as a justification for breaches of investment treaty protections. It considers non-economic matters such as environmental protection, human rights and culture as well as the concept of the right to regulate which has afforded states more policy space in their interactions with foreign investors.

Situations when people experience a lack of sex or interest in sex and reasons for this, including contribution of relationship status, stress, differences in drive, and mental plus physical health conditions. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). Treatments for these conditions and sources of support.

Discussion of effects sex can have on different aspects of health including cardiovascular, pain perception, and brain health. Special issues between sex and situations such as pregnancy, diabetes, and heart disease. Tips for addressing worries about physical health and sex, including supporting one’s partner.

This unit enables students to speak about their health and feelings in general. Building on work in Unit 3, attention is given to the contrast between the two Spanish verbs meaning ‘to be’: ser and estar. The latter is used to describe variable states or conditions, for example, relating to symptoms or feelings; and also physical or metaphorical situations. In contrast, before a noun or when describing something inherent or unchanging, ser is the verb to use. The different meanings with an adjective or past participle are also explained and practised through exercises. There are exercises, too, on expressions of obligation – particularly using the verbs deber and hacer falta, which allow conversations and comments on problems and what must be done to solve them.