Pro-Vice-Chancellor (China), Professor Wei Wang.
A new book addressing suboptimal health has been published to help tackle the global spread of public-health challenges.
Professor Wei Wang, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (China) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) coined the research term "suboptimal health status" which has been recognised internationally and archived by World Health Organisation (WHO). The term describes a level of health that remains elusive, effecting an increasing number of people worldwide who report a general malaise but lack a precise diagnosable disorder.
Along with his team at ECU, Professor Wang describes suboptimal health as "a physical state between health and disease".
Those who find themselves in that state generally report ambiguous health complaints as well as general weakness and periods of low energy.
Innovative framework
Professor Wang's new book All About Suboptimal Health demonstrates advanced strategies in biomedical sciences and healthcare focused on suboptimal health conditions.
"The new volume of research uses an innovative framework of Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (3PM/PPPM)," Professor Wang said.
"This framework is emerging as the focal point of efforts in healthcare aimed at curbing the prevalence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer and dental pathologies."
Changes to preventative healthcare
Suboptimal health is also described as a reversible stage of a chronic disease, which is a crucial distinction in how physicians can approach any number of health conditions.
What we need to see in healthcare is to promote a change from delayed intervention to predictive medicine tailored to the person, from reactive to preventive medicine and from disease to wellness," Professor Wang said.
With a goal of bringing precision to preventive healthcare, Professor Wang has also developed a tool, Suboptimal Health Questionnaire-25 (SHSQ-25), to measure suboptimal health.
The tool delves into assessing fatigue, the cardiovascular system, digestive system, immune system, and mental health status.
The SHSQ-25 has been validated in three major ethnic groups, African, Asian and Caucasians, and translated into multiple languages including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Persian, Portuguese Japanese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Slovak and Thai.
Find out more about suboptimal health research at ECU and Professor Wang's new book All About Suboptimal Health.
