Q. What is the difference between health prevention and wellness?
A. When you think about prevention and wellness, let us look at what these terms really mean. Simply put, when you prevent something, you keep it from happening.
When something is done “well,” it is just the way you want it. Wellness refers to being in good, proper and excellent health. The University of California, Riverside takes a more holistic approach, describing seven dimensions of wellness – social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, occupational, intellectual and physical wellness.
In health, prevention describes actions you take (exercise, dietary, and other lifestyle changes) to create wellness, the desired, actively sought-after state or quality of being of sound mind and body.
In its National Prevention Strategy, called for by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a goal to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every state of life, through strategies that build healthy and safe community environments, expanding quality preventive services, empowering people to make healthy choices and eliminating health disparities. To achieve this, the CDS identifies seven evidenced-based recommendations to reduce preventable death and disease: tobacco free living; preventing drug abuse and excessive alcohol use; healthy eating; active living; injury and violence-free living; reproductive and sexual health; and mental and emotional wellbeing.
For more information, on the National Prevention Strategy, visit http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/prevention/strategy/report.pdf.3
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Seven Dimensions of Wellness
- Social – ability to connect with and relate to others; maintaining positive relationships
- Emotional – understanding ourselves and coping with life’s challenges productively
- Spiritual – ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives, connecting values with actions and recognizing a common purpose that binds creation together
- Environmental – ability to recognize our own responsibility to the quality of environmental resources, and making a positive impact
- Occupational – the ability to get personal fulfillment from and balance from our jobs and chosen careers
- Intellectual – the ability to open our minds to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interactions and the betterment of the community
- Physical – the ability to maintain a healthy quality of life; adopting healthy habits while avoiding destructive ones
Source: University of California, Riverside
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