Women’s health specialists at the University of Utah have delineated seven dimensions of health: Physical health, social health, emotional health, environmental health, intellectual health, financial health, and spiritual health. There are numerous blogs, articles, and editorials about the dimensions of health and wellness, all a bit different, and some with different enumerations. A quick Google search reveals 238 million hits across the internet. I wanted to take a few minutes to address the University of Utah’s Seven Dimensions and focus on what they mean for women. https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/shows.php?shows=0_xoj1lqu8
Seven dimensions of health: Physical, social, emotional, environmental, intellectual, financial, and spiritual.
We just celebrated International Women’s Day, and these dimensions, or aspects of health and wellness for women, is heavy on my mind. There is certainly overlap with the social determinants of health (see https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health for an excellent overview). Can we adequately address women’s progress across the globe without looking at each of these elements? I would argue that health and wellness depend upon each of these issues, and women’s health providers would be keen to remember how each can affect their patients. If you attend my talks this year, let’s engage in discussion about how this plays out between you and your patients!