Chapter 1

Achieving Personal Health

Defining Health and Wellness

The World Health Organization (1947):
Health is a state of complete physical,
mental, and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Wellness is the process of moving toward
optimal health.

Wellness Continuum
The wellness continuum helps distinguish
between the medical model of health and
the wellness concept; most individuals
move back and forth across the continuum
from illness to wellness.
The wellness continuum includes
prevention, behaviors, illness or disease,
and a neutral point.

Homeostasis and Health

The body has mechanisms that regulate
physiological processes within certain limits for
optimal functioning.
Homeostasis is the regulation of body systems to
produce a relatively constant physiological state.
Homeostatic mechanisms are responsible for
maintaining normal blood pressure, body
temperature, heart rate, and blood glucose levels.

Models of HealthMedical Model

Health is the absence of one or more of the

five Dsdeath, disease, discomfort,
disability, and dissatisfaction.
Relies almost exclusively on biological
explanations of disease and illness and on
interpreting them in terms of malfunction.

Models of HealthMedical Model

Terminology
Vital statistics measure the health status of a
population.
Prevalence describes the predominance of a
disease in a population.

Models of HealthMedical Model

Incidence means the occurrence of
particular diseases; the frequency at which
certain diseases occur; the number of people
who contract a disease or illness within a
specific given period of time.
Morbidity data are statistics on the number
of people suffering from illness in a given
population.
Mortality data are the number of deaths in a
given population.

Models of HealthEnvironmental Model

Based on analyses of ecosystems and
environmental risks to health, such as
socioeconomic status (SES), level of
education, and various environmental
factors.
Health is defined in terms of the quality of a
persons adaptation to the environment as
conditions change.

Models of HealthEnvironmental Model

Focuses on conditions outside the individual
that affect his or her health, such as quality
of air and water, living conditions, exposure
to harmful substances, SES, social
relationships, and the available health care
system.

Models of HealthHolistic Model

Encompasses the physiological, mental,
emotional, social, spiritual, and
environmental aspects of individuals and
communities.
Emphasizes that each person has the
capability and the responsibility for
optimizing his or her sense of well-being,
practicing self-healing, and creating feelings
and conditions that help prevent disease and
promote and maintain health.

Models of HealthHolistic Model

Positive wellness.
Holistic health, or wellness, is a dynamic,
ongoing process.

Six Dimensions of Health and Wellness

Emotional wellness requires understanding
emotions and coping with problems that arise in
everyday life.
Intellectual wellness involves having a mind open
to new ideas and concepts.
Spiritual wellness is the state of harmony between
you and others.
Occupational wellness is being able to enjoy what
you are doing to earn a living or to contribute to
society.

Six Dimensions of Health and Wellness

Social wellness is the ability to perform social
roles effectively, comfortably, and without
harming others.
Physical wellness is a healthy body maintained by
eating right, exercising regularly, avoiding
harmful habits, making informed and responsible
decisions about health, seeking medical care when
needed, and participating in activities that help to
prevent illness.

Taking Responsibility for Your Health

Today, lifestyle diseases, that is, chronic
diseases caused by lifestyle behaviors, are
the leading causes of illness and death.
Taking responsibility for our behaviors
means changing our negative lifestyles to
positive lifestyles; by doing so, we can
avoid illness and achieve wellness, or
optimal health.

Lifestyle and Health

Leading the list of life-shortening behaviors
is tobacco use, which is responsible for
more than 400,000 deaths among
Americans per year.
Unhealthy diet and activity patterns
contribute to the next highest number of
deaths in the United States after tobacco.
Associated with heart disease, high blood
pressure, stroke, diabetes, and cancer

Lifestyle and Health

Transmission of infectious disease accounts
for more than 120,000 deaths annually.
Overuse of antibiotics
Environmental factors
Firearms
Motor vehicle accidents
Lack of access to health care

Lifestyle DiseasesDiabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the amount of sugar
in the blood increases to unhealthy levels due to a
malfunction in the bodys sugar-regulating system.
Type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent) was formerly
referred to as juvenile diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin-dependent) was
formerly referred to as maturity onset diabetes.
Associated with being overweight

Lifestyle DiseasesNearsightedness
Nearsightedness is when vision is affected by
lifestyle.
During early development, a childs eyes adapt to
the visual information they receive from the
environment.
Watching TV and computer screens closely and
reading books, magazines, and newspapers for
many hours daily cause myopia.

Healthy People 2010

Goals:
Help all people to live longer and improve the
quality of their lives
Eliminate health disparities among segments of
the U.S. population
It consists of 467 health objectives grouped into
28 focus areas.
Healthy People 2010 was developed with a greater
understanding of advances in preventive therapies,
vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, assistive
technologies, and computerized systems, as well
as heightened awareness and demand for
preventive health services and quality health care.

Health Issues of College Students

Mental health
Food and weight
Health care
Substance use and abuse
Sexual and relationship health
Accidents and injuries

Making Healthy Changes: The Health

Belief Model
Factors include:

Perceived susceptibility
Perceived seriousness
Perceived benefits of taking action
Barriers to taking action
Cues to action

The Transtheoretical Model

Acknowledges that behavior change goes
through the following stages:

Precontemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance
Termination

It Starts with You

No smoking
Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night
Maintain a healthy body weight
Get regular exercise

It Starts with You

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