The Link Between Health And Behavior

The Link Between Health And Behavior

The shift of paradigms in how health is conceptualized has grossly impacted the quality of life as well as the span of a healthy life. In the earlier and traditional wellness-illness paradigm, health was defined as the absence of disease (Edelman, Mandle & Kudzma, 2014). It mainly focused on scientific methods of disease explanation and control, and it exempted the individual from personal responsibility in health promotion and protection. The second paradigm, health-illness (high-level wellness), assessed an individual’s health compared to others and also the favorability of an individual’s environment for wellness and health.  However, the health ecology (person-environment) paradigm appreciates the interconnection of an individual and his social and physical environments, supporting the argument that health is an outcome of ongoing patterns of persons and environment interactions throughout the life span.

Individual behaviour is a major health determinant. This is because individual efforts in changing and improving behaviour can result in a decrease in morbidity and mortality. The shift to a developmental approach places a huge responsibility on the individual to expand awareness (consciousness), transform and self-actualize. As individuals seek to achieve their highest possible potential, they are more conscious of their health choices, hence promoting and protecting their health towards the attainment of self-actualization.

The relationship between individual behaviour and health greatly impacts social determinants of health – the societal factors that influence health and the available options to improve and maintain health. Consequently, as individuals seek to improve and maintain a better and longer quality of life, they impact the families, communities and societies they live in. This is because every person is an entity of an interconnected, complex biological and social system. As a result, healthcare providers providing and delivering person-centred care increasingly involve individuals and their families. Health education has, therefore, been incorporated into health promotion and protection.

Patient and family education includes (but is not limited to) health counselling, teaching (promoting health literacy) individuals and their caregivers or families about personal responsibility and lifestyle choices, and interpreting medical information concerning an illness and its management (Buttaro, Trybulski, Polgar-Bailey & Sandberg-Cook, 2017). This is because health is not a fixed state, but an ongoing and progressive reaction by the individual to their environment. An increased and progressive knowledge growth by the individual about health promotion and disease prevention is thus a vital component of a person’s quality of life.

References

Buttaro, T., Trybulski, J., Polgar-Bailey, P., & Sandberg-Cook, J. (2017). Primary care:  (5th ed., pp 106). Elsevier.

Edelman, C., Mandle, C., & Kudzma, E. (2014). Health promotion throughout the life span (8th ed., pp. 29 – 58). Elsevier.