ABSTRACT
Although due recognition is given to the role of biological and genetic factors, there is wide acceptance of the importance of social factors in the etiology, development, and treatment of disease. This is mainly due to the fact that many
scholars, based on numerous studies in the last 30 years, have confirmed this (Curtis & Taket, 1996; Desjarlais, Eisenberg, Good, & Kleinman, 1995; Jones & Moon, 1987; Wilkinson, 1996), and in the process developed theoretical paradigms in order to further explain the social nature of health determinants ( Albrecht, Fitzpatrick, & Scrimshaw, 1999; Annandale, 1998; Davey, Gray, & Seale, 1995). Changing patterns of disease, reflected in the rise of chronic and life-style related conditions and the multifactorial nature of their causation, accompanied by a demographic transition affecting the age structure of populations (Fitzpatrick,1996; Moon,1995), have contributed to a shift in thinking about health, disease, and disability. This has been the shift from an emphasis on the so called “bio-medical model” to a more comprehensive “psychosocioenvironmental model” (Hart, 1996; Nettleton, 1995). The latter emphasizes the role of people’s behavior-what work they do and how and where they live their lives-in determining their health status and disease outcome (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2002). However, it goes beyond that: Whereas the bio-medical model essentially keeps health, disease, and disability within a biological context, the psychosocioenvironmental model places it in a social context, advocates a multidisciplinary approach, and thus contributes an additional dimension to the understanding of the onset of disease and disability as well as of treatment and rehabilitation.
