What is the WHO's 2009 Definition of Self-Care?

Self-care is the capacity of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent diseases, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health care provider. It is a process of taking care of oneself through behaviors that promote health and actively managing illness when it occurs. People engage in self-care on a daily basis through food choices, exercise, sleep, and dental care. This concept has ancient origins, with Socrates credited as the founder of the self-care movement in ancient Greece.

Self-care remains a primary form of health care around the world. The definition of self-care should be brief to influence health care policy by focusing attention on behaviors that can benefit public health. Around the same time that Foucault developed his notion of self-care, it was seen as a revolutionary act in the context of social trauma in black feminist thinking in the United States. The most popular definitions currently in use show broad agreement on the scope and purpose of personal care and place adequate emphasis on disease prevention. The World Health Organization (WHO) is not the only body that expresses an explicit statement of what personal care means. It recognizes that regardless of factors and processes that may determine behavior, and regardless of whether personal care is effective and interacts appropriately with professional care, it is the individual person who acts (or does not act) to preserve health or respond to symptoms.

Smoking status) and the derivation of significant measures for each behavior, it is possible to arrive at a personal care index or score. The WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research conducted a comprehensive review of the definitions of personal care available in WHO tools and guidelines. It is possible to design an evidence-based instrument to measure the degree to which a person participates in the panoply of personal care activities that will influence health. Attending health care appointments, taking medications as prescribed, and managing your health are all part of good physical self-care. The definitions of self-care in healthy people reflect the times when they were written and may need to evolve to remain relevant to changing health priorities. Many definitions emphasize that self-care does not replace the health system but rather complements it, highlighting the co-production of care.