Chapter 1 - Accessing Your Health
What are the 4 "overarching goals" of Healthy People 2020, and what lifestyle behaviors are listed as leading health indicators and priority issues?
1. Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable diseases. 2. Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve health of all groups. 3. Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all. 4. Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all stages of life.
What are the top 5 modifiable risk factors that most strongly affect optimal wellness OR chronic disease among Americans?
1. Diet 2. Smoking 3. Physical Activity 4. Body Weight 5. Alcohol Consumption
List the dimensions of wellness listed in your text. List several qualities or behaviors associated with each dimension.
1. Physical Health: body shape & size, how responsive & acute senses are, ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs)/skills needed to function normally in society, and body's ability to function at optimum levels w/adequate sleep & rest, nutrition, and physical activity. 2. Social Health: ability to have a broad social network and maintain satisfying interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and partners, and adapting to various social situations. 3. Intellectual Health: ability to think clearly, reason objectively, analyze critically, and use brainpower effectively to meet life's challenges. 4. Emotional Health: self esteem, self confidence, trust, love, being able to express emotions when appropriate, and to control them when not, and the ability to identify and manage emotional responses in positive ways. 5. Spiritual Health: creating and expressing meaning & purpose in your life, religion, and the capacities to contemplate life's experiences and to care about & respect all living things. 6. Environmental Health: understanding how the health of the environments in which you live, work and play can positively/negatively affect you, protecting yourself from environmental hazards, working to preserve, protect, and improve environmental conditions. 7. Occupational Health
Be able to define/describe the 6 stages of the Stages of Change (or Transtheoretical) Model.
1. Precontemplation 2. Contemplation 3. Preparation 4. Action 5. Maintenance 6. Termination
According to the Health Belief Model, what 5 factors are involved in behavior change?
1. The health problem is perceived to be serious. 2. The individual perceives that the health problem poses a threat. 3. Perceived benefits. 4. Perceived barriers can be overcome. 5. There are cues to action.
Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL)
A concept that goes beyond mortality rates and life expectancy and focuses on the impact health status has on physical, mental, emotional, and social function.
Infectious Disease
A disease caused by a microscopic organism/pathogen. Ex: tuberculosis, pneumonia, and influenza
Chronic Disease
A disease that typically begins slowly, progresses, and persists, w/ a variety of signs and symptoms that can be treated but not cured by medication. Ex: heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, cancer, and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
Lifestyle Choices
A personal and conscious decision to perform a behavior that may increase or decrease the risk of injury or disease.
Relapse
A return to a previous pattern of negative behavior after a period of time successfully avoiding that behavior.
What population groups are prone to becoming victims of health disparity, and for what reasons?
African Americans are prone to becoming victims of health disparity because they have the highest health/disease problems (cancer, hypertension, etc.), have the lowest educational attainment, and one of the lowest incomes of all the racial groups.
What are the top 5 causes of death (in order) for ALL ages and the top 4 for the college-age group?
All Ages: 1. Diseases of the heart 2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 4. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 5. Accidents (unintentional injuries) College-Age: 1. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 2. Suicide 3. Assault (homicide) 4. Malignant neoplasms (cancer)
Control the situation/ situational inducement
Attempt to influence a behavior through situations and occasions that are structured to exert control over that behavior.
How have the concepts of health & wellness changed over the past 70+ years?
Before the 20th century, perception of health was dominated by the medical model. In the early 1900s, researchers began recognizing that environmental factors also affected health and began focus on an ecological or public health model. In 1968, Rene Dubos proposed a broader definition of health and defined it as "a quality of life, involving social, emotional, mental, spiritual, and biological fitness on the part of the individual, which results from adaptations to the environment." The concept of wellness enlarged Dubos's definition of health by recognizing levels/gradations of health. Today, health and wellness are used interchangeably to mean the dynamic ever-changing process of trying to achieve one's potential in each of six interrelated dimensions.
Target Behavior
Behavior(s) that you would like to target/focus on and change.
What are some of the factors ("determinants of health") that influence wellness for both individuals and groups? List several of the most important achievements in U.S. public health in the past 100 years.
