2011 Volume 19 Issue 4 Pages 342-348
Objective: Well-being is a key concept of the WHO's definition of health, however, its meaning has not been well documented yet. Through group work conducted at the 20th meeting of the Japanese Society of Health Promotion and Education in 2011, we tried to verbalize and visualize well-being.
Methods: One hundred participants were divided into 13 groups. Each group consisted of one facilitator and 7 or 9 participants. First, the purpose and method were explained to the group. Then, each member wrote an image of well-being on a card. This procedure was repeated until their ideas had run out. The cards were categorized into groups by meaning and placed on a tree trunk and branches drawn on large sized paper. Each categorized group had a heading. As a result, thirteen well-being trees blossomed and produced a lot of fruit. We analyzed the headings qualitatively.
Results: The headings were divided into the following 5 factors; 1) body and health, 2) current living and social support, 3) margin for living, 4) family ties and friendships, 5) things needed to live.
Seven groups included all 5 factors. Six groups included 4 factors. Twelve groups included both factors of 1) body and health , and 2) current living and social support. Finally, 5) things needed to live was of great importance in all the groups.
Conclusion: People think more vividly and actively about well-being than what was previously evaluated quantitatively.
