Chapter Three

Health and Behaviour

Belay Ali (BSc, BA, GMPH)

belayebrahim@gmail.com

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 Learning Objectives
• Define behavior and related terms

• Identify factors affecting human behavior

• Discuss the determinant of health behavior

• Discuss why people resist to change behavior

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 Question
 What is behavior?
 What is healthy behavior?
 What is Unhealthy behavior?

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 Behavior

• Is an action that has a specific frequency, duration,

and purpose, whether conscious or unconscious.
• Human behavior is caused by genetic and
environmental factors.
• The various voluntary movements undertaken by
the body in response to motives and decision.
• Health education is an instrument to shape/modify
behavior.
• HE also helps to encourage and support healthy
behavior.
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 Health behaviour
Def. 1
• Any activity undertaken by an individual for
the purpose of promoting, protecting or
maintaining health, whether or not such
behavior is objectively effective towards that
end
Def. 2
• An action taken by a person to maintain,
attain, or regain good health and to prevent
illness
 Health behavior reflects a person's health
beliefs.
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 The study of health behaviour is based upon
two assumptions:
1.A substantial proportion of mortality and
morbidity is caused due to a particular pattern of
behaviour and these behaviour patterns are
modifiable.
2. It is recognized that individuals are the major
producers/contributors of their health

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 Research on health behaviour is based on two
main aims:
1.To gain more general understanding of the
reason why individuals perform a variety of
behaviours

2.To design interventions to improve such health

compromising behaviours

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 Types Of Health Behavior
1. Preventive Health Behavior
◦ action taken when a person wants to avoid
being ill or having a problem e.g. a mother
takes her child for immunization
2. Illness Behavior
◦ action taken when a person recognizes signs
or symptoms that suggest a pending illness
e.g. a mother gives her child cough medicine
after hearing her wheeze
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 Types Of Health Behavior…
3. Health-related behavior
– Those actions that a person does that may have
health implications, but are not undertaken with
a specific health objective in mind
4. Sick-role Behavior
◦ Action taken once an individual has been
diagnosed (either self or medical diagnosis) e.g.
an employee takes a vacation because he is ill,
he takes treatment and obeys his doctor’s
advice.
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• A number of studies have looked at the relationship
b/n the performance of a range of health behaviours
and a variety of health outcomes.

For example:
• A study conducted on six life styles i.e., avoid
smoking, moderate alcohol intake, sleeping seven to
eight hrs at night, regular exercising, eating breakfast
regularly, and maintaining a desirable body weight
Were together associated with lower morbidity and
long-term survival

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 Factors affecting human behavior
 The factors that might keep people health
1. Knowledge or cognition
• Knowledge often comes from experience/information
from teachers and parents, friends, books, medias
etc.
2. Beliefs
• A belief is a conviction that a phenomenon or object
is true or real
– Diarrhea may end up with death (helpful)
– Measles can not be prevented by immunization (harmful)

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 Beliefs….
• There are many traditional beliefs on
causation, cure and prevention of diseases
since the ancient times, which continue to be
perpetuated generation through generations

3.Values (preference)
• Every individual places or gives a relative
worth to everything around
• This worth or preference or judgement or
weight is known as value

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4. Attitudes (feelings)
• It is the degree to which the person has a
favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the
behavior in question .

• A tendency of mind or of relatively constant

feeling toward a certain category of objects,
persons and situations.

• Attitudes can be considered as a collection of

beliefs that always include an evaluative aspect.

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5.Skills
• Skills refer to a person’s ability to perform the
tasks that constitute a health related behavior

6.Culture
• Culture is the whole complex of knowledge,
attitude, norms, beliefs, values, habits,
customs, traditions and any other capabilities
and skills acquired by man as a member of
society

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7. Social Norms:
• The influence of social pressure that is
perceived by the individual (normative beliefs)
to perform or not perform a certain behavior.
• Is a type of social behaviour that is valued by
the society as appropriate and benefiting

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 8. Perceived Behavioral Control:
• The individual’s belief concerning how easy or
difficult performing the behavior will be

9. Significant others (people who are important

to us) greatly influence our behavior
E.g. parents, elders, friends, experienced people,
highly educated people, teachers, etc.

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10. Resources:
• Facilities, money, time, labor services, materials
and their distribution and their location affect
behavior

Eg availability and accessibility of family

planning services

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 Factors affecting behavior

1. Predisposing factors
• These factors provide the rationale or
motivation for the behavior
Eg- Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, confidence,
values
2. Enabling factors
• Antecedents to behavior that enable a
motivation to be realized
- Availability / accessibility of health resources
- Community or government laws, priority and
commitment to health
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3 - Reinforcing factors
• Factors subsequent to behavior that provides
the continuing reward or incentive for the
behavior and contributes to its persistence or
repetition.
• Examples - Family, peers, teachers, employers,
health providers, community leaders, decision-
makers may consider as reinforcing factors.

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 Class Discussion

• Why people still practice unhealthy

habits?
• Why people Resist to change in Health
Behavior??

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 The reasons practice unhealthy habits

a. Fear of the unknown/surprise:

b. Mistrust
c. Loss of job security/control
d. Bad timing
e. An individual’s predisposition toward change

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Barriers to Healthy Behaviors
1. Individual Barriers:
• Behaviors are often learned when very young,
so that one acquires habits without knowing or
questioning their rationale.
• Lack of concern.
• Immediate rewards and punishments are
much more effective than delayed ones.
• The tendency of most people to believe that
they are less likely to become ill than others
(thinner may not perform physical exercise).

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• The health threats posed by the so called risky
habits seem remote compared to the immediate
pleasures, relief/gratification they get

• Inconvenience and effort involved in adopting

more healthful preventive behaviors

• People feel secure doing what is familiar; they

feel insecure doing something new

• Economic status
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 2. Family Barriers
• Health habits are often acquired from parents and
others who model health-compromising behaviors
• People may fear disapproval and rejection if they
change to a new behavior
• People find it hard to admit that their parents and
other respected people and traditions are wrong
• Doing what everyone else does, at the same time
and place, provides one with the opportunity for
social interaction

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3. Health System Barriers
• Medicine tends to focus on treatment
rather than prevention.

• Accessibility and availability of service.

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4. Environmental Barriers
• Access to _____ (health care, exercise
facilities, if easy access to grocery stores)

• Some environments promote health-

compromising behaviors

e.g. alcohol promotion, chat chewing, cigrate

smoking

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 Thank you

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