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Health is everywhere: Unravelling the mystery of health

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Health is everywhere: Unravelling the mystery of health
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This free course, Health is everywhere: Unravelling the mystery of health, considers two ideas: that health is an ever-present factor in our lives, and that health is something difficult to define. But how can we say that health is everywhere if it is so mysterious? How do we recognise health if it so difficult to define? There are no easy answers to these questions! In this course we explore this paradox, not just because it is a fascinating dilemma but because understanding health in all its multifaceted complexity is a prerequisite to working for health in imaginative, creative and useful ways, in both our private and our public lives.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • assess the degree to which health pervades all aspects of contemporary life
  • identify views on what health means personally
  • review a range of meanings that health has for individuals and groups of individuals
  • discuss the social and cultural significance of this range of meanings
  • critically analyse the distinction between ‘lay’ and professional perspectives on health.

First Published: 10/08/2012

Updated: 10/02/2016

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