ABSTRACT
The biomedical model of health care is a very useful but limited biological model of sick care that provides a framework for management of illness including identification of the cause of the disease, diagnosis of biological abnormalities, and treatment (most often surgical or pharmacological) in order to relieve symptoms, slow illness progression, or cure disease (Purtilo & Purtilo, 1989). An alternative, more comprehensive model, the biopsychosocial model, recognizes that health is determined by psychological and social as well as biological factors, all of which interact to produce the state of current health, and are necessary to develop management strategies (Kaplan, Sallis, & Patterson, 1993). As medical management has prolonged life through improvement of biological factors, certain diseases have been prevented before symptoms or signs of disease developed (primary prevention), and survival rates have increased for patients (including children) with chronic conditions (secondary and tertiary prevention). However, some of the management techniques used in the biomedical model have influenced aspects of patients' lives in ways that may be considered undesirable to quality of life (QOL), and that have necessitated the development of new measures and research methods that are addressed throughout this book.
