Background, Philosophical Basis and Principles of Behavior

Health Education and Promotion Department

Umm Al-Qura UniversityFaculty of Public Health and Health Informatics

By: Dr. Ahmed Abdullah

Background, Philosophical Basis and Principles of Behavior

Definition of Health Behavior, Theory and Model

Background of Behavior

Philosophical Basis Of Behavior

Principles and Factors Affect of Behavior

Contents of the lecture

Definition of Health Behavior

• It is referring to any behavior that influences, or is believed to influence, physical health outcomes, either by increasing or decreasing their risk or severity.

Definition of Theory

• It is a set of interrelated concept, constructs, and proposition that present a systemic view of domain of study for the purposes of explaining and predicting phenomena.

Definition of Theory

• A theory presents a systematic way of understanding events, behaviors, and/or situations.

Definition of Theory

• A theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and propositions that explain or predict events or situations by specifying relations among variables

Theories

• Theories can guide the search to understand why people do or do not practice health-promoting behaviors, help identify what information is needed to design an effective intervention strategy, and provide insight into how to design a program so that it is successful.

Theories

• Theories and models help explain behavior, as well as suggest how to develop more effective ways to influence and change behavior.

Definition of A model

• It is a heuristic device for organizing components of domain of phenomena to show relationship the parts and outcomes of interest.

Background of the Behaviour

• Human behavior is believed to be influenced by the endocrine system and the nervous system. It is most commonly believed that complexity in the behavior of an organism is correlated to the complexity of its nervous system.

• Generally, organisms with more complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior.

Behavior is lawful

• When put in the same situation repeatedly, people and animals tend to behave in similar ways to how they behaved before

Individual differences matter

• Even though behavior is lawful, people (and animals) tend to be different from each other. It is useful to look at behavior for each individual to help determine why they behave as they do.

Philosophical Basis of Behaviour

• Behavioral factors are the most prominent contributors to death and disease in the world, particularly tobacco use, diet and activity patterns, alcohol consumption, and avoidable injuries.

Philosophical Basis of Behaviour

• Effective Public Health programs aim to help people to maintain and improve health, reduce disease risks, and manage illness.

• And these programs usually require behavior change at many levels (e.g., individual, organizational, and community).

Philosophical Basis of Behaviour

• The most successful public health programs and initiatives are based on an understanding of health behaviors and the contexts in which they occur.

• Health behavior theory can contribute to program planning and evaluation and to advance research to test innovative intervention strategies.

Behaviour

• Interventions to improve health behavior can be best designed with an understanding of relevant theories of behavior change and the ability to use them skillfully.

• Many social, cultural, and economic factors contribute to the development, maintenance, and change of health behavior patterns.

Behaviour

• No single factor or set of factors adequately accounts for why people eat as they do, smoke or do not smoke, and are active or sedentary.

• Knowledge, attitudes, reactions to stress, and motivation are important individual determinants of health behavior.

Behaviour

• Families, social relationships, socioeconomic status, culture, and geography are other important influences.

• A broad understanding of some of the key factors and models for understanding behaviors and behavior change can provide a foundation for well-informed public health programs.

Behaviour

• And this will help in identifying the most influential factors for a particular person or population, and enable program developers to focus on the most important issues.

Behaviour• Public health and health-promotion

interventions are most likely to be effective if they include an ecological perspective.

• Interventions should not only be targeted at individuals but should also affect interpersonal, organizational, and environmental factors that influence the health behavior.

• E.g (employees purchasing food)

Behaviour• Before the 1970s, public health education

emphasized a broad view of social determinants of health, and community organization skills were central to training programs.

• During the next two decades, health educators and clinicians focused more on intra individual factors such as a person’s beliefs, knowledge, and skills.

• Many behavior-change programs for reducing risk factors continue to have these emphases.

Behaviour

Behavior

Health

Environment

IndividualGroup

Community

Behaviour

Behavior

Health

Environment

Health Promotion

Questions? Comments?

Thank you