Who needs health care?: Preventive medicine deserves more respect

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7503.1331

BMJ 2005;330:1331 (4 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7503.1331

Letter

Who needs health care?

Preventive medicine deserves more respect

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—I agree with Heath that the waning of professionalpower among healthcare professionals has been wrongly perceivedto be in the interest of patients' autonomy, whereas increasingcorporate power has done more harm, albeit indirectly, to patients'autonomy.¹

I also agree about the relation between longevity and self reportedillness. Heath seems to attribute this to the supposition thatwhen society achieves good health, it has greater expectationsof health and consequently more fear and anxiety when healthseems threatened by real or perceived risks.

This observation is, however, not surprising if the responseof society to improving health is conceptualised in similarways to Maslow's description of the hierarchy of human needs.²Society can be considered an individual entity for the purposeof this concept. Accordingly, a society that is still grapplingwith ill health will not move on to expectations of higher needs,whereas a society . . . [Full text of this article]

Kelechi E Nnoaham, public health specialist registrar

Cherwell Vale Primary Care Trust, Oxford Road, Banbury OX16 9AL kcnnoaham@yahoo.com