Social & Behavioral Sciences & Public Health

Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Health

  • Health dimensions include:

    • Exercise

    • Mental Health

    • Spiritual Health

    • Environmental Health

    • Food and Nutrition

    • Social Factors

    • Importance of Not Smoking

    • Importance of Regular Health Checkups

    • Emotional Well-being

  • Access: The ability to reach essentials such as:

    • Shelter

    • Food

    • Education

  • Human Rights: In a just society, all individuals have their rights protected and respected.

  • Equity: Understand the difference between equality and equity in public health.

  • Social Justice: Ensures marginalized and vulnerable populations can voice their concerns and needs.

  • Social and Community Networks:

    • Interpersonal (family, friends)

    • Institutional/Organizational (workplaces, schools)

    • Community (neighborhoods and local organizations)

  • Individual Lifestyle Factors:

    • Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, age, and sex

  • Social Influences on Health:

    • Socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions

Role of Theories and Models in Changing Health Behavior

  • Factors Influencing Behavior:

    • Downstream factors: Directly involve individuals; can be altered with individual interventions.

    • Mainstream factors: Arise from individual-group relationships.

    • Upstream factors: Rooted in social structures and policies.

Key Theories and Models

Health Belief Model

  • Definition: An intrapersonal model focusing on individual perceptions before health actions.

  • Key Constructs:

    • Perceived Susceptibility: Belief in likelihood of facing a condition.

    • Perceived Severity: Understanding seriousness and consequences of a condition.

    • Perceived Benefits: Belief in the benefits of taking action.

    • Perceived Barriers: Beliefs about costs of action (both tangible and psychological).

    • Cues to Action: Strategies/events that encourage readiness to act.

    • Self-Efficacy: Confidence in one’s ability to take action.

  • Application Example: Health Belief Model and Osteoporosis (Table 4.6).

Stages of Change Model

  • Definition: People incrementally change behavior rather than changing all at once.

  • Five Stages of Change:

    • Precontemplation: No intent to change.

    • Contemplation: Thinking about change but not acting.

    • Preparation: Planning for change.

    • Action: Actively making changes.

    • Maintenance: Sustaining change over time.

Theory of Planned Behavior

  • Definition: An intrapersonal model where intention is the main predictor of behavior.

  • Key Components:

    • Individual’s attitudes towards a behavior.

    • Subjective norms: Beliefs about societal attitudes towards the behavior.

    • Perceived behavioral control: Belief about ease/difficulty of performing the behavior.

Social Cognitive Theory

  • Definition: Focuses on the interaction between individuals and their social systems.

  • Key Elements:

    • Individual characteristics, social and physical environment, and behavior interaction.

    • Reciprocal Determinism: Changes in one aspect influence the others.

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

  • Definition: Examines how new ideas/products are adopted in populations.

  • Key Attributes affecting Adoption:

    • Relative advantage

    • Compatibility

    • Complexity

    • Trialability

    • Observability

  • Adopter Categories: Early adopters, early majority, late adopters.

Application of Theories in Real Scenarios

  • Group Discussions:

    • Health Belief Model for diabetic diet.

    • Stages of Change Model for maternal depression care.

    • Social Cognitive Theory for elder physical activity.

    • Theory of Planned Behavior for COVID testing.

PRECEDE-PROCEED Model

  • Definition: A systematic approach for designing and evaluating health education and promotion programs.

  • Phases:

    • PRECEDE: Diagnostic phase to assess social, epidemiological, and behavioral assessments.

    • PROCEED: Implementation and evaluation phases to assess implementation fidelity and outcomes.

Detailed Steps of PRECEDE Phase

  1. Social Assessment: Gather data on perceptions of needs and quality of life.

  2. Epidemiological Assessment: Identify key health problems via data analysis.

  3. Behavioral and Environmental Assessment: Examine factors contributing to health issues.

  4. Educational and Organizational Assessment: Identify social support and knowledge influencing behavior.

  5. Administrative and Policy Assessment: Identify supportive policies and resources.

Steps of PROCEED Phase

  1. Implementation: Execute the health intervention.

  2. Process Evaluation: Measure if the intervention was implemented as planned.

  3. Impact Evaluation: Assess changes from behavioral and environmental assessments.

  4. Outcome Evaluation: Determine the overall effects on health issues of interest.