Faculty of Health Sciences

Africa University
E M Chadambuka
 Health risks = Factors that determine
whether or not disease or other unhealthy
results occur
Califano’s classification
1. Inherited biological risks
2. Environmental risks
3. Behavioural risks
4. Age-related risks
 The process of assessing the presence of
specific factors within each of the categories
that have been identified as being associated
with an increased likelihood of an illness or
an unhealthy event
 Based on the assumption that decreasing the
number of risks or the magnitude of risk will
result in a lower probability of the desired
event
 Normative –
◦ Those that generally are expected to occur at a
particular stage of development or of the life span
◦ Can be identified from the family’s developmental
framework e.g. child leaving home to go to college,
marriage, retirement
 Nonnormative events
◦ Those that are not anticipated to occur with any
predictability e.g. loss of a job
 Life events or their accumulation may, under
certain conditions give rise to a family crisis
 A crisis exists when the family is not able to

cope with a life event and becomes

disorganised/dysfunctional