Health and Wellness: Dimensions, Determinants, and the Wellness Continuum
Core concepts
Health and wellness questions on this exam test whether you can separate related but distinct ideas. Health is the overall physical, mental, and social condition of a person; wellness is the active, deliberate pursuit of choices that move a person toward higher functioning along a continuum. Know the recognized dimensions: physical, mental/emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, and environmental. A candidate should be able to classify any scenario into the dimension it most directly reflects.
Understand the determinants of health: biology and genetics, individual behavior, social and economic environment, physical environment, and access to health services. Risk factors are conditions, behaviors, or inherited traits that raise the probability of disease or injury; protective factors lower it. Distinguish modifiable risk factors (diet, activity, tobacco use, hand hygiene) from non-modifiable ones (age, sex, family history, genetics).
Know the levels of prevention, because they recur across domains: primary (prevent onset - immunization, seat belts, nutrition education), secondary (early detection - screening, blood pressure checks), and tertiary (limit disability and restore function - rehabilitation, chronic disease management). Also recognize the health belief model idea that perceived susceptibility and severity influence action, and the difference between health promotion and health protection.
Traps
Questions often swap wellness and health, or label a screening as primary prevention. Another common trap presents a non-modifiable factor as something a person can control. Read for the timing of the action relative to disease onset.
Worked example / rule of thumb
Rule of thumb: ask "has the disease happened yet?" No → primary. Yes but silent/early → secondary. Yes and causing impairment → tertiary. Example: a mammogram in an asymptomatic woman is secondary prevention; a smoking-prevention class for teens is primary; cardiac rehab after a heart attack is tertiary.
Exam strategy
Match the scenario to the single best dimension or prevention level rather than the most dramatic-sounding one, and prefer answers that describe active, informed choices over passive states.