Risky Health Behaviours

Question 1

Risk Assessments

Answer 1

• Health risk assessment approach is used to shape disease prevention strategies in UK
• The process seeks to link identifiable risks with actual or potential harm to individuals
• ‘Health risk’ is constructed through aggregating statistical probabilities of a particular set of actions, linked with disease outcomes across whole populations
• Epidermiology transforms statistical relationships into casual factors for individuals and social group health outcomes

Question 2

Socio-cultural context of Risky Behaviour

Answer 2

-Assess how lay people make sense of ‘risk’ in everyday life
-Individual and social group understanding of health risk is derived from a shared social value system
(defence from uncertainties and anxieties from social life)

Challenge:
-Transforming numbers and statistics from medico-epidermiology research into culturally meaningful knowledge for lay people

-Lay people tend to translate numbers and statistics into ALL OR NOTHING messages
-There is a distinction drawn between the social world of routine activities associated with risky behaviours
E.g. drinking 20 units of alcohol a week is considered normal for a certain social group while shocking to others

Question 3

‘Risky Society’ Thesis

Answer 3

• Focuses on the environmental risk:
  1) Carbon emissions
  2) Global plastic consumption
  3) Internal combustion engines
  4) Nuclear power
• ‘Risk’ is defined as how the culture of society engages with the prominence of environmental risk to all
• The model focuses on the uncertain future society faces that individuals have no control of
• Notion of ‘risk society’ affects the compliance of individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles due to the greater levels of risk embedded in fabric of modern society