Healthy Living

Self Efficacy - Healthy Living (Theories of Health Belief)

Self efficacy is the belief that you can perform adequately in a particular situation. This influences your perception and motivation as well as your performance. Self efficacy beliefs are concerned with what we believe we are capable of. Those with a strong self efficacy will be more successful in adopting health protective behaviours than those with a weak self efficacy belief. Other things that effect our self efficacy beliefs are observations of the performance of others, social and self persuasion, and emotional state. Wulfert investigated the use of condoms by heterosexual college students and does knowing the risk mean that they will use one. Therefore those with high self efficacy would use one and those with low self efficacy would not.

Locus of Control - Healthy Living (Theories of Health Belief)

How much control people have over behaviour, health and environment. People have internal or external locus of control. People with an external locus of control believe that things are down to look and fate and people with an internal locus of control believe they have control of their own lie therefore are more likely to diet as they have control of their own health. In relation to health this means that people with an internal locus of control are more likely to take responsibility for their health. They are more likely to control their eating and drinking habits  and exercise to lose weight. Whereas people with an external locus of control are less likely to take control of their health by managing their eating and drinking as they believe they have little or no control as their lives are controlled by an external force. 

Health Belief Model - Healthy Living (Theories of Health Belief)

The health belief model is a cognitive model that suggests that a persons health related behaviours are based on their perception of the threat of the health problem and an analysis of the costs and benefits of taking preventative action. It also suggester demographic variables such as age have a strong influence on peoples health related behaviours. Finally cues to action serve to remind people that action may be necessary. The model assumes that the likelihood of a person engaging in a particular health related behaviour is a function of two factors. Firstly the extent to which they believe they are susceptible to the disease/disorder. Secondly their perception of the seriousness of the consequences of getting the disease/disorder. Together these two factors determine the perceived threat of the disease/ disorder.  

Cowpe - Healthy Living (Methods of Health Promotion) 

Can media health promotion campaigns be effective in changing peoples behaviour was what Cowpe was investigating. He compared accident rates before and after the advertising campaign and looked at the effectiveness. It was a quasi experiment comparing accident rates before an after the campaign in areas that received the campaign and those that didn't. Participants were people living in the ten television areas. There were two 60 second TV advertisements shown in ten areas and in 3 of the areas for a further year. Fire brigade statistics showed a reduction in chip pan fires between 25% and 7% with a 12% average reduction. Surveys showed people had a better knowledge of what to do in the event of a chip pan fire after the campaign.

Dannenburg - Healthy Living (Methods of Health Promotion) 

Does changing the law force people to change their behaviour was what Dannenburg was investigating. He was investigating the impact of making a law enforcing children to wear cycle helmets. Data was collected using a questionnaire. 7322 children in three age groups 9-10, 12-13, 14-15 took part. They found that:

County            Before     After

Howard           11.4%     37.5%   = Legal requirement

Montgomery      8.4%     12.6%   = Educational campaign 

Baltimore          6.7%     11.1%   = Control group

Where the law was changed there was a large increase in reported cycle helmet use, reliablity was checked by an observational study.

Janis & Feshback - Healthy Living (Methods of Health Promotion) 

Janis and Feshback aimed to investigate the effect of fear appeals in producing emotional responses and behavioural change. Lab experiment and data collected using questionnaires. The sample was 9th grade students with a mean age of 15. Questionnaires were completed 1 week before the lecture, immediately after and 1 week after. They were shown a 15 minute video illustrating either strong fear (graphic images), mild fear (less graphic), least fear (xrays) and the control group were shown a video about the function of the human eye. They found that the strong fear was most interesting but did not produce behaviour change. Minimal fear group 36% behaviour change, moderate fear group 22%, strong fear group 8% and control group 0% as expected. Therefore strong reactions do not mean a change in behaviour and minimal fear appeals provide information better.

Bullpitt - Healthy Living (Adherence to Medical Regimes)

Bullpitt reviewed research on adherence in hypertensive patients. He reviewed an article of research identifying problems with taking drugs for high blood pressure. Research was analysed to identify the physical and the psychological effects of drug treatment on a persons life. These include work, physical well being, hobbies etc. They found that anti-hypertension medication have many side effects so when the costs of taking medication such as side effects out weight the benefits of treating a problem there is a less likelihood of the patient adhering to their treatment. Sometimes we don't adhere to the advice we are given because there seems to be a logical reason not to such as the side effects of the treatment being worse than the problem it self.

Lustman - Healthy Living (Adherence to Medical Regimes)

Lustman assessed the efficacy of the anti-depressant Fluoxetine in treating depression by measuring glycemic control. It was a randomised controlled double blind study. 60 patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and diagnosed with depression.  Patients were randomly assigned to either the Fluoxetine or Placebo group. Patients were assessed for depression using psychometric tests and their adherence to their medical regimen was measured by measuring their GHb levels which indicated their glycemic control. They found patients given Fluoxetine reported lower levels of depression. They also had lower (nearer to normal) levels of GHb which indicates their improved adherence. Measuring GHb in patients with diabetes indicates their level of adherence to prescribed medical regimes. Greater adherence was shown by patients who were less depressed.  

Watt - Healthy Living (Adherence to Medical Regimes)

Watt aimed to see if using a funhaler can improve children's adherence to taking medication for asthma. A field experiment with 2 conditions was used and then it used a self report to measure adherence rate. 32 children, 10 boys and 22 girls with a mean age of 3.2 years, they had all been diagnosed with asthma and parents gave informed consent. Each participant had one week using a normal inhaler and one week using the funhaler. Each child given a normal inhaler for a week and then parents filled in a questionnaire then in the second week they were given the funhaler which makes a whistle noise and ensures effective inhalation. 38% more parents were found to have medicated their children when using the funhaler. Previous research for no adhering was due to boredom and forgetting. The funhaler improves adherence by making the regime fun.