Creating An "Attribute" Mechanic?

I am making a 2D, side-scrolling game. I want to attach a script to my player object. I want to create an array of "attributes" like sick, healthy, or strong for example. Each attribute would have a string name, an float ID and each would affect my player differently. Maybe if my player was sick, his speed and health went down. How can I do something like this? I've seen people mention creating classes or structs, but I have no experience using those.