Menatti, Laura (2025) Medicine, healthcare and the environment: from the salutogenic approach towards the salutogenic environments. (final version, accepted with minor revisions). [Preprint]

Text paperstudiesfinalversion.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

Research in medicine is increasingly calling for considering the importance of the
environment and the effects of climate change. In this paper, I propose how the ecological
dimension of health in current medicine can be understood and enhanced through the
salutogenic approach, first introduced by Aaron Antonovsky (1979; 1987; 1996). I discuss this
approach, and I reframe it to analyse the health-environment coupling and the contemporary
healthcare scenario by introducing the concept of salutogenic environments. The aims of
introducing the notion of salutogenic environments to study the relationship between
environment and health are: 1) underlining the positive and preventive aspects of the
environment as related to health, and 2) clarifying the opposition between the pathogenic and
salutogenic aspects of the environment. After a historical and theoretical introduction to the
concept of salutogenesis and to the specular concept of pathogenesis, I analyse the role of
salutogenic environments, by focusing on their implications from the epistemological and
practical perspectives for medical theory and healthcare. The salutogenic environments provide
a comprehensive framework that goes beyond disease prevention to understand how
environments may foster health and well-being. Integrating this concept into medical education
and practice can provide healthcare professionals with a more nuanced understanding of
environmental impacts on patients’ health. Yet, scientific rigour should be applied to this field
to ensure credibility and applicability.
Keywords
Medicine, salutogenesis, pathogenesis, environments, salutogenic environments,
health, climate change, philosophy, science.
Highlights
Research in contemporary medicine is increasingly calling for coping with the effects
of climate change and, more generally, for developing both conceptual and practical tools to
face the current health and environmental crisis.
This paper answers this call by analysing the concepts of salutogenesis and salutogenic
environments and by proposing them as promising conceptual tools to face the current crises.
The paper takes inspiration from Aaron Antonovsky’s theory, but it widens and deepens the
salutogenic approach to include the environment-health relationship in order to understand the
current health scenario.
The paper discusses the potential application of the salutogenic environments to current
medical theory and healthcare practice and considers how they can contribute to medical
science and healthcare from the epistemological and practical point of view.
In doing so, it provides insights both for philosophy of science, medical theory and
medical education.
Declaration of interest: none
Funding: none
manuscript with accepted changes Click here to view linked References
Title
the salutogenic environments.
Medicine, healthcare and the environment: from the salutogenic approach towards
Abstract
Research in medicine is increasingly calling for considering the importance of the
environment and the effects of climate change. In this paper, I propose how the ecological
dimension of health in current medicine can be understood and enhanced through the
salutogenic approach, first introduced by Aaron Antonovsky (1979; 1987; 1996). I
discuss this approach, and I reframe it to analyse the health-environment coupling and
the contemporary healthcare scenario by introducing the concept of salutogenic
environments. The aims of introducing the notion of salutogenic environments to study
the relationship between environment and health are: 1) underlining the positive and
preventive aspects of the environment as related to health, and 2) clarifying the opposition
between the pathogenic and salutogenic aspects of the environment. After a historical and
theoretical introduction to the concept of salutogenesis and to the specular concept of
pathogenesis, I analyse the role of salutogenic environments, by focusing on their
implications from the epistemological and practical perspectives for medical theory and
healthcare. The salutogenic environments provide a comprehensive framework that goes
beyond disease prevention to understand how environments may foster health and well-
being. Integrating this concept into medical education and practice can provide healthcare
professionals with a more nuanced understanding of environmental impacts on patients' health. Yet, scientific rigour should be applied to this field to ensure credibility and
applicability.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Menatti, Laura laura.menatti@gmail.com 0000-0002-3929-6000
Additional Information:	Last version - accepted with minor revisions in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science | Journal
Keywords:	salutogenesis, salutogenic environments, health, philosophy, medicine, environment
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Science and Policy
Depositing User:	Dr. Laura Menatti
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2025 18:33
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2025 18:33
Item ID:	27453
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Science and Policy
Date:	12 December 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27453

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item