English abstract
DESPITE THE FACT THAT WE ARE IN THE AGE of globalisation, it is apparent that health, distress, illness and disability are still influenced and shaped by local and socio-cultural forces. This is not a new idea as it owes its origin to the father of medicine, Hippocrates, and it is borne out by a myriad of empirical research studies in more recent years. Despite this, one of the lingering fallacies of modern health care is a blind adherence to the biomedical model which myopically assumes that the repertoires of human behaviour and its counterpart, ill-health, have a direct and simple association with the functions or dysfunctions of our body. Heralding a new perspective from the Arab part of the world, such prevailing dogma is about to be dented with this volume focusing on healthcare for the Arab population. The volume extrapolates from available literature to shed light on the importance of psychosocial variables in the matrix of health care and diseases.
