Chapter 6- Primary Prevention and Positive Psychology

Health behaviors

Include health-enhancing behavior or habit; occur on a continuum, both positive and negative health impact; may have long-term, short-term, and interactive effects.

Health habits

Are firmly established and automatically performed health behaviors.

Health-risk behaviors

Smoking and other forms of tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, inadequate physical activity, alcohol or drug use, sexual behaviors related to unintended pregnancy an STDs , and behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence.

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

Specifies relationships among attitudes and behaviors; suggests measuring behavioral intention is the best way to predict occurrence of health behavior; is most accurate in predicting goal-oriented, rational behaviors.

Transtheoretical Model (TTM)

Stage I: Precontemplation

Stage II: Contemplation

Stage III: Preparation

Stage IV: Action

Stage V: Maintenance

Health Action Process Approach (HAPA)

Specifies two stages:

I: Motivational phase (goal-setting)

II: Volitional phase (goal pursuit)

Primary prevention

Health-enhancing efforts to prevent disease or injury from occurring

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exs. Wearing seatbelts, practicing good nutrition, exercising, avoiding smoking, obtaining regular health screening.

Secondary prevention

Actions taken to identify and treat an illness or disability early in its occurrence.

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exs. Monitoring symptoms, taking medication, dietary changes, following treatment regimens.

Tertiary prevention

Actions taken to contain damage once a disease or disability has progressed beyond its early stages.

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exs. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy.

Family behaviors

Health habits are often acquired from parents, siblings, and others who model health behaviors; establishing good health habits before adolescence is important; certain family characteristics create a cascade of risk; failure to establish good health habits may increase health risks throughout life.

Health system factors

Medicine tends to focus on treatment rather than prevention- early warning signs go undetected; economic forces undermine health care workers’ efforts to promote preventative measures.

Community influences

People are more likely to adopt health-enhancing behaviors that are promoted by community organization; some environments promote health-compromising behavior; others can exert powerful negative influence; most peer-inspired, health-related risk-taking is short-lived before irreversible, long-term consequences arise.

Precede/Proceed Model

Identifies specific health problems in a community; identifies lifestyle and environment elements that contribute to the targeted behavior; analyzes background factors that predispose, enable, and reinforce these lifestyle and environment elements; implements a well-designed health education program.

Gain-framed message

Effective in prevention behavior promotion.

Loss-framed message

Effective in illness-detection promotion.

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions

Focus on conditions that elicit health behaviors and factors that help to maintain and reinforce them.

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exs. Self monitoring, operant conditioning, discriminative stimuli, stimulus-control interventions, relapse prevention, contingency contracting.

Work-Site Wellness Programs

Ideal for promoting health because of convenience for workers, opportunities for social support, follow-through and feedback; preventing disease is easier, cheaper, and far more desirable than curing disease; cost of these programs is more than offset by reductions in work-related injuries, absenteeism, and worker turnover.

Positivity Psychology

The study of optimal human functioning and the healthy interplay between people and their environments; strength-based, preventative approach; adversity can sometimes yield benefits.

Anabolic metabolism

Counters arousal and promotes relaxation, energy storage, and healing processes; physical thriving; allostatic overload.

Resilience

The capacity of the brain and body to withstand challenges to homeostasis; dysregulation and allostatic overload; early life resilience mediated by distinct biological adaptations (ex. neuroendocrine); biological embedding shaped by neuroendocrine system feedback.

Psychosocial factors

Linked to beneficial effects on immune functioning and other bodily systems.

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exs. Self-enhancement, social integration, relaxation, spirituality, curiosity, perceived control and self-efficiency.