Factors affecting self-evaluated general health status and the use of professional health care services

Abstract

The idea of health has been given different meanings throughout history. The “Pippin perspective” introduced here contrasts the seemingly prevailing cultural climate of fascination and concern with personal health, uneasiness and “elevating health to a super value, a metaphor for all that is good in life” (1). What Pippin might help to illustrate is the reported historical trend toward a broadening of the range of problems and social phenomena being conceptualized in terms of health and illness (1-4). To the primary health care system, involved with the care of iliness experience — although accused for being basically centred on disease — such changes have obvious strong implications.<p> <p>The main topics of the present analyses are the exploration of factors involved in health and illness perceptions and the use of health care services. The first challenge when trying to face these topics is the conceptual approach.