Health Psychology Chapter 4: Prevention

Unintentional injuries: major cause of preventable death, primary cause of death for children under 5 yrs (poisoning, falls, motor accidents)

Social engineering: _____ is used to decrease accidents and injuries

Primary injuries in 12-19 yrs: sports, exercise

Primary injuries in 65+ yrs: household chores and walking

Social engineering intervention to reduce automobile accident: seat belt enforcement signs (annoying beeping)

Illusory superiority/better-than-average effect: people overestimate their abilities in groups; they think they’re the exception

Cancer: 1 in 4 canadians will die from ____

Breast cancer screening: mammograms > BSE

Social determinants (breast screening): middle class have best habits, low and high SES have difficulty; also indigenous women, immigrants, people with no family doctor, rural living, and people who smoke

Emotional barriers to screening: fear of radiation, embarrassment, anticipated pain, anxiety, fear of cancer, perception of need

Increasing uptake for breast cancer screening: social support (bring a friend), HBM/TPB/stages of change

“Breast Buddies”: program helping indigenous people get tested

Prostate cancer: most common cancer among cis-men, common over 50

Colorectal cancer: 4th most common cancer, common over 50

Testicular cancer: most common cancer in cis-men 15-35

Most common reason for not screening colorectal cancer: doctor(or respondent) felt it was unnecessary

Skin cancer: most prevalent of cancers

“Mind the gap”: campaign gathering information on skin-related illnesses for people of color

Aerobic exercise: sustained exercise that stimulates/strengthens heart and lungs; improves oxygen use; must be high intensity, long duration, and high endurance

Aerobic exercise recommendations: 150 minutes of jogging, biking, jumprope, running, swimming

Benefits of exercise: ↓ risk of chronic disease and some cancers, ↓ risk of Type II diabetes, accelerated wound healing, ↑ cardiovascular fitness and endurance, ↑ longevity

Positive factors of exercise: individual characteristics, setting characteristics, and strategies

Individual characteristics (exercise): positive attitude, sense of athleticism, gender, self-efficacy, and social support

Setting characteristics (exercise): convenient, easily accessible and available resources

Exercise strategies: TPB can help explain participation, CB strategies can promote adherence (self-monitoring, goal-setting, contingency contracting, self-reinforcement)

Importance of diet: contributes to broad array of diseases, changing diet can improve health

Problems with diet change: habits are hard to change; some recommendations can be restrictive, boring, expensive, or time-consuming

Stress and eating: stress affects people differently (some eat more, some eat less), stress moves towards high-calorie/high-fat foods, anxiety and depression factor into stress eating

Food Habit Interventions: CB (education, self-monitoring, cognitive distortions), self-compassion is important

Leptin: hormone that tells body whether it has sufficient energy stores

Ghrelin: hormone that explains why dieters gain lost weight back

Ventromedial hypothalamus: brain region important for normal eating habits

Health risk of obesity: weight alone does not explain enough, abdominal fat leads to higher risk of CV disease

Weight loss: no more than 2 pounds per week, otherwise it creates rebound which is more harmful in the long run; holistic health, self-talk, and social support are all important