Health Behaviors

 

Health beliefs are what people believe about their health, what they think constitutes their health, what they consider the cause of their illness, and ways to overcome an illness it. These beliefs are, of course, culturally determined, and all come together to form larger health belief systems.

WHAT ARE HEALTH BEHAVIOURS?

Kasl and Cobb (1966) defined three types of health-related behaviors. They suggested that:

■ a health behavior was a behavior aimed to prevent disease (e.g., eating a healthy diet).

■ an illness behavior was a behavior aimed to seek remedy (e.g., going to the doctor).

■ a sick role behavior was any activity aimed to get well (e.g., taking prescribed medication, resting).

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

■ health impairing habits, which he called ‘behavioral pathogens’ (e.g., smoking, eating a high fat diet),

■ health protective behaviors, which he defined as ‘behavioral immunogens’ (e.g., attending a health check).

In short, Matarazzo distinguished between those behaviors that have a negative effect (the behavioral pathogens, such as smoking, eating foods high in fat, drinking large amounts of alcohol) and those behaviors that may have a positive effect (the behavioral immunogens, such as tooth brushing, wearing seat belts, seeking health information, having regular check-ups, sleeping an adequate number of hours per night). Generally, health behaviors are regarded as behaviors that are related to the health status of the individual.

PREDICTING HEALTH BEHAVIOURS

Much research has used quantitative methods to explore and predict health behaviors. For example, Kristiansen (1985) carried out a correlational study looking at the seven health behaviors defined by Belloc and Breslow (1972) and their relationship to a set of beliefs. She reported that these seven health behaviors were correlated with (1) a high value on health; (2) a belief in world peace; and (3) a low value on an exciting life. Obviously, there are problems with defining these different beliefs, but the study suggested that it is perhaps possible to predict health behaviors. Leventhal et al. (1985) described factors that they believed predicted health behaviors:

■ social factors, such as learning, reinforcement, modeling and social norms.

■ genetics, suggesting that there was some evidence for a genetic basis for alcohol use.

■ emotional factors, such as anxiety, stress, tension and fear.

■ perceived symptoms, such as pain, breathlessness and fatigue.

■ the beliefs of the patient.

■ the beliefs of the health professionals.

Leventhal et al. suggested that a combination of these factors could be used to predict and promote health-related behavior. In fact, most of the research that has aimed to predict health behaviors has emphasized beliefs.

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