Rethinking interdisciplinarity: Proposing a multilayered model

Salutogenic Environmental Health Model-proposing an integrative and interdisciplinary lens on the genesis of health

Introduction

The maintenance of health is a central objective of public health initiatives. Within the salutogenic paradigm, health promotion is focused on understanding the mechanisms of health development. Models serve as indispensable tools. One of the leading paradigms in the health sciences is the Salutogenic Model developed by Aaron Antonovsky. However, it lacks sufficient specification to reflect the complexity of the environmental dimensions that have emerged from research in environmental health science. The interactions and impact pathways between these dimensions on health status are not adequately distinguished. The objective of this study is to address this gap by extending Antonovsky's model to encompass environmental dimensions, that is, the interactions between humans and their environment. Furthermore, the study will integrate examples of models and theories from various disciplines to illustrate how a more comprehensive and holistic explanation of health development can be provided from an interdisciplinary environmental public health perspective.

Methodology

As part of a three-step approach, a Basic Model was first developed that integrates the five environmental dimensions-Natural, Built-Material, Socio-Cultural, Psycho-Social, and Individual-into the Salutogenic Model. Subsequently, narrative non-exhaustive literature research was used to identify interdisciplinary example models. The models were used to identify gaps in the Basic Model through a critical lens and to synthesize them into a more holistic model.

Results

The synthesis of fifteen interdisciplinary models resulted in the development of an integrative Salutogenic Environmental Health Model (SEHM), which comprises twelve principal components of health development and their interactions and pathways. Links to the original models permit the user to refer back to them.

Discussion

This integrative approach offers a comprehensive understanding of the development of health by synthesizing disparate explanatory models and theories from various disciplines through theoretical analysis. The various environmental dimensions and the determinants of health contained therein, as well as their mental and physical processing and the associated components of health development and their interactions, are summarized in this new model. The SEHM thus enables a differentiated analysis of health determinants and serves as an operational framework for health promotion and pathways to well-being in contemporary research contexts.

Operationalization of the concepts of interdisciplinarity: An implication elicitation exercises based on the framework synthesis methodology

BACKGROUND

Over the last few centuries, the overspecialization of various sciences under the pretext of benefiting from pure disciplinary knowledge led to alienation among and competition between different fields of science. Such competition has deviated knowledge from its main objective which is to understand and explain the phenomena. The remedy to this dilemma is to address a new approach, introduced to higher education in the late 1950s as "interdisciplinarity." Accordingly, the main purpose of this article is to propose the strategic instances of operationalizing interdisciplinarity as the key requirements to provide a guideline for designing interdisciplinarity activities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present survey was carried out through the framework synthesis method. To codify the instances of operationalizing interdisciplinarity, the main elements and structures of the model were set as the basis of the query for each element and structure; an independent query was carried out in the literature of the study. The correspondence of the discovered instances was once more compared with the conceptual boxes of the primary theoretical model. Ultimately, the taxonomy was concluded through the operational instances based on the primary framework.

RESULTS

A total of 152 strategies were identified as implications of operationalization of 13 layers and 38 sublayers of the multilayer interdisciplinary model.

CONCLUSION

The development of interdisciplinarity in the national higher education system requires several measures to be taken at different levels of a discipline or scientific field of study. Relying on this, which is the main basis of entering into interdisciplinarity activities, the present study suggests and presents strategic instances of interdisciplinarity operationalization.