How does talk relate to the idea of "illness"?

What is it about?

This encyclopedia entry discusses the relationship between disease and illness as it relates to communication. Many people are unfamiliar with the distinction between disease and illness. Whereas disease refers to the objective classifiable and identifiable biological dysfunction in an organism, illness is the subjective experience of being unwell. Differentiating disease and illness has important consequences for communication in general and health communication in particular. This entry characterizes the literature on disease and illness and explains how communication has used these two ideas to better understand how people and their clinicians identify, manage, and live with various types of unwell.

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Why is it important?

Differentiating disease from illness is important because people and their clinicians can easily confuse the objective science (e.g., disease) with the subjective experience (e.g., illness), which can confuse diagnosis, treatment goals, and even the experience of being a person with a disease or with an illness. Helping to separate these two ideas can help people better communicate about the objective facts of disease and the subjective experience of illness in personal, professional, and social lives.