The document discusses health promotion and factors that influence health behaviors. It defines health promotion as processes that enable people to improve their health and defines health behaviors as actions undertaken to maintain or improve wellness. It then discusses seven good health habits and factors like social influences, access to healthcare, and individual traits that can impact people's health practices.

1. UNIT 2 HEALTH PROMOTION AND THE PRACTICE OF HEALTH BEHAVIORS Mónica L. Gutiérrez González Nora Cecilia Treviño Treviño Mariana Villarreal Martínez Andrea de la Fuente de la Mora Ana Cecilia Morales Pérez

2. HEALTH PROMOTION AND THE PRACTICE OF HEALTH BEHAVIORS Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. Health promotion and wellness refer to the practice of good health behaviors and preventive health behaviors. A number of factors have fueled the movement toward health promotion. The self-care, civil rights, and women´s movements of the 1960s. Another origin of the concept of health promotion is the longstanding commitment of public health to health education programs for the public.

3. HEALTH BELIEFS Good health is an important value for most people.

4. AN INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH BEHAVIORS (ROLE OF BEHAVIORAL FACTORS IN DISEASE AND DISORDER) Acute infectious disorders has declined because of treatment innovations and changes in public health standards. Simultaneously, there has been an increase in what have been called the “preventable” disorders. Successful modification of health behaviors may have several beneficial effects. First, it may actually reduce the number of deaths due to particular diseases related to lifestyle. Second, it may delay time of death, thereby increasing individual longevity and life expectancy of the population more generally. But most important the practice of good health behaviors may expand the number of years during which a person may enjoy life free from the complications of chronic disease.

5. WHAT ARE HEALTH BEHAVIORS? Are behaviors undertaken by people to enhace or maintain their health. Poor health behaviors are important not only because they are implicated in illness but also because they may easily become poor health habits. A health habit is a health-related behavior that is firmly established and often performed automatically, without awarness. It is important to establish good health behaviors and eliminate poor ones as early as posible.

6. SEVEN IMPORTANT GOOD HEALTH HABITS Sleeping 7 to 8 hours a night. Not smoking. Eating breakfast each day. Having no more than one or two alcoholic drinks each day. Getting regular exercise. Not eating between meals. Being no more than 10% overweight.

7. INTERVENING WITH CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS The concept of teachable moment refers to the fact that certain times are better for teaching particular health care delivery system creates it. The fact that children come into early regular contact with medical practitioners make this an appropiate teaching opportunity in several respects.

8. INTERVENTIONS WITH AT-RISK PEOPLE Health promotion and primary prevention involve working not only with healthy populations but also with those who are at risk, or venerable to particular problems by virtue of heredity or family environment. There are several advantages to working with people who are at risk for particular health disorders. In addition, working with at-risk populations provides a specific focus for health interventions that may achieve good results.

9. HEALTH PROMOTION: AN OVERVIEW Health promotion programs also need to take account of ethnic and gender differences in health risks to direct programs effectively to venerable groups in the population. On the individual level, it involves developing a program of good health habits early in life and carrying them through adulthood and old age.

10. HEALTH-HABIT FACTORS THAT UNDERMINE HEALTH PRACTICES Three aspects of health habits that make them hard to modify effectively: We still know so little about them Health habits are only modestly related to each other They are unstable over time

11. WHY ARE HEALTH HABITS AUTONOMOUS AND UNSTABLE? 1. Different health habits are controlled by different factors. 2. Different factors may control the same health behavior for different people. 3. Factors controling health behavior may change over the history of the behavior. 4. Factors controlling the health behavior may change across a person´s lifetime. 5. Health behavior patterns, their developmental course, and the factors that change them across a lifetime will vary substantially between individuals.

12. … IN SUMMARY Health behaviors are elicited and maintained by different factors for different people, and these factors change over the lifetime as well as during the course of the health habit. Motivational factors also contribute to poor health habits.

13. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PRACTICE OF HEALTH BEHAVIOR Control of stress Not smoking or drinking to excess Eat regular balanced meals Get enough sleep Engage in physycal activities Enjoy relaxing leisure-time activities * These are behaviors that individuals practice on their own.

14. … DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH BEHAVIOR SOCIAL FACTORS EMOTIONAL FACTORS COGNITIVE FACTORS PERCEIVED SYMPTOMS ACCESS TO MEDICAL CARE

15. 1. SOCIAL FACTORS Early socialization. Especially the influence of parents as social models. Wearing a seat belt Brushing one´s teeth regularly Eating breakfast everyday Values associated with a particular culture or socioeconomic group. Social Influence. (Family, peers, friends, and workplace companions can all influence health habits)

16. 2. EMOTIONAL FACTORS Overeating is linked to stress for some obese people, and they are more likely to overeat when they are under stress than when stress is absent. Positive health behaviors. –some individuals exercise when they are under stress, a far more constructive methiod of coping with a problem than, say overeating would be. Self esteem.

17. 3. PERCEIVED SYMPTOMS Example: a smoker may control smoking behavior on the basis of sensations in his throat. If the smoker wakes up with the typical smoker´s cough and raspy throat, he may reduce smoking in the belief that he is vulnerable to health problems at this time. But, if there is no smoker’s cough or scratchy throat, he may smoke as usual.

18. 4. ACCESS TO THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM The person who obtains a regular checkup is more likely to use a preventive screening service. The reason that medically oriented health behaviors are modestly related is that all of them are influenced by a common factor: Access To Medical Services Research reveals that the more advantage individuals withing a group will use the program more than the less advantaged (educations, income, etc).

19. 5. COGNITIVE FACTORS Include the belief that a particular health practice is beneficial, the belief that it can help stave off a particular illness, a sense of vulnerability to the illness, and a feeling of self-efficacy. The sense that one is personally able to practice a recommended health behavior.

20. INDIVIDUAL’S PERSONALITY / DIFFERENCES IN THE PRACTICE OF GOOD HEALTH BHEAVIOR AGE. LOCUS OF CONTROL. -Individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to assume reponsibility for their own health. They may practice better health behaviors, guard more carefully against accidents, and gather more health information than individuals with an external locus.

21. … SCALE BY WATSON Internal. “I am in control of my health” and “The main thing that affects my health is what I myself do”. Powerful others’ control. “Whenever I don’t feel well, I should consult a medically trained professional”. Chance. “No matter what I do, if I am going to get sick, I will get sick” and “Luck plays a big part in determining how soon I will recover from an illness”. ° THE END °