"I'm healthy": construction of health in disability.

BACKGROUND

The bio-mechanical view of medicine being disabled, implies unhealthiness because these states are not included in the physical and mental medical norms. This study is to show how people with physical disabilities define health and being healthy within a social framework and to demonstrate the impact of social environments on people with physical disabilities given their application of the social model and their process of social construction.

OBJECTIVE

This study is to demonstrate that the meaning of health and the definition of oneself as healthy take place in a social-construction process involving an interaction between people and society.

METHODS

To attain this goal, a qualitative technique was applied, and qualitative data were obtained. Terms were formed by encoding the data, and themes were formed using the terms. Analysis and interpretation were made based on 5 themes that emerged from the encoding of the research.

RESULTS

The qualitative data obtained in the research indicate that being healthy is equal to not being ill, that a disability does not imply unhealthiness for people with disabilities, and that people with physical disabilities interpret their physical adequacy and body images positively.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show that people with physical disabilities socially construct their states of being healthy and their states of health and interpret themselves as "healthy" despite the medical model's definition of health. The positive impact of this positive social construction of physical adequacy and body image is evident in their interpretations of themselves as healthy.