Objective  To explore contemporary connotation of active health for providing a theoretical basis to the development of scientific, efficient, and standard management model of active health.

  Methods  Using active health, proactive health and protective health as preliminary key words, domestic and foreign literature and Web page contents relevant to the definition of active health were retrieved via searching databases of China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, VIP Data, and authoritative websites for the period from 2000 through 2022. A keyword matrix was established with co-term analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis was conducted with SPSS 25.0.

  Results  Totally 51 literatures and web page contents of 8 authoritative websites were finally included in the analysis. Multidimensional scaling analysis on dissimilar matrix of 36 screened-out key words resulted in a stress value of 0.23279 and a regression squared value of 0.71918; based on the key words, the connotation of active health could be elucidated in four dimensions: practice theory, participation subject, implementation approach, and health result.

  Conclusion  Current connotation of active health may implicate four dimensions of practice theory, participation subject, implementation approach, and health result. More studies are needed on active health theory-based medical model and practice.