Health Behavior

Leading Cause of Death

(WHO, 2013)
 Study of Health Behavior

2 Asummsions:
1. Leading cause of death is due to particular
behavior patterns
2. These behavior patterns are modifiable
What is health behavior?
 Health

“a complete state of physical, mental, and

social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity”

(WHO, 1948)
Biopsychological Model of
Health
 Health behavior

Kasl and Cobb (1966) defined three

types of health-related behaviours:
• a health behaviour was a behaviour aimed
to prevent disease (e.g. eating a healthy
diet)
• an illness behaviour was a behaviour aimed
to seek remedy (e.g. going to the doctor)
• a sick role behaviour was any activity
aimed to get well (e.g. taking prescribed
medication,resting).
 Role of behavioral factors in
disease and disorder
successful modification of health behaviors
can:
 reduce deaths due to lifestyle related illness
 delay time of death, increasing longevity
 expand years of life free from chronic disease
complications
 Determinants of Health
Behavior
1. Social Factor
a. Demographic variable
Health habits (smoking, exercise, weight, alcohol
and sleep) were practiced by younger, more
affluent (wealthy), better-educated and have
available social support (married and attending
church; Gottlieb & Green, 1984)
 Determinants of Health
Behavior
b. Socialization
health habits are stongly affected by early
socialization, especially parents as a role models
(Lau, Quadrel & Hartman, 1990)
c. Value
Health habits associates with values of a
particular culture or socio economic status
(Green, 1970; Langlie, 1977)
d. Peer influence
Peer pressure is highly significant to the
development of development of smoking in
adolescence
 Determinants of Health
Behavior
2. Emotional Factors
good health behaviors were practice by
people with good sound of psychological well
being (Mechanic & Clery, 1980)
3. Perceived symtomps
4. Access to health care system
5. Personality Factors
 Determinants of Health
Behavior
6. Cognitive factors
The reduction of smoking behavior over past
20 years in the western world largely
attributed to growing awareness of serious
health risk caused by tobacco (Conner &
Norman, 2003)
 Barriers to modifying poor
health behaviors
 not knowing when to intervene to
change health habits
 instability of health habits
 health behaviors are elicited and
maintained by different factors for
different people
Predicting health behavior?
Predicting health behavior may…

 Develop our understanding of the

variation in the distribution of health
across society
 Indicate the targets for interventions
designed to change health behavior
 Social Cognition Models
Assumption:
 Social behavior is best understood as a
function of person perception of reality,
rather than as a function of an objective
description of the stimulus environment.
Health Belief Model
 Health Locus of Control

 Internal HLC
 External HLC
• Powerful others
• Chance
Protection Motication Theory
Theory of Planned Behavior
 References

 Conner, M and Norman, P. (2003).

Predictiong Health Behaviour, Research
and Practice with Social Cognition Model.
Buckingham: Open Univeristy Press
 Ogden, J. Health Psychology. A text Book.
4th ed. (2007).Berkshire:Open University
Press
 Taylor, S. E., (1999), Health Psychology
(5th edition). New York: McGraw-Hill
Higher Education.