2. Health and Wellness
๏ There are many things that work together to affect our health
๏ Despite us thinking weโre living a healthy lifestyle, there are
risk factors to our health that we donโt always think about
๏ Including factors like personality, gender, ethnicity and
socioeconomic class
Figure 2.
3. Risk Factors for Heart Disease
and Cancer
๏ Smoking
๏ Blood pressure
๏ Weight
๏ High cholesterol
๏ Inactivity
๏ Diet
๏ Alcohol
๏ Heredity
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
4. Personality
๏ Personality has been thought to
contribute to heart disease
๏ Meyer Friedman and Ray
Rosenman noticed many of their
patients that had heart disease
possessed many other similar
characteristics with one another
๏ These characteristics included
things like sense of urgency,
hostility and aggressiveness,
striving for achievement and
competitiveness.
๏ These are characteristics common
with type A personality
Figure 5.
5. Personality
๏ Friedman and Rosenman
hypothesized that a type A
personality was linked to
higher levels of cholesterol,
therefore an increased risk of
CVD
๏ It is also found that those that
have a type D personality
(distress) have an even higher
risk of CVD Figure 6.
6. Gender
๏ In early adulthood some
womenโs health issues can be
explained by association with
child bearing
๏ Women are more likely to
have chronic, nonfatal
conditions like arthritis
๏ In middle age, men have a
much higher risk of CVD
๏ Men also have less of a
chance of surviving the
disease
Figure 7.
* It is found that women
live longer than men, but
have more diseases
throughout their lifetime
7. Gender
๏ It is thought that womenโs
heart muscles are better at
adapting to stresses
๏ After a heart attack women
tend to recover with a higher
level of functioning than men
๏ Women are more likely to seek
medical attention and go for
regular checkups than men,
which could contribute to their
greater life expectancy
Figure 8.
8. Socioeconomic Class
๏ In middle adulthood, job status and education collaborate to
affect health
๏ Those with higher paying jobs will be able to afford better
health care and benefits and therefore may be more healthy
Figure 9.
It has also been shown that
between a man with a high-
status occupation and a man
with a low status occupation
that both believe that health
care is โunmanlyโ, the man
with the high-status
occupation will be less likely
to visit the doctor and
therefore may be less healthy
overall.
9. Socioeconomic Class
๏ A high-status job often comes with
more stress and responsibility and
stress is a big risk factor for disease
๏ While these higher class individuals
may have better access to healthcare,
they could be more unhealthy due to
their lifestyle
๏ Lower class individuals are more likely
to live in undesirable conditions and
have more dangerous jobs
๏ Those in the lower class may also not
be able to afford to have a healthy
diet
Figure 10.
10. Ethnicity
๏ It is believed that African
Americans have a shorter life
expectancy than Caucasian
Americans.
๏ African Americans, Native
Americans and Mexican Americans
are more likely to possess risk
factors of cardiovascular disease.
๏ These ethnicities also have higher
rates of diabetes and
complications from diabetes.
Figure 11.
Highest rate ofโฆ
Prostate, colon, lung and breast
cancer: African Americans
Liver cancer: Asian Americans
Kidney cancer: Native Americans
11. Ethnicity
๏ 75% of Mexican American women, 80% of African
American women, and 58% of White Americans women
are overweight (NCHS 2010) which is a risk factor for
cardiovascular disease.
๏ 15% of White and Mexican men, and 27% of African
American men have high blood pressure (NCHS 2010).
๏ Minorities often have less access to health care and are
less likely to seek care and medical interventions.
12. Cognitive Functioning
๏ Warner Schaie found that
people that have coronary heart
disease or hypertension showed
earlier and more significant
declines on intellectual tests
compared to those who were
disease-free
๏ This could be related to the
decline in physical activity in
those with cardiovascular
disease
๏ It is possible that exercise is an
important factor in middle
adulthood cognitive functioning
Figure 12.
13. How is This Information Relevant
to Me?
๏ I think that it is important to know what puts your at risk for
certain diseases
๏ By knowing the risk factors for particular diseases I can
change the factors that are modifiable or be aware of the
factors that are unmodifiable
๏ I know that because Iโm a woman I may live longer but Iโm
also at a higher risk for chronic disease throughout my
lifetime and could take steps to prevent certain diseases
๏ I could include more physical activity into my life, knowing
that it not only could reduce my chance of disease but also
prevent the decline of my cognitive functioning
14. How Can I Use This Information in My
Professional Life?
๏ As a bachelor of nursing student, my career will
be revolved around the health and wellness of
other people
๏ Knowing risk factors can help me to teach my
patients about prevention as well as explain to
them what could have put them at risk for a
disease they already have
๏ For example, if I had a patient that has a very
obvious type A personality, I could explain to
them how their personality can correspond with
their health and possibly teach them how to live
a more low stress life and prevent
cardiovascular disease.
๏ Many patients donโt know about risk factors like
ethnicity and gender and it is part of my job to
educate them about what contributes to their
overall health
Figure 13.
Figure 14.
15. References
Boyd, D., Johnson P., Bee, H. (2015) Lifespan Development. (5th Canadian Ed.) Toronto, ON: Prentice Hall Canada Inc.
Figure 1. (2014). Health. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.foreignstudents.com/health
Figure 2. (2015). Risk Factors. [online image]. Retrieved from https://www.emaze.com/@ALCFLOQO/Heart-Disease
Figure 3. (2013). ECG. [online image]. Retrieved from http://learning.bmj.com/learning/module-intro/ecg-electrocardiographic-athletes-cardiomyopathy-amssm-
fifa.html?moduleId=10042584
Figure 4. (2015). Health and Wellness. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.globoforce.com/how-it-works/versatile-programs/health-wellness/
Figure 5. (2015). Personality Types. [online image]. Retrieved fromhttps://healthculturesociety.wikispaces.com/nobody+likes+a+bogan
Figure 6. (2013). Personality. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/41313-personality-traits.html
Figure 7. (2015). Gender. [online image]. Retrieved from http://mrsguillory.weebly.com/blog/february-16th-2015
Figure 8. (2012). Gender and Health. [online image]. Retrieved from http://blog.ihs.com/gender-mainstreaming-in-policy-making-an-overlooked-approach-in-healthcare-
and-pharma
Figure 9. (2012). Health and Money. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.stateofdisparity.org/?m=201202
Figure 10. (2015). Socioeconomic status. [online image] Retrieved from https://www.unitedwayhallcounty.org/our-work
Figure 11. (2015). Ethnicity. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.thebackroadcafe.com/who-i-say-i-that-i-am-i-am-r/
Figure 12. (2013). Cognitive Function. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.meschinohealth.com/ArticleDirectory/B_Vitamins_Memory_And_Cognitive_Function
Figure 13. (2015). Nursing. [online image]. Retrieved from http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2015/06/17/nurses-airing-dirty-laundry-the-nasty-legal-spat-fracturing-the-bc-
nursing-profession/
Figure 14. (2012). Nursing Care. [online image]. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9003772/Nurses-are-losing-their-sense-of-compassion.html
