Health and determinants of health - a review of literature, p.I (Zdrowie i czynniki determinujące zdrowie - przegląd piśmiennictwa, cz. I)

The concept of health involves a lot of sciences. Over the years, health has been defined in different ways. Modern holistic concept of health defines it as a state of dy- namic equilibrium in the correlations of subsystems constitut- ing a human being that are decisive for his or her physiologi- cal, social, and psychological functioning. Health is one of the most important humanistic values; it is a prerequisite for the realization of all other values, i.e.: a happy professional, social and family life. Moreover, health is a determinant of the ability to satisfactorily perform social tasks and roles as well as achievements of socio-economic nature. Individual responsibility for health is to a large extent based on the belief that health is not only a human right and its highest value, but also an investment, the consequence of which is the ability of the choice of specific services and health behaviors.