Lect: 6 Health Promotion Dr .

Marghoob H Yaas

Risk Factors and Health Promotion

A Risk Factor includes anything that can increase the vulnerability of an

individual, family, or community to an unhealthy event.

Attributable DALYs

Leading causes of attributable global mortality and burden of

disease, 2014

Attributable Mortality% Attributable DALYs

1. High blood pressure 12.8
2. Tobacco use 8.7
3. High blood glucose 5.8
4. Physical inactivity 5.5
5. Overweight and obesity 4.8
6. High cholesterol 4.5
7. Unsafe sex 4.0
8. Alcohol use3.8
9. Childhood underweight 3.8
10. indoor smoke from solid fuels 3.3
59 million total global deaths in 2014
1. Childhood underweight 5.9
2. Unsafe sex 4.6
3. Alcohol use 4.5
4. Unsafe water, sanitation, hygiene
4.2
5. High blood pressure 3.7
6. Tobacco use 3.7
7. Suboptimal breastfeeding 2.9
8. High blood glucose 2.7
9. Indoor smoke from solid fuels 2.7
10. Overweight and obesity 2.3
1.5 billion total global DALYs in 2014

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Lect: 6 Health Promotion Dr .Marghoob H Yaas

Deaths attributed to 19 leading factors, by country income level, 2014

Risk factors may or may not be controllable.

E.g. cigarette smoking (Tobacco is a leading risk factor for mortality,

responsible for 5.1 million deaths. Almost 1 in 8 deaths of adults over
the age of 30 is due to smoking), weight, exercise, cholesterol, and
stress may be controllable while factors such as age, heredity, and sex
cannot be.

The role of the nurse as educator is to resolve client problems and

providing direction on how to decrease risk factors.

1-Environment: Environment often predisposes a person to disease

processes. For example TB

Environmental risks such as unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene and indoor
smoke from solid fuels cause around 2 million children deaths per year

2-Work: Work influences health and wellness.

3-Socioeconomic Level: The socioeconomic level of an individual influences

on the health care and health promotion activities
4-Education: Education may influence the level of understanding among the
public. Laypersons do not have the knowledge base
a- to know what causes of a disease, or how
b- To prevent the development of the disease.
5-Gender: Males develop testicular cancer and female's uterine/ovarian
cancer due to genetic composition.

6-Cultural and Spiritual Influences

E.g. some cultures rely on prayer to heal while some cultures observe rituals
to rid the body of “evil spirits.