ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents expositions by some active investigators of their work on sociomedical health indicators. It shows that their work, concededly in various stages of early development, has begun to move from conceptualization to operationalization. The book demonstrates that serious efforts to breathe some life into the World Health Organization definition are finally being made. There is a dilemma in developing health status indicators that can simultaneously serve two masters: one, the evaluation of specific health action programs; and two, the assessment of the health status of the general population. The book argues that collective decisions satisfying the Rawlsian principles of equality and social minimum must incorporate what he calls “a social metric for health.” It describes and assesses various methods for constructing social metrics.
