PRACTISING AND CHANGING HEALTH BEHAVIOURS

The demographic factors such as age, personal values, social influence, etc. affecting the health
behaviours and habits of an individuals are mentioned under:-

 Age:-

In childhood, children are simply provided with adequate protection, security, and care
when they needed. Their health habits are thus typically good as they are under the control
of their elders. The same applies to old people; their health habits and behaviours are
basically good and well practised as they are being routine driven. An individual belonging to
the adolescence and the young adulthood stages is perfectly independent of anyone. His or
her health habits may be extremely good if he or she comprehends the value of health; but,
on the other hand, health habits might be deteriorated if he or she does not really follow the
healthy habits and behaviours or does not understand one’s duties towards health. Ageing
as we all know is the phenomenon of changes that occur in an individual over time. Humans,
of course, cannot escape from ageing. Age is thus, in fact, a critical factor influencing one’s
health behaviours.

 Values:-

As we all know, values are regarded as the moral standards of human behaviours. As a
matter of fact, different cultures have different values. We exercise our values in different
ways. In different cultures, several different values and health habits are being practised.
Diet, medication and even interactive values differ. For instance, in one culture, the
consumption of meat is frowned upon while in another culture, there may not be any
restrictions in food habits or eating. This clearly throws a light that different values exercised
affect one’s behaviours towards health.

 Social influence:-

Some good health related habits such as eating sensibly, exercising and not involving in
drinking or smoking are influenced by society – friends, neighbours, relatives or family
members. For example, being in a circle of alcoholic friends that will affect one’s perception
about drinking alcohol or any other similar products. In the other hand, being in a group of
friends that don’t smoke and drink will affect one’s perception to smoking and drinking in
another way round. Furthermore, another simple daily life example can be cited upon – a
child living in a community where people do not value cleanliness and do not practise
hygienic habits. In such a case, the child will never understand the critical importance of
healthy habits and cleanliness. Hence, we can obviously say that social influence play a
massive role towards building one’s health behaviours.

 Knowledge and intelligence:-

It is pretty obvious that intelligence and knowledge play a big role in building an individual’s
behaviours and habits towards health. Consequently, intelligent people may develop
healthier behaviours, e.g. having healthy dietary habits, smoke less, be moderate with
alcohol use and other behaviours. In self health care, thinking skills play a very crucial role.

 Accessibility to healthcare delivery system:-

 Access to health care impacts one's overall behaviours towards performing or practising
health habits. We cannot deny the fact that some people face barriers to health services
which may include: high cost of care, lack of availability of services, no insurance coverage,
etc. When people get to avail of proper health care services, they will be able to get access
to healthcare awareness, thus, indirectly they will obtain and comprehend knowledge about
healthy and hygienic habits. Hence, indirectly, accessibility to health care services impacts
one’s daily health behaviours.

 Personal goals:-

We all have different goals. Each one of us tries to strive towards achieving our goals – short
term or long term goals. For example, if our main goal is to have a healthy fair skin, we will
always cultivate health habits that will allow us to have a healthy fair skin. We will be
conscious with regards to food habits, exposure to environmental factors (sun rays) , and we
will also try to get the best fair skin cream/lotion or any other similar products that will help
keeping our skin healthy and fair. Similarly, if our goal is to maintain physical fitness, we
cultivate healthy habits like exercising daily, taking enough rest, choosing healthy food
habits, etc. So, we clearly understand that goals that an individual has, have a very strong
impact on building or maintaining healthy behaviours.

 Perceived symptoms:-

Perceiving symptoms means how one becomes aware of bodily dysfunction. How one
perceive symptoms differ from how another one perceives. For instance, a young boy has
bad eating habits and food choices. He may eat junk food items almost every single day, and
until one day he starts to have stomach problems and he begins to perceive that problem as
a symptom leading to a bigger major illness. So, he stops practising bad eating habits and
starts to cultivate hygienic habits regarding food choice. This means that the way he
perceives symptoms affects his health behaviours in a positive way. Thus, health habits can
be impacted by symptom perception or perceived symptoms.

 Personal control:-

Personal control is an individual’s belief about how he or she can bring about good or bad
events in life. In fact, High personal control is associated with intellectual, emotional,
behavioural, and physiological vigour. People who really have a strong self control and
responsibility over their health are more likely to practise healthy and hygienic habits and
have a positive behaviour towards health. For example, if one can strongly control one’s
health, he or she can easily avoid bad habits like smoking, drinking, having bad eating habits,
oversleeping, etc. Thus, personal control has a strong impact upon one’s health behaviours.

••••••••••

Aibianglin Thabah,
B.Sc, 2nd Semester,
Department of Psychology.