Table of Contents
What is Family Health?
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), family health is a state of positive dynamic interaction between family members which enables each and every member of the family to experience optimal physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being whether disease or infirmity is present or not.
- Family health is a state in which the family is a resource for the day-to-day living and health of its members.
- “Family health is more than the sum of the personal health of individuals (including father) who form the family since it also takes in to consideration-interaction in terms of health (physical and psychological) between members of the family-relationships between the family and its social environment-at all stages of family life in its different structural types’’
- Such healthy interaction between family members gives rise to the health of individual of the family and to the health of the family as a unit of society thus, contributing positively to community and national development.
What is Family?
- The family is the primary and most basic bio-social cell, it is natural and practical to address health issues in the framework of family life
- Family is serving as a life-support system for human kin and humanity as a whole.
- The family is the one who decides to seek the help of the health-care delivery system and hence invest financial resources in it.
- The concept of family health is crucial to achieving the overall health promotion objectives.
- Furthermore, family health promotion is the foundation of health promotion techniques such as building supportive settings, training individuals with personal skills, and enhancing community action.
Determinants of Family Health
- Living and working conditions
- Physical environment
- Psycho-social environment
- Education and economic factors
- Health practice
- Cultural factors
- Gender
Factors For A Healthy Family
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has identified five things that contribute to family health and enhance parenting. These factors are also known as ‘protective factors’. They are:
- Nurturing and attachment
- Knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development
- Parental resilience
- Social connections, and
- Concrete supports for parents.
Scope of Family Health
1. Reproductive health
- Safe motherhood, ANC, delivery care, PNC, Family planning, Nutritional deficiencies, LBW
- STIs/RTIs/HIV/AIDS, legal abortion, infertility services,
- Adolescent health (suicide, depression, STIs)
2. Child health
- Child bearing and rearing
- Child health services: nutrition, immunization, growth monitoring
- Morbidity and mortality of children
- Social problems of children: Child abuse, abandoned or street children, Child labour, Juvenile delinquency, battered baby syndrome
3. Gender issues in family
- Girls trafficking
- Gender mainstreaming
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Female feticide (sex-selective abortion)
4. Ageing
- Problems of ageing
- Active ageing
5. Mental health
- Situation of mental health
- Causes and prevention of mental health
- National mental health policy
6. Problems faced by family/social problems
- Broken homes
- Drug abuse
- Juvenile delinquency
- Disability and rehabilitation
- Unmarried mothers
- Teenage pregnancy
Importance of Family Health
- Aside from disease cures, it offers a variety of activities and programs for disease prevention, rehabilitation, and health promotion for all family members
- It is more than the sum of these members’ individual health because it considers their interactions with one another as well as the family’s human, biological, and physical environment
- It can be described using specific markers such as demographics, genetics, physical, mental, and social health, socioeconomics, and culture
- Many health issues emerge and are treated at this level, and women, in particular, are primary health care providers everywhere
- As a result, it serves to bridge the gap between individual health and community/public health
Components of Family Health As Life Cycle Perspective In Health
Source: http://qu.edu.iq/ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Introduction-to-Family-health.pdf
- Family health cycle connects members of the family system over time, including children, parents, and those who do not have children or are past childbearing age
- It specifically encompasses non-reproductive aspects of adult health as well as intergenerational contributions to health production.
- Although we might begin at any time during the cycle, we will begin with the birth outcome. The cycle is divided into five periods as follows:
1. Perinatal and Neonatal period
- During this stage, clinical case management of infectious diseases is one of the most important interventions
- Environmental actions to limit infectious agent exposure are also crucial
- As long as both girls and boys have equal access to breastfeeding and health services, there are few reasons for gender-specific interventions in this age group.
2. Infancy and childhood
- During this stage, conventional health and nutrition programs (immunization services, IMCI) to social and environmental improvements are the usual focus of child survival interventions (maternal education efforts, vector control)
- Unless systematic gender discrimination disadvantages female children, most do not need to be gender-specific.
3. School aged children
- Because mortality is minimal (except from accident) at this stage, health and nutrition interventions can focus on illness prevention and health promotion rather than controlling and managing infectious diseases (except for school-based deworming)
- Programs to prevent risky behaviors in adolescence (unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases [STDs], tobacco use, and alcohol misuse) can begin during this time, and they may be more effective if they are gender-specific.
4. Reproductive period
- This is a critical time for the reproductive health agenda, and safe motherhood measures are well-detailed.
- Because this spans much of adulthood, and not all adults are physiologically capable of, or choose to be parents, interventions at this staged is aimed at reducing risk behaviors (smoking, alcohol abuse, STDs), vehicular accidents, workplace injuries, and domestic and other kinds of violence are also suitable.
- At this point in the cycle, gender-specific methods are critical.
5. Older age
- Interventions here focus on the wellbeing of the older people. Reduced physiological as well as psychological functions at this stage, attention must be given to this age group
- These groups of people are often neglected and are affected with various problems. Attention must be provided to these group of people and their major health conditions are to be addressed
Concept of Sex Education
- Sex education is high quality teaching and learning about a broad variety of topics related to sex and sexuality
- It explores values and beliefs about those topics and helps people gain the skills that are needed to navigate relationships with self, partners, and community, and manage one’s own sexual health
- Sex education may take place in schools, at home, in community settings, or online.
- Planned Parenthood believes that parents play a critical and central role in providing sex education.
Indicators
Since family health considers all the aspects of health, the its indicators are similar to health indicators. It can be as three parts:
1. Higher level indicators
- Total fertility rate (TFR), Infant mortality rate (IMR), Under-five mortality rate (U5MR), Maternal mortality ratio (MMR), HIV/STI prevalence or incidence, Nutritional status
2. Second level indicators
- Service utilization indicators such as contraceptives prevalence rate, immunization rate, skilled birth attendees, etc. and behavioral indicators such as infant feeding practice
3. Third level indicators
- Access to service, quality of services, sustainability
References and For More Information
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/205062/B4972.pdf?sequence=1
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00987295
https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/MEDISCOPE/article/view/49447
http://qu.edu.iq/ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Introduction-to-Family-health.pdf
https://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c03/E1-14-02-04.pdf
https://askinglot.com/why-is-the-concept-of-family-health-important
https://www.peacehealth.org/medical-topics/id/ty6171
https://www.kirtland.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/389837/five-factors-for-a-healthy-family/
