M2 (n)

• behavior & health


  people's usual health-related behaviors influence their likelihood of developing chronic and fatal diseases
• health habit


  usual health-related behaviors influence their likelihood of developing chronic and fatal diseases
• health behaviors


  activities that people perform to maintain or improve health, regardless of health status or whether the activity actually improves health
• well behavior


  any activity people undertake to maintain or improve current good health and avoid illness

  • already in a state of good health to maintain/maximize state of well-being
  • e.g. preventative behavior
• symptom-based behavior


  any activity ill people undertake to determine the problem and find a remedy

  • responding to a diagnosis
  • complaining about symptoms, seeking advice
• sick role behavior


  any activity that people undertake to treat or adjust to a health problem
• individual factors affecting health-related behaviors

  people perceive some healthy behaviors as less appealing or convenient than their unhealthy alternatives
• 4 important factors; individual factors affecting health-related behaviors

  (1) adopting wellness lifestyles, (2) people need to have certain cognitive resources to know what health behaviors to adopt, to make plans for changing existing behavior, & overcome obstacles to change (3) individuals need sufficient self-efficacy, (4) being sick or taking certain drugs can affect people's moods & energy levels –> may affect cognitive resources & motivation
• interpersonal factors; health-related behaviors

  (1) social influence: individuals give social support & for others to make lifestyle change

  (2) family system: may undermine preventive efforts that the majority of family members support
• community factors; health-related behaviors

  (1) adopt healthy behaviors if these behaviors are promoted or encouraged by community organizations

  • governmental agencies and the health-care system

  (2) larger community faces an enormous array of problems in trying to prevent illness and injury
• learning; health-related behaviors


  operant-conditioning –> behavior changes because of consequences

  modeling –> learning by observing others
• operant conditioning; learning


  types of consequences:

  1. reinforcement
  2. positive = add
  3. negative = remove
  4. extinction
  5. consequences that maintain a behavior are eliminated –> the response tendency gradually weakens
  6. punishment
  7. do something that brings an unwanted consequence –> the behavior tends to be suppressed
• habitual behavior; learning


  person often performs it automatically & without awareness

  • hard to change
  • solution
  • well behaviors as early as possible + eliminate unhealthy behavior
• antecedent cues; habitual behavior; learning

  habitual behavior is now less dependent on consequences and more dependent on antecedent cues

  • internal or external stimuli that precede and set the occasion for a behavior
• health-compromising behaviors


  physical inactivity, poor diet & nutrition, eating disorders, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption (frequent –> alcohol dependence), unprotected sex, excessive sun exposure, poor sleep habits, infrequent handwashing, poor oral hygiene, not seeking medical care, poor road safety
• 7 risk factors/health habits (alameda country study)

  associated with poor physical health & increased mortality

  1. smoking cigarettes
  2. interaction with other substances
  3. drinking excessive amounts of alcohol
  4. low threshold for excessive
  5. being obese
  6. being physically inactive
  7. eating between meals
  8. quality of food people are eating between meals, unhealthy food, excessive calories
  9. not eating breakfast
  10. sleeping fewer or more than 7-8 hours
  11. too much sleep –> associated with premature death
  12. differs between individuals
• PURE study


  examining health outcomes and risks associated with a variety of health habits and behaviors

  • excessive & really low CHO intake –> premature death
  • excessive = processed foods, sugary
  • low = leaving out a lot of healthy CHO (fiber prevents heart disease, balanced blood glucose)

  
  

  • higher total mortality was associated with higher carbohydrate intake and lower total fat intake
  • higher fruit, vegetable, and legume consumption was associated with a lower risk of mortality
  • higher intake of ultra-processed food was associated with higher risk of inflammatory bowel disease
• 2 routes for health advancements

  (1) effort to prevent illness, (2) improvements in medical diagnosis/treatment
• efforts to prevent illness; routes for health advancements

