Sense of Coherence and Physical Health. A “Copenhagen Interpretation” of Antonovsky's SOC Concept

P Christian Endler,Heinz Spranger,Thomas M Haug

doi:10.1100/tsw.2008.59

P Christian Endler, Heinz Spranger + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2008.59

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Abstract

According to Antonovsky's (Aaron Antonovsky, 1923–1994) sense of coherence (SOC) model, persons with a high SOC have the ability to benefit from their general defense mechanisms in order to overcome stressful situations. In a health-disease continuum, this leads to the development towards health. However, Antonovsky's global hypothesis that the strength of the SOC may influence the physical health status of a person could not be proven.Flensborg-Madsen et al. from Copenhagen were able to provide a new access regarding SOC and health. They investigated the mixture of emotional aspects and mental constructions as a possible cause for fairly low correlation between SOC and physical health. Thus, in an empirical way, they described “emotional coherence” in relation to physical health, while “mental coherence” was linked to psychological health. These authors introduced the idea of applying a shortened version of the original 29-item SOC questionnaire, but have not yet developed or tested the shortened questionnaire. Backed by their important findings, it appears to be promising to consider the use of the SOC questionnaire as standardized by Antonovsky, but cleared of the items regarding “predictability”, i.e., Flensborg-Madsen et al. suggested that the items on “predictability” be excluded from the SOC scale when a correlation to physical health is to be investigated. Further investigations in this area of research will be of high impact, not only for health sciences, but also for medical practice.

Highlights

In modern health sciences, the “health concept” is strongly influenced by salutogenesis, founded in the 1970s by the American-Israeli medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky (1923–1994)[1]
The Copenhagen authors suggest that the sense of coherence (SOC) subscales on comprehensibility and manageability be cleared – and the SOC – by sorting out the aspect of predictability[7,8]. (In the paper presented here, we cannot discuss whether this reassessment of the SOC would improve the original Antonovsky concept.)
We would like to point out the working hypothesis of Flensborg-Madsen et al, i.e., that by clarifying the SOC questionnaire regarding the aspect of “predictability”, a correlation with physical health could be determined

Summary

Introduction

The “health concept” is strongly influenced by salutogenesis, founded in the 1970s by the American-Israeli medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky (1923–1994)[1]. The individual sense of coherence (SOC) has a high impact on the positioning of the continuum. To measure the SOC, Antonovsky developed questionnaires, which were translated into 33 languages and used in 32 countries[2]. Antonovsky’s hypothesis included the assumption that the strength of the SOC may have direct physiological consequences and, may influence the health status of a person[1].

Results

Conclusion