The ability to recognize and accurately describe a person's health status is fundamental in health care. Health status descriptions summarize a person's overall state of health and disease, serving as a base-line for measuring the effectiveness of personal and professional health care. In addition, self-rated current and future health status can effectively predict a person's quality of life and longevity.
The following terms are commonly used to describe a person's health status:
Although commonly used, the terms perfect health, optimal health, excellent health, etc. are not defined in medical or other dictionaries. However, when used in the context of health, the words perfect, optimal, excellent, etc. are generally understood to mean the following:
Each person's concept of their personal health status is also determined in part by their personal understanding of the terms, health and disease.
Inconsistencies in the meaning of terms used to describe a person's health status interfere with communication between health care professionals and consumers. The following health status scale provides standard reference points and meanings for the eight terms generally used to describe a person's health status. Each term is preceded by its numerical range on the scale and is followed by an equivalent description of a degree of disease or resistance to disease, as follows:
Health Status Scale:
- 100: Perfect Health (flawless disease resistance)
- 98 - 99: Optimal Health (optimal disease resistance)
- 90 - 97: Excellent Health (excellent disease resistance)
- 80 - 89: Good Health (occult disease or disease precursor)
- 70 - 79: Fair Health (chronic disease)
- 60 - 69: Poor Health (serious chronic disease)
- 50 - 59: Failing Health (serious progressive disease)
- 40 - 49: Expiring Health (terminal disease)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
The health status scale has three purposes:
The eight levels in the health status scale are composed of three levels of health and five levels of disease. Since health and disease are mutually exclusive opposites, a person cannot be ill and healthy at the same time. As stated in the American Medical Association's definition of health, at its simplest, health is the absence of physical and mental disease.
The three levels of health include perfect health, optimal health, and excellent health:
Three Levels of Health:
- 100: Perfect Health (flawless disease resistance)
- 98 - 99: Optimal Health (optimal disease resistance)
- 90 - 97: Excellent Health (excellent disease resistance)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
The highest level, perfect health, is a theoretical ideal rather than a realistic goal for most people. People who speak of being in perfect health are usually incorrect for two reasons:
Therefore, 98 on the health status scale, Optimal Health (optimal disease resistance), is a more realistic goal for people seeking to attain the best of health.
Excellent Health (excellent disease resistance) is the minimum requirement for the absence of disease. The difference between optimal health and excellent health is the degree of resistance to disease. In either case, while a person is ill, health is neither optimal nor excellent; the person's health status would be at at some level of disease.
Although people commonly speak of good health or fair health, these levels of impaired health are levels of disease. The corresponding level of disease is shown below within parentheses. In total, five levels of disease appear on the health status scale, as follows:
Five Levels of Disease:
- 80 - 89: Good Health (occult disease or disease precursor)
- 70 - 79: Fair Health (chronic disease)
- 60 - 69: Poor Health (serious chronic disease)
- 50 - 59: Failing Health (serious progressive disease)
- 40 - 49: Expiring Health (terminal disease)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
The levels of the health status scale naturally divide into two parts, three levels of health and five levels of disease. However, good health (occult disease or disease precursor) holds a unique position. Although good health is the first of five levels of disease, it is distinct from the other four levels, all of which describe overt disease. In fact, good health holds a pivotal position as a transitional state between health and overt disease. For this reason, good health by itself represents the middle division of the health status scale.
Therefore, the three divisions of the health status scale are the health division, occult disease division, and overt disease division. As indicated by their names, the levels of health within each division has one key characteristic in common: health, occult disease, or overt disease.
The term, health, refers to any one of the three levels of health within the health division of the health status scale, which is defined as follows:
Health Division: the division of the health status scale ranging from 90 through 100. This division includes the following three levels of health:
- 100: Perfect Health (flawless disease resistance)
- 98 - 99: Optimal Health (optimal disease resistance)
- 90 - 97: Excellent Health (excellent disease resistance)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
The term, disease, refers to any one of the five levels of disease within the lower two divisions of the health status scale, the occult disease division and the overt disease division, which are defined as follows:
Occult Disease or Disease Precursor Division: the division of the health status scale ranging from 80 to 89. This division is a transitional state of disorder in which underlying problems are not apparent. This division includes only one level of occult (hidden) disease, positioned between the soundness of excellent health and the overt disease of fair health:
- 80 - 89: Good Health (occult disease or disease precursor)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
Overt Disease Division: the division of the health status scale ranging from 40 through 79. This division includes four levels of disorder in which disease is apparent:
- 70 - 79: Fair Health (chronic disease)
- 60 - 69: Poor Health (serious chronic disease)
- 50 - 59: Failing Health (serious progressive disease)
- 40 - 49: Expiring Health (terminal disease)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
The occult disease division has a single, pivotal position on the health status scale. Undetected but potentially serious disease can develop insidiously within the occult disease division, usually with few warning signs. On the other hand, undetected disease or disease precursors may resolve through attention to health's requirements. The term, occult disease, refers to this single level of the occult disease division and is defined as follows:
Occult Disease:
- a level of disease in which health impairments are not apparent. This pivotal, transitional state of disorder borders on both the soundness of excellent health and the overt disease of fair health.
- on the health status scale: the occult disease division, which ranges from 80 to 89 and is described as follows:
- 80 - 89: Good Health (occult disease or disease precursor)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
Likewise, overt disease refers to any of the bottom four levels of the health status scale, as follows:
Overt Disease:
- a level of disease in which health impairments are apparent.
- on the health status scale: the overt disease division, which ranges from 40 to 79 and includes four levels of disease described as follows:
- 70 - 79: Fair Health (chronic disease)
- 60 - 69: Poor Health (serious chronic disease)
- 50 - 59: Failing Health (serious progressive disease)
- 40 - 49: Expiring Health (terminal disease)
Tatarian's Glossary of Life Science Terms and Concepts, 98health.com
Eight levels of health are described on the