Synopsis

Students discuss health promotion and disease prevention. Students develop short-term goals for improving their health or reducing their risk for disease.

Teaching Steps

1. 1. Discuss primary disease prevention.

   Visual Aid: Ways to Reduce Risk and Promote Health

   Define primary prevention. Distribute sample childhood immunization records and discuss the role of immunizations in preventing illness.

   DISCUSSION POINTS

   • What immunizations do children need?
   • What would happen in a community where children are under-immunized for a particular disease?
   • What are other examples of primary prevention?

   Possible Responses:

   • Keeping a healthy body weight
   • Quitting smoking
   • Never starting to smoke

   CONCEPTS

   • Immunization is an example of primary prevention.
   • The key component of primary prevention is staying healthy.

2. 2. Discuss health promotion and disease prevention.

   Transparencies:

   • Principles for Reducing Risk and Promoting Health
   • Practical Steps for Reducing Risk and Promoting Health

   Discuss steps for improving health and reducing risks for disease.

   CONCEPTS

   • Healthy living is a primary means of disease prevention.
   • Healthy living includes a variety of positive personal actions to prevent disease.
     • Eating a healthy diet
     • Leading a physically active life
     • Getting enough rest
     • Dealing effectively with stress
     • Promoting good oral health
     • Obtaining recommended services, such as immunizations

   DISCUSSION POINTS

   • In general, how does your current lifestyle compare with a healthy lifestyle?

3. 3. Discuss skills for health promotion and disease prevention.

   Visual Aid: Plan to Succeed

   Ask students to brainstorm factors that help people change personal behavior. List student responses on the board. Discuss the listed factors, labeling them as "motivating," "enabling" or "reinforcing."

   DISCUSSION POINTS

   • What would motivate you or cause you to be willing to try a new healthy behavior?
   • What would enable you to succeed at the new healthy behavior?
   • What rewards would reinforce the new healthy behavior and help you continue it?

   CONCEPTS

   Motivating factors are the things that make you want to start a new, healthy behavior, such as:

   • Experiences
   • Perceived benefits
   • Perceived threat
   • Perceived susceptibility
   • Perceived peer norms

   Enabling factors are the things that help you succeed at the new healthy behavior, such as:

   • Identifying and removing perceived barriers
   • Identifying available resources
   • Building confidence
   • Building awareness

   Reinforcing factors are the things that help you keep on doing the new healthy behavior, such as:

   • External rewards
   • Internal rewards

4. 4. Review goal-setting steps.

   Review steps for setting and achieving a goal. See Goal Setting.

5. 5. Students plan to improve personal health.

   Ask students to develop short-term goals for improving their health or reducing their risk for disease. Ask students to choose a specific primary prevention action. Then divide class into groups of three. Have students work with their groups to identify motivating, enabling and reinforcing factors that will help them achieve their individual goals. Also have groups determine ways they can help each other achieve their goals.

6. 6. Reflect, summarize, and discuss.

   Ask groups to share short-term goals and ways they plan to achieve their goals. Have them identify at least one factor in each of the categories. Ask all students to define and give examples of primary prevention.

Assessment

Ask students to create a plan to prevent one of the following health conditions through primary prevention:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Undesired pregnancy
• Sexually transmitted disease

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