TY - JOUR ID - 699933 TI - A mini review of disease, illness, sickness, and related terms for non-epidemiologists JO - International Journal of Epidemiology and Health Sciences JA - IJEHS LA - en SN - AU - El-Gilany, Abdel-Hady AD - Mansoura University Y1 - 2023 PY - 2023 VL - 4 IS - Continuous SP - EP - KW - disease KW - Illness KW - Sickness KW - Syndrome KW - Morbidity DO - 10.51757/IJEHS.4.2023.699933 N2 - Background: Disease, illness, and sickness are all overlapping terms that are not entirely synonymous. Illness, disease, and sickness all characterize different aspects of morbidity and must be treated as distinct entities. Changes in one aspect may have no bearing on changes in another. Despite their widespread use, these terms are used incorrectly and ambiguously, leading to confusion in the representation of medical knowledge. Medical personnel and epidemiologists misuse these terms, and there is little literature on the subject.Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were used to conduct a literature search. The search terms "definition," "disease," "illness," "sickness," "morbidity," "syndrome," "disorder," "predisease," and "co-morbidity" were used in various combinations. A manual search was conducted in public health, community medicine, and epidemiology textbooks. The review included the most recent and relevant literature.Results: This mini review summarizes the definition, limitations, overlap, and differences between disease, illness, and sickness, as well as other related terms.Conclusion: A measurable operational definition of disease, illness, sickness, and other related terms that is appropriate for epidemiologists and clinicians and applicable in both hospital and community settings is required.and community settings. UR - https://www.ijehs.com/article_699933.html L1 - https://www.ijehs.com/article_699933_475817b12595111bbf17a12a971e761d.pdf ER -