GPH: Chapter 2 Terms

Allostatic load

Cumulative physiological wear and tear on the body resulting from repeated or chronic exposure to stress and adverse life events. This occurs when the body's adaptive systems are persistently activated to cope with stressors over time, potentially leading to physical and mental health issues.

Community

A specific group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who share a common culture, values, and norms and are arranged in a social structure according to relationships the community has developed over a period of time.

Ecological model

A way of considering individual behavior in the context of the social environment, including influences at the interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy levels. The ecological model is useful in designing interventions to promote healthy behavior; the most effective programs intervene at several levels of influence.

Health belief model

A psychological model that attempts to explain and predict health behaviors.

Intrapersonal factors

Qualities of an individual that are derived from within themselves and that impact the individual.

Interpersonal relations

Emotional and social connections between two or more people.

Institutional level

How human behavior is embedded in a long-term, socially built environment and how that environment enables, shapes, or constrains.

Life course perspective

A public health approach that examines how various factors, such as biological, behavioral, social, and environmental influences, interact across an individual's life span to shape health outcomes. It emphasizes the cumulative impact of these influences from conception through old age, recognizing that early life experiences and exposures can have long-term effects on health and well-being.

Lifestyle choices

Conscious and personal decisions to behave in a way that may increase or decrease the risk of injury or disease.

Prohibition

A ban on alcohol manufacture, sale, and use passed by a constitutional amendment in 1919. It was repealed 14 years later.

Public policy

Principles upon which social laws are based.

Regulatory approach

The management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends.

Self-efficacy

People's sense that they are in control of their lives. High self-efficacy is beneficial to health.

Social determinants of health

The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that influence their overall health and well-being. These include factors such as socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood environment, employment, social support networks, and access to health care. These determinants play a critical role in shaping health outcomes and contribute to health disparities within and between populations.

Social norms approach

An environmental strategy gaining ground in health campaigns in which people's incorrect ideas about their peers' behaviors are addressed by providing information on the true prevalence of those behaviors in a population.

Social support

Emotional and practical help provided by family and friends; social support helps people cope with stress.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

A concept that includes income, education, and occupational status; a strong determinant of health.

Stress

A psychological and emotional state of tension; "a state that occurs when persons perceive that demands exceed their ability to cope."

Structural determinants

Include policies, cultural norms, economic systems, and power dynamics that create and perpetuate inequalities within societies and underpin the distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges, thereby affecting access to health care, education, and other factors essential for health.

Transtheoretical model

An integrative, biopsychosocial model to conceptualize the process of intentional behavior change.