Why the United States needs a multifaceted definition of health

Abstract

Abstract How health is conceived and operationalized is an unrecognized contributor to poor health outcomes in the United States. The United States lacks an explicit definition of health, yielding a de facto, implicit biomedical definition in research and in health care that contrasts with how many people define health for themselves. This biomedical conceptualization has led to the development of lifesaving drugs, vaccines, and procedures, but has also resulted in critical underinvestment in people across their lives, beginning in early childhood, in behavioral, environmental, and social determinants. This underinvestment across the entire lifespan in people's health traps the United States in a vicious cycle of chronic disease and unsustainable health care costs. A movement towards holistic definitions of health represents an escape by defining health in more meaningful terms that reflect people's early development, agency, functioning, adaptive capacity, well-being, and lifelong development—that is, the capability for every person to thrive. Adopting and implementing a multifaceted, holistic health definition by federal research and health agencies could transform and humanize health in the United States and advance health equity.