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Byline: Hugh M. Pitcher (1), Kristie L. Ebi (2), Antoinette L. Brenkert (1) Abstract: In this paper we present the initial results from a project to develop a population health model so we can extend the scenarios included in the IPCC's Special Report on Emission Scenarios to include population health status. Our initial hypothesis was that some climatic variable, particularly temperature, would have a significant impact on health outcomes. After experiments -- using the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data on Years of Life Lost (YLL) and Years Lived with disability (YLD) both by WHO region and by five degree latitude band as outcome variables -- failed, we settled on life expectancy (LE) as the best measure of health status. We discovered that there is a solid relationship between LE and the GBD data from our first experiments, allowing us to extend the results from the LE model. The LE model used cross section data on LE for 91 countries and included temperature, per capita income, access to clean water and sanitation, literacy, simple medical attention, nutrition, per capita medical expenditure, electricity use per capita, and automobiles per capita as independent variables. While all were individually associated with LE, our model of choice included literacy, access to clean water and sanitation, simple medical attention, an indictor variable for Sub-Saharan Africa and purchasing-power parity per capita income. Note that neither temperature nor calories enter into this model. The fit between life expectancy, as predicted by this model, and actual life expectancy was quite good (R .sup.2=0.90), except for Rwanda, Uganda, and Madagascar these countries accounted for one half of the unexplained variation in the model. The LE model was then used to develop trajectories of life expectancy in India for the four IPCC SRES storylines, where values for the independent variables were extrapolated based on the story line content. YLL and YLD estimates were created using the current cross relationship of these outcomes to LE. Given the lack of a general role for climate in our LE model, future work is planned to explore how to add detailed climate related impacts, to explore alternative nutritional variables, as well as extend the data set to allow a cross-section time-series approach. Author Affiliation: (1) Joint Global Change Research Institute, 8400 Baltimore Ave, Suite 201, College Park, MD, 20740, USA (2) ESS, LLC, 5249 Tancreti Lane, Alexandria, VA, 22304, USA Article History: Registration Date: 26/06/2007 Received Date: 28/03/2005 Accepted Date: 18/10/2006 Online Date: 06/09/2007

An analysis of health behavior of terminally ill individuals is offered. Additional information on changes in behavioral motivations of the terminally ill is included.

Teleonics is an approach to the study of living systems. The latter can be regarded as synergistic collections of processes through which the systems interact with their internal and external environments. Teleonics can serve as a framework for positioning issues of health into the wider context of the fabric of life. There are essentially three webs of processes that are of relevance for a discussion of healthcare, viz, the normal web of the living fabric (Biomatrix), the 'web of disease' (Pathomatrix) and the web of Healthcare. The latter interacts with the first two through the processes of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Disease Management. The end result of these interactions is an entirely new web of great complexity that incorporates the processes of all three webs intertwined with each other. This complexity presents a considerable challenge to all those involved in healthcare and can only be untangled with the aid of a process-based methodology, such as teleonics. KEYWORDS: Biomatrix, teleonics, health, disease, healthcare, health promotion

Author H. Oniki developed an approach to comparative dynamics in a previous study that has made it possible to analyze the influence of parametric changes on the entire optimal paths. A study applied Oniki's technique to health investment models developed in other studies by author V. Dardanoni and B.A. Forster. Oniki's method was exemplified in the analysis by deriving comparative dynamic results for a change in the depreciation rate, whose effects on the optimal paths were evaluated using a phase diagram.

The Coping with Health Injuries and Problems Scale (CHIP) was developed to identify four basic coping dimensions for responding to health problems including distraction, palliative, instrumental and emotional preoccupation coping. Data offered consistent and generalizable empirical support from different populations for the coping model assessed by the CHIP. The four CHIP coping dimensions were theoretically related to constructs that are considered important in general models of coping and health problems.

Differences in the functional abilities of Americans are examined using the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) survey. The empirical model of functional limitations is applied to examine the figures provided in the survey. Results reveal the existence of a strong contemporaneous and long-run feedbacks from health to economic status. In addition, the health behavior of past, present and future generations of relatives influence health outcomes in old age.

Four basic health principles are stressed in a multidimensional systems modelfor wellness. The model integrates theories of holistic health, multidimensional assessment and treatment and systems properties. Apart from these, however, culture, age and gender differences are also influencing factors that a counselor must consider in assessing and treating clients to help them move toward a high level of wellness., An expanded view of health is advocate for assessment and treatment of individual clients in helping them achieve and maintain their maximum potential for high-level wellness. In addition, moderating variables, such as culture, age, and gender differences, have an impact on every dimension of health and wellness. In this article a multidimensional systems model for wellness is described, and gender differences along those dimensions are reviewed. Application of the model and implications for counseling are discussed. Finally, two illustrative case examples, one man and one woman, are described.

Introduction While life expectancy has slowly but steadily increased over the years, both it and the mortality rate are not adequate indicators of the real health status of populations. For [...], Handicap is the result of a process of disablement whose origin is a pathological condition (disease). According to some definitions of health (e.g., a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being), the classical biomedical concept is too restrictive to cover all the consequences of disease. New models have been proposed: the impairment-disability-handicap model presented by WHO, the situational handicap model, and the quality-of-life model. A unifying schema of the disablement process includes these concepts and provides a useful way of analysing the consequences of disease. Factors that modify the disablement process can be identified by their respective impacts, and provide operational guidelines for public health interventions.