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Health has become a value in itself: People associate their preservation with a sense of achievement and do not value it only when it is lacking. Since the 1990s, research into this topic has identified three types of health. What is behind these typologies and what are the long-term consequences for healthcare and the pharmaceutical sector?

Health in a change of values

“To live by health is to live miserably” – this saying, handed down from the Middle Ages, still seems to stand for a widespread attitude toward health. But for how much longer? Increasing prosperity, social advancement and the demands of a meritocracy have given health a new status. It is no longer valued only when it is lacking. A pattern that is valid at least for Central Europe shows that the relationship to health can be divided into three groups:

• The health nihilists

According to numerous studies conducted since the 1990s, they include about one-third of the adult population, which tends to be younger and male. They behave in a way that is detrimental to their health and have an above-average number of smokers. They have poor eating habits and do little sport.

• The health interventionists

They behave rationally and consciously; they consume many vitamins and freely available pharmaceutical products. Often, in rather poor health, they try to correct the consequences of previous excesses. This type affects only one in about seven mostly older mostly female adults.

• The health practitioners

They make up about half of the population and naturally behave healthily. They do not smoke, eat sensibly and do sports. They also exercise restraint in taking vitamins and pharmaceuticals that can be purchased without a prescription.

What does the future hold?

Obviously, health provides a sense of achievement that creates the incentive to nurture it as a value in itself. We may therefore assume that health practitioners will gain in importance and thus contribute to collective fitness for the future.

What does this mean for medical research and healthcare?

The focus on research and development in favor of diseases that cannot be overcome by healthy lifestyles alone continues to increase. In contrast, the continued social ostracism of health-damaging habits is likely to ultimately prove at least as powerful a sanction as the reluctance of insurance companies to pay for the consequences. It seems plausible to expect that the “classic” target groups for self-medication will tend to lose importance. Therefore, the pharmaceutical sector will have to find new solutions for dealing with the healthy customer segments that go beyond promotion.