Biology and genetics Individual behavior Social factors -Living conditions -Economic factors -The built environment -Pollutants and infectious agents Access to quality health services Policymaking Health Disparities Important achievements: Vaccinations, motor vehicle safety, safer workplaces, control of infectious diseases, safer and healthier foods, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, fluoridation of drinking water, recognition of tobacco as a health hazard, reduced death from heart attack and stroke.
Describe some strategies for increasing motivation for behavior change.
Enlist others as change agents (family members, friends, professionals) Sign a contract Use shaping Anticipate barriers to change
We will be discussing the concept of health literacy in class. Be aware of the skills that this includes.
Health literacy is the ability to read/understand and act on medical info and to navigate the healthcare system. You have to be able to understand and critically evaluate medical research studies and current health concerns.
Health departments typically offer two types of programs; health promotion and disease prevention. What specific types of activities might be offered for each type?
Health promotion: policies/programs to support behaviors known to promote good health, maternal/infant care, and family planning. Disease prevention: vaccinations, motor vehicle safety (airbags), and workplace safety (new laws).
What other factors can contribute to inequalities in health outcomes in our country?
Individual behavior, biology and genetics, health services, policymaking, and social factors.
Life Expectancy vs Healthy Life Expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age, such as birth. Healthy life expectancy is the number of years remaining at a given age without disability, chronic pain, or significant illness.
What is meant by the term locus of control, and which is considered more desirable for optimal health - internal or external locus of control?
Locus of control is the location, external (outside oneself) or internal (within oneself), that an individual perceives as the source and underlying cause of events in his/her life. Internal locus of control is more desirable because they are driven by their own thoughts and believe they have power over their own actions.
Explain the difference between the medical model of health and the ecological/public health model.
Medical model: focused primarily on the individual & a biological/diseased-organ perspective. Ecological/public health model: diseases & other negative health events are seen as a result of an individual's interaction with his/her social & physical environment.
What are some typical barriers that discourage individuals from attempting (or achieving) a behavior change?
Overambitious goals Self-defeating beliefs and attitudes Failure to accurately assess your current state of wellness Lack of support and guidance Emotions that sabotage your efforts and sap your will
Imagined rehearsal / visual imagery
Practicing, through mental imagery, to become better able to perform an event in actuality.
Positive reinforcement
Presenting something positive following a behavior that is being reinforced.
Risk Factors/Risk Behaviors
Risk behaviors are actions that increase susceptibility to negative health outcomes.
What are S.M.A.R.T. goals?
S = Specific M = Measurable A = Action Based R = Realistic T = Timely
What is self-efficacy, and why is it important in motivating individuals toward behavior change?
Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to perform a task successfully. It's important in motivating individuals toward behavior change because with higher self-efficacy, individuals approach challenges confident they can succeed. Which leads to them being more motivated to change and more likely to succeed.
How is shaping utilized in planning for behavior change?
Shaping is utilized in planning for behavior change by slowly transitioning you into your targeted behavior change. Shaping is the act of using a series of small steps to gradually achieve a particular goal.
Countering
Substituting a desired behavior for an undesirable one.
What are some examples of health-related public policies or organizations?
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Which behavior change model stresses the importance of role models and social factors in effecting behavior change?
The Social Cognitive Model.
Wellness
The achievement of the highest level of health possible in each of several dimensions.
Self-talk
The customary manner of thinking and talking to yourself, which can affect your self-image.
Health
The ever-changing process of achieving individual potential in the physical, social emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and environmental dimensions.
What is the main difference in type of leading causes of death in the U.S. from 1900 to now?
The main difference is that in the past, the leading causes of death were infectious diseases since we hadn't developed vaccines and antibiotics then. However now that we have, our leading causes of death are chronic diseases because they currently can't be cured with today's technology and medication. Only the signs and symptoms can be treated.
Mortality
The proportion of deaths to population.
Morbidity
The relative incidence of disease among a population.
What factors should you consider when critically evaluating health-related information on the Internet?
Who created the message? (Are they selling you something?) What techniques are used to catch your attention or sway your viewpoint? What values, lifestyles, or points of view are represented in the message? Is the information current? When was it last updated? What supportive evidence is cited? What do other sources say about the topic?
Journaling
Writing personal experiences, interpretations, and results in a journal, notebook, or blog. You can log your daily activities, monitor your progress, record how you feel about it, and note ideas for improvement.
