SENSE OF COHERENCE

– sundhedsfremmende eller sygdomsforebyggende?

Abstract

Health and illness are often described as opposite poles in a continuum, where absence of illness constitutes the midpoint. In accordance with this view, health promotion is an effort towards the healthy pole while health protection is an effort trying to hinder a development towards the illness-pole. In the article it is discussed whether this understanding of the relationship is adequate. In particular, consequences of the bipolar understanding for empirical research are pointed out : the mixture of positively and negatively phrased items resulting in unclear dimensionality of the concepts. The problems are illustrated by applying Antonovsky's concept of Sense of Coherence. It is proposed, that the bipolar understanding are replaced by a multidimensional.