Name:______________________

Dimensions of Health

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity" (World Health Organization). Based on this broad definition of health, total health involves not only physical, but also mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual health. These areas of health are interdependent. Genetic and biological factors, acute and chronic physical illnesses, and environmental conditions and stressors affect total health status.

Ways to Reduce Risk and Promote Health

Primary prevention involves actions to keep disease from occurring (such as immunizations). These actions include:

• Developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle
• Reducing health risks

Secondary prevention involves actions to detect the presence of disease in its early stages when it is easier to treat (such as mammography). These actions include:

• Accessing professional health services
• Medical examinations
• Medical testing
• Conducting self-examinations

Tertiary prevention involves actions to reduce the severity of a disease that has already occurred, to minimize its complications, or to promote recovery (such as managing diabetes, cardiac rehabilitation, or alcohol and other drug rehabilitation). These actions include:

• Effectively managing diagnosed disease

Principles for Reducing Risk and Promoting Health

• Substitute healthy behaviors for risky behaviors.
• Reduce environmental risks, such as infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases or toxic exposure.
• Minimize any known hereditary risks. For example, a family history of breast cancer indicates importance of early onset of self-examination and professional screening.
• Effectively use health care resources.

Practical Steps for Reducing Risk and Promoting Health

1. Identify personal risks.

2. Learn about ways to reduce these risks.

Healthy living is a primary means of disease prevention. Healthy living includes a variety of positive personal actions, such as eating a healthy diet, leading a physically active life, obtaining adequate rest, dealing effectively with stress, promoting good oral health and obtaining recommended services, such as immunizations, to prevent disease.

3. Make a plan to improve your health or reduce a specific risk.

Based on the information from Step One and Step Two, prepare a draft statement of a short-term goal to promote a healthy behavior and/or to reduce your risk for disease.

4. Plan for success.

Certain factors must be in place for behavior change or new learning to occur. They include:

• Motivating or predisposing factors
• Enabling factors
• Reinforcing factors

Motivating or Predisposing Factors

What does a person need to know and value to want to engage in the new healthy behavior? Discover these by considering:

• Experiences
• Perceived benefits (e.g., appearance, sports performance, feeling good)
• Perceived threat (e.g., How bad does the adverse impact seem to be?)
• Perceived susceptibility (e.g., genetic risks, environmental risks, behavioral risks)
• Perceived peer norms (e.g., Everybody does it.)

Enabling Factors

What information and skills does a person need to be able to participate in the new healthy behavior? Enhance enabling factors by:

• Identifying and removing perceived barriers
• Identifying available resources
• Building confidence (self-efficacy)
• Building awareness (e.g., that it matters what you do, eat and smoke)

Reinforcing Factors

What kinds of reinforcement or rewards would help a person continue with the new healthy behavior?

• External rewards (e.g., a star on a chart)
• Internal rewards (e.g., pride in achieving)
• People who provide positive or negative reinforcement?

Source

Wooley, Susan, Behavior Mapping: A Tool for Identifying Priorities for Health Education Curricula and Instruction, Journal of Health Education -July/August, 1995, Volume 26, No. 4