The beginning of the 20th century featured an understanding of health that was dominated by a biomedical perspective, characterized by a reductionist point of view in which health was defined as the absence of illness. This view has long been replaced by a biopsychosocial model that emphasizes the role played by socio-cultural forces in the shaping of health (and illness) and related psychological experiences ( Engel , 1977). In 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or...