Social Influences: The Theory Of Planned Behavior

According to the dictionary, the word health is “the state of being free from illness.” At a first glance, this defination seems to be very direct and simple, however the meaning of the word ‘health’ nowadays is much more complex. The above definition pretty much sums up our view of health in the first half of the 20th century.

“Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people have a greater amount of disadvantage and significantly more health problems than the non-Aboriginal & Torres strait Islander population in Australia”

Health is a concept that relates to and describes a person's state of being. It is highly subjective as good health means different things to different people, and its meaning varies according to individual and community expectations and contexts. In this paper the definition of health, care and wellbeing is looked from an Aboriginal perspective taking into account the history of Aboriginal health and contemporary issues in health and wellbeing of Aboriginal communities.

This essay will explore housing as a social determinant of health and the effects it has on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of families, communities and individuals. Poor housing and poverty may be a result of overcrowding, dampness, mould, insufficient heating and poor ventilation. It can have detrimental effects on the behaviour of individuals, how families cooperate and friendliness within communities. Poor housing can cause anything from colds and flus to cardiovascular disease but also may affect mental health. This may lead to individuals experiencing depression and anxiety. It is also common for children’s development to be disrupted due to poor housing and poverty. Different housing-related conditions results in different physical and mental health illnesses for different age groups, for example, overcrowding affecting the respiratory system is more common in childhood whereas insufficient heating having a negative affect and causing excess winter deaths is prone to those age 65 and over.

She is currently on staff in Springfield Green County Health Department and she services the WIC coordinator.

St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre provides programs and services for older adults from all backgrounds. Most of these clients have children living nearby or in the GTA area. The clients at SPLC are all independent and can live on their own. Some of the important determinants of health that are relevant to this client group is income and social status, social support networks, education and literacy, social and physical environments, personal health practices, coping skills, biology and genetic endowment, health services, gender, and culture. All these social determinants of health will affect each individual in a different way, so as a nursing student we have to pay attention to how one determinant of health may be a concern for one specific client.

Social class, culture, and ethnicity all impact a patient and their family’s health. Although all three of these components are an important aspect of health, if I could only assess one it would be social class. A family’s social class is the most important aspect of a nurse’s assessment, because it impacts the family’s ability to obtain proper care. According to Friedman, Bowden, and Jones (2003), social class is the grouping of persons with similar social status, income, lifestyle, and living conditions (p. 222). Socioeconomic status influences a family’s ability to obtain necessary resources that are imperative in maintaining their physical and mental health status, thus solidifying the correlation between health and social class (Friedman et al., 2003 p.222).

Social determinants of health are social, economic and physical factors that affect the health of individuals in any given population. There are fourteen social determinants of health but Income is perhaps the most important of these because it shapes living conditions, influences health related behaviors, and determines food security. In Canada, people with lower incomes are more susceptible to disease/ conditions, higher mortality rate, decreased life expectancy and poorer perceived health than people with high incomes. In numerous Canadian studies and reports, there has been more emphasis on health being based on an individual’s characteristics, choices and behaviours, rather than the role that income plays as a social determinant of health. Although Canada has one of the highest income economies in the world and is comprised of a free health care system, many low income families are a burden on the system because of the physical and mental health issues influenced by income insecurity. Low income individuals are heavier users of health care services because they have lower levels of health and more health problems than do people with higher incomes. This essay will address income as a social determinant of health in three key sections: what is known on the issue, why the issue is important and how can health and public policies address the issue. The main theme that runs through the essay is the income related health inequalities among low income groups compared to

A communicable disease chain is the mechanism by which an infective agent or pathogen is transmitted. The chain requires an infective agent, a source of infection, a mode of transmission and a host. An example of an infective agent could be bacteria, a virus, fungus, protozoan or helminth. The source of infective agents can be transmission from host to host, an infected human or animal, insects, soil or livestock. The mode of transmission is how the infective agent is carried from host to host. Transmission can be by air, ingestion or physical contact. To complete a life cycle or to replicate, the infective agent requires a host.

Boskey (2014) concludes that a person’s willingness to change their health behaviors includes perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, and cues to action and self-efficacy. For example, Carpenter (2010) report the Health Belief Model stipulates that a change may occur if individuals see an adverse health outcome to be severe and perceive them to be vulnerable to it. Other perceptions include benefits of behaviors that reduce the likelihood of that outcome to be high, and the barriers to adopting those behaviors low (Carter, 2010). Furthermore, the HBM addresses the relationship between a person’s beliefs and behaviors. It provides a way of understanding and predicting how clients will behave about their health and how they will comply with healthcare therapies (Boskey, 2014).

Both the health belief model (HBM) and theories of reasoned action/planned behavior (TRA/TPB) are two model that has their root from psychology. Both models rely on social cognition as a mechanism to change individuals’ behaviors. Opponent criticizes the models for being unable to target social influence outside of an individual and overlook difference between target audiences.

When considering health psychology it is important to recognise the various models it is made up of. The basis of this essay will be to take a look at the health belief model and the theory of planned behaviour, considering their historical origins, the positives and negatives of applying these approaches and examples of when they have been used. After some analysis it may offer some insight into possible improvements that could be implemented from further research. Also included will be an overview of how the models compare to each other and critical evaluation of research from this field.

Their first categories of measures are friendship nominations in which students report their friend group, which enabled the researchers to define groups; “group level network measures” were found using an algorithm and refer to the researcher’s ability to define relatively close groups. Additionally, “individual-level network measures” refer to an adolescent’s relevance or “centrality” to the group. Students self reported demographics like race, gender, home background, etc. The researchers also asked the students to report behavioral characteristics, such as “family relations,” “religious attendance,” “delinquency”, in terms of petty crime, and “alcohol and cigarette use”. Finally, the researchers measured means for peer groups on behavioral characteristics. Of course, with self-reporting, there is the chance that students do not accurately report their behavior, especially prudent to this would be reporting of delinquent activity. The researchers analyzed the data, categorizing the groups as “all boys,” “mostly boys,” “mixed-sex,” “mostly girls,” and “all girls.” ANOVAs were used to compare the groups. They then tested the regression between “membership in a mixed-sex group as a function of problem behaviors” as well as the other way

The Health Belief Model (HBM) is one of the first theories of health behavior. It was developed in the 1950s by social psychologists in the U.S. Public Health Services to better understand the widespread failure of tuberculosis screening programs. Today it continues to be one of the most widely used theories. Research studies use it to explain and predict health behaviors seen in individuals. There is a broad range of health behaviors and subject populations that it is applied in. The concepts in the model involve perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. Focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals being studied create an understanding of their

Eisenberg, Wall, Shim, Bruening, Loth, and, Neumark-Sztainer (2012) looked at adolescent friendships and how friends behavior can influence participation in muscle enhancing, eating disorder, or dieting behaviors. The study, based findings off of the EAT 2010 quantitative survey data. The results included a number of overarching implications for how adolescents influence their friend’s behaviors. Same