4. Health Behaviour

Question 1

Define health behaviour

Answer 1

“Any activity undertaken by an individual believing himself/herself to be healthy, for the purpose of preventing disease or detecting it at an asymptomatic stage”

Question 2

What are the effects of education on health behavior?

Answer 2

• Effective for discrete behaviour (e.g. getting a child vaccinated)
• It is NOT effective on its own for complex behaviours as it does not address the reasons for poor health behaviour
• Therefore, for complex behaviours, education needs to be combined with individualised support, as well as economic, environmental and regulatory support

Question 3

Describe a study showing the effects of education on health behavior

Answer 3

Nutbeam et al (1993) - Effect of Smoking Education in Schools

• Study on the effect of education on health behaviour
• Smoking education increased knowledge but had no effect on behaviour (smoking)

Question 4

Define self-efficacy

What are the sources of self-efficacy?

Answer 4

“Belief that one can execute the behaviour required to produce the outcome”

Sources:

• Mastery experience
• Social learning
• Verbal persuasion or encouragement
• Physiological arousal

Question 5

What are the stages of the transtheoretical model?

Answer 5

There are 6 stages in the transtheoretical model:

- Precontemplation

• Contemplation
• Determination
• Action
• Relapse
• Maintenance
• You can exit and re-enter at any stage*

Question 6

What are the components of the health belief model?

Answer 6

Question 7

What are the components of the theory of planned behavior?

Answer 7