  (1) behavioral influence, (2) environmental measures, (3) preventative medical efforts
• primary prevention 


  involves actions taken to avoid disease or injury (undertaken by either the individual or society)
• secondary prevention


  identification or early treatment of illness/disease

  • symptom-based behavior
  • if something were detected –> personal already has an illness –> not preventative
• tertiary prevention


  cannot completely overcome disease

  • sick role behavior
  • manage disease to prevent further disability to function
• health promotion incentives


  often aimed at primary prevention

  • providing information about how to stay healthy
• health belief model


  likelihood a person will perform health behavior depends on outcome of 2 assessments the person makes:

  1. threat associated with a health problem
  2. perceived seriousness
  3. perceived vulnerability
  4. cues to action/reminders
  5. pros & cons/barriers & benefits of taking action
  6. perceived "pros & cons"
  7. belief that benefits outweigh costs
• cognitive adaptation theory

  those who do not fully accept their physiological risk may have better mental health and be better able to cope with risk
• unrealistic optimism; cognitive adaptation theory

  less likely to engage in preventative action

  • do not believe they're vulnerable

  reconcile

  • balanced = inverted U relationship
  • moderate amount is best –> increased likelihood of good health
  • threat motivates people to engage in health behaviors
• theory of planned behavior

  three factors predicting intention to perform behavior

  1. attitude regarding behavior
  2. subjective norm
  3. Perceived behavioral control
• attitudes regarding behavior; theory of planned behavior

  judgment of whether the behavior is good or bad, positive or negative attitude of behavior
• subjective norm; theory of planned behavior

  appropriateness or acceptability of behavior, based on beliefs about others' opinions, social norms
• perceived behavioral control; theory of planned behavior

  expectation of success = self efficacy
• self-efficacy

  belief that one can execute a course of action, achieve a goal; correlated with performance/success
• stages of change model / transtheoretical model overview

  identifications of stages people go through when implementing change, recognizes that it may not be possible to change all at once; takes multiple thought processes for behavioral change, validated across various health behaviors/clinical/applied context
• stages of transtheoretical model

  1. precontemplation: not considering changes, no intention, not aware of need to change
  2. contemplation: aware of need to change, contemplating change
  3. preparation: ready to change, plan to implement change soon
  4. action: start successfully making changes to behavior, beginning to take on new behavior
  5. maintenance: work to maintain new behavior, avoid relapse
• advancing through stages of change model; transtheoretical model

  ways to help people advance:

  • describe in detail how they would carry out the behavior change
  • match strategies to the person's current needs
  • action/maintenance stages
  • giving information about lapse/relapse management
• irrational processes

  the decisions people make are often irrational or unwise

  • low conscientiousness

  the flawed decisions that people make about their health often result from other motivational and emotional processes
• motivated reasoning; irrational processes

  emotionally-biased reasoning intended to produce justifications or make decisions that are most desired rather than those that reflect the evidence

  • people may search for reasons to accept supportive information and discount disconfirming information = DENIAL
  • search for things that support their roles = CONFIRMATION BIAS
• conflict theory

  when people are faced with health-related decisions, they experience stress due to conflict about what to do
• how to resolve conflict; conflict theory

  (1) deal with this conflict differently depending on their evaluations of risk, hope, and adequate time

  (2) hypervigilance: risk is high, hope remains, explore alternative medicine, adequate time is low = searching frantically for a solution
• emotional factors

  targeted emotional drivers –> effective levers for behavior change

  (1) disgust –> desire to avoid and remove contamination (highly motivated)

  (2) nurture –> desire for a happy, thriving child

  (3) status –> desire to have greater access to resources than others

  (4) affiliation –> desire to fit in
• empathy & disease threat; emotional factors

  increase empathetic responding –> increase recommended precautions

  (1) empathy: trying to understand how other people feel, trying to understand others' concerns, helping other people by listening to them, helping other people by doing things for them

  (2) precautions: handwashing, disinfectant use vaccination, physical distancing