Words about body and soul: Social representations relating to health and illness

Abstract

The purpose was to examine a sample of Stockholm residents’ social representations of their physical and mental health and ill-health. Four open-ended questions were answered by 1240 people between 18–80 years. A thematic analysis revealed nine aspects of health: physical, lifestyle, psychological, social, recreational, work and study, treatment, other and multifactorial aspects. Some cross-cutting themes were described to have an impact on health: empowerment, health-conscious lifestyle, life balance and life perspective. A key result is the interdependence between physical and mental health that was described by the respondents.