Health and healthy behaviors

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The role of behavior in health

• What is health behavior?

• Is there a relationship between health and human behaviors ?

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What is health behavior?

• Health behaviors were defined by Matarazzo (1984) in terms of either:

• Health-impairing habits, which he called ‘behavioral pathogens’ that
have a negative effect such as smoking, eating foods high in fat, drinking
large amounts of alcohol.
• Health protective behaviors, which he defined as ‘behavioral
immunogens’ behaviors that may have a positive effect such as tooth
brushing, wearing seat belts, seeking health information, having
regular checkups, sleeping an adequate number of hours per night.
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Con`t
• There is a correlation between an individual behavior( both negative or
positive) and health.

• Smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, gaps in primary care services and low
screening uptake are all significant determinants of poor health, and
changing such behaviors should lead to improved health.

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Con`t
• Health behavior is an action to maintain, attain, or regain good health and
to prevent illness.

• For example: increased physical activity, changes in nutrition and

reductions in tobacco, alcohol and drug use as important for health
promotion and disease prevention.

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 Health and Substance
• Substance use: is taking certain substance.

• Substances" can include alcohol and other drugs (illegal or not, Marijuana,
Cocaine, Heroin).

• Drugs are chemical substances that can change how your body and mind
work. They include prescription medicines, alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.

• Drug abuse is normally applied to excessive and addictive use of drugs.

• Because such drugs can have severe physiological and psychological, as well
as social effects.
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Con`t

• Substance abuse also known as drug abuse, A pattern of repeated drug or

alcohol use that often interferes with health, work or social relationships.

• which are harmful to themselves or others.

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 Smoking

• Smoking is the health behavior most closely linked with long-term negative

health outcomes .

• Tobacco smoke is incredibly harmful to health.

• There’s no safe way to smoke.

• Cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients, many of these chemicals are

poisonous and at least 69 of them are linked to cancer.

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Con`t
• Smoking has also been linked to a number of cancers, including cancer of the
lung, throat, stomach and bowel as well as a number of more immediate
negative health effects such as reduced lung capacity and bronchitis.

• Worldwide data show that in developed countries about 35 per cent of men
and 22 per cent of women smoke

• whereas in developing countries about 50 per cent of men and 9 per cent of
women smoke.

• Morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) are increased
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Smoking affects

• Smoking damages your entire cardiovascular system.

• Smoking also raises blood pressure, Risks include stroke, heart attack,

and heart disease.

• smoking involve skin changes.

• increases hair loss, balding, and graying.

• cancer of the lung,

• lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis 

• type 2 diabetes
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Diet or eating behaviors
• Our Eating behaviors' is a learned behavior beginning in infancy.

• We make many choices about food consumption every day of our life

• What

• When

• How much

• How we will eat

• These choice affect our health

• We basically eat to meet our biological need, but there are multitude of additional choices
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behavior involved in eating. HEALH AND BEHAVIOR 11
Con`t
• In Western industrialized countries excessive fat consumption and
insufficient fruit and vegetable consumption are related to health problems.

• In addition, excess consumption of calories combined with insufficient

exercise has made obesity a major health problem.

• Diet has been implicated in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), strokes and

high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and dental disease.

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 Tips for healthy diets

• Eat fruit and vegetables every day

• Reduce fatty food

• Drink lots of water

• Never skip breakfast

• Limit your intake of stimulants

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Obesity
• Obesity is a condition that is associated with having an excess of body fat or weight.

• Obesity is classified as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater.

• Body Mass Index is a simple calculation using a person's height and weight.

• The formula is BMI = kg/m2

• The BMI result interpretation

• Normal weight: BMI of 18.5 to 24.9
• Overweight: BMI of 25 to 29.9
• Obesity: BMI of 30 or higher
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Risks Associated with Obesity
• High blood pressure • respiratory problems

• High cholesterol • Some cancers (breast, and colon)

• Diabetes

• Heart disease

• Stroke

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Physical activity
• Physical activity refers to all movement include walking, cycling, wheeling,
sports, active recreation and play etc.

• Regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and manage non

communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and several
cancers.

• It also helps prevent hypertension, maintain healthy body weight and can
improve mental health, quality of life and well-being

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Sexual Behaviors and health

• Sexual behaviors are considered health behaviors because of their impact upon

the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as gonorrhea and

syphilis.

• the role of sexual behaviors in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus

(HIV) has been a focus of attention.

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Solution
• reduce the number of sexual partners

• avoid particular sexual practices (e.g., anal sex, penetrative sex),

• the use of condoms during penetrative sex to reduce the risk of HIV
transmission Etc.

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 Alcohol Use
• Moderate alcohol consumption has been linked to positive health outcomes.

• However, high alcohol consumption has been linked to a range of negative health
outcomes including Brain damage ,Cancers, Dementia, Liver disease, high blood
pressure, heart disease Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety,
Osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) and Stroke

• High levels of alcohol consumption have also been associated with accidents, injuries,
suicides, crime, domestic violence, rape, murder and unsafe sex (British Medical
Journal 1982).

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