Individual differences in the definitions of health and well-being and the underlying promotional effect of the built environment

Abstract

Although “health” and “well-being” have been the center of attention within the medical and psychological fields for many centuries, a growing body of evidence suggests that this interest has been expanding to many other disciplines, such as architecture and engineering. Consequently, more inclusive definitions of “health” and “well-being” are needed to incorporate the contribution of other fields, which will facilitate interdisciplinary studies on the topic. However, health and well-being are complex concepts, therefore, more research is required to understand the individual differences presented within those definitions and how the contribution of other fields is perceived. Therefore, the present study adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate how “health” and “well-being” have been defined within the literature and in the community with the aim to clarify the definitions of those two terms further. A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) review was conducted to summarize the definitions of “health” and “well-being” within the literature, particularly within the field of built environment. Additionally, an online survey was administered to experts and laypeople to explore their own definitions of “health” and “well-being”. The results from the REA review demonstrated a paradigm shift over the years, with “health” being perceived on a continuum and with an emphasis on people's ability to adapt to any presenting physical or mental conditions. However, there was still limited reference to the environmental contributions to the definitions of “health” and “well-being”. The findings from the survey indicated that there are four groups of people, those who believe that either health or well-being are necessary, those who believe that there is no interconnection between the two constructs, those who believe that there is an interconnection between them and those who believe that health goes beyond well-being. Future studies could explore these individual differences in definitions further in order to clarify whether the differences in perception are based on knowledge on the concepts or on people's different piorities in life and how these findings could be incorporated in future definitions of “health” and “well-being”. New working definitions are proposed suggesting a paradigm shift in defining health and well-being based on the underlying processes involved.