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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

[A study of health behavior of the elderly without occupation--correlation between participation in health examinations and health behavior].

A survey on the health behavior of inhabitants without occupations, aged 60 or over who lived in city A in Kagawa prefecture (400 people), was performed. The results are summarized as follows: 1. The rates of participation in the general health checkup and the screening for colon cancer were high. In females, significant correlations were observed between the rates of participation in health examinations/screenings and age, but they were not significant in males. 2. The rates of good health practices were high in the items "Taking breakfast", "No change of body weight", "Sleeping adequately" and "Drinking moderately or no drinking". The rate of "Exercise" for males was higher than for females, and the rate of "No smoking" was lower for males than for females. For females, a correlation was observed between the score of good health practices and age, and this score decreased with age, but in males there was no significant difference. 3. The rate of participation in health education or health consultation was about 40 percent, and the rate of participation was larger for female inhabitants than for male inhabitants. 4. Persons who participated in the health examinations/screenings had more healthful practices than who did not participate. A correlation was observed between the rates of participation in health examinations/screenings and "Exercise." 5. Persons who participated in health education or health consultation had more healthful practices than who did not participate. 6. Correlations were observed between the rates of participation in health examinations/screenings and the rate of participation in the health education, or health itself. In this analyzed sample population, the health behavior of primary prevention and secondary prevention were related to each other, and the existence of common factors among health behavior for primary prevention and secondary prevention was estimated. Differences were observed between males and females concerning correlations between health behavior and age. It is thus necessary to improve health behavior via a continuous approach to the lifestyle for women. We think that good health behavior which continues over a long period of time can be instilled by approaching the lifestyle at the time of retirement for men.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in relation to social and behavioral factors (Lithuanian health behavior monitoring).

The aim of the study is to estimate the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Lithuanian adult population and to examine the association of social and health behavior factors with overweight and obesity. Since 1994 five cross-sectional surveys have been conducted among adult population aged 20-64 within the international FINBALT HEALTH MONITOR project. An independent national random sample of 3000 inhabitants of Lithuania was drawn from National Population Register for each survey. The data were collected through mailed questionnaires (covering sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and self-reported height and weight). Overweight was defined as BMI>25 kg/m ( 2 ) and obesity - as BMI>30 kg/m ( 2 ). In 2002 the overall prevalence of obesity was 16% and the prevalence of overweight - 49.1%. Since 1994 both indicators have increased in men while in women the prevalence of overweight has decreased. The prevalence of obesity and overweight increased with age. Obesity and overweight were least prevalent among the highly educated women, but most prevalent among the highly educated men. Women living in cities were less obese and overweight than those living in towns and villages. Obesity and overweight were less prevalent among daily smokers and physically active persons. Women drinking beer at least once a week were less obese and overweight than those who consumed beer more rarely. There was no consistent association between nutrition habits and the prevalence of obesity and overweight. The National obesity control program aimed at promotion of healthy nutrition and physical activity should be elaborated in order to decrease the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Lithuanian population.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing the information management requirements for behavioral health providers.

Behavioral health agencies will soon implement automated information-management systems to support their administrative, financial, and clinical care functions. Assessing current information-management capabilities and delineating future needs are prerequisite to recommending a specific information technology solution. Quantifying the discrepancy between current information-management capabilities and future requirements highlights the areas of greatest unmet need for information management. Selecting an information system that addresses the most critical areas of unmet need is a prudent purchase decision. This article describes the results of a process to assess the information-management requirements for agencies that were considering implementation of an integrated behavioral health information-management system. The assessment revealed that these agencies already employed automated systems to manage most financial functions and many administrative functions. Few agencies, however, utilized automated systems to manage clinical care functions. Selection of a behavioral health electronic medical record (EMR) effectively addressed clinical care information-management needs without duplicating existing financial and administrative management functions. Also, the EMR included features that addressed some administrative functions for which a discrepancy between current capabilities and future needs was found. Selecting an EMR instead of an integrated behavioral health information system was associated with a significant reduction in information system acquisition costs.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2000

A structural model of health behavior: a pragmatic approach to explain and influence health behaviors at the population level.

BACKGROUND: Behavior is influenced by individual-level attributes as well as by the conditions under which people live. Altering policies, practices, and the conditions of life can directly and indirectly influence individual behavior. This paper builds on existing ecological theories of health behavior by specifying structural mechanisms by which population-level factors effect change in individual health behaviors. METHODS: This paper moves ecological theory from model building to a pragmatic characterization of structural interventions. We examined social and environmental factors beyond individual control and mechanisms as to how they influence behavior. RESULTS: Four categories of structural factors are identified: (1) availability of protective or harmful consumer products, (2) physical structures (or physical characteristics of products), (3) social structures and policies, and (4) media and cultural messages. The first three can directly influence individuals through facilitating or constraining behavior. The fourth, media, operates by changing individual-level attitudes, beliefs, and cognitions, as well as group norms. CONCLUSION: Interventions that target the four identified structural factors are a means to provide conditions that not only reduce high-risk behavior but also prevent the adoption of high-risk behaviors. Structural interventions are important and underutilized approaches for improving our nation's health.

Health Behavior↗
PubMed1988

Hardiness and health behavior: the role of health concern as a moderator variable.

The present paper reports an investigation of the relationship between psychological hardiness and health behavior. It was posited that one mechanism by which hardiness may buffer the stress-illness relationship is through its effect on health behavior. Those high in hardiness may engage in more health-protective behaviors than those low in hardiness, so that when under stress they are less likely to become ill. Given the disparity of findings in the research literature, however, it is possible that this relationship may be moderated by other variables. One such variable is health concern. Ninety-six university undergraduates completed a set of questionnaires that included a measure of current health behavior, psychological hardiness, and health as a personal life concern. A multiple regression analysis revealed that health behavior overall was unrelated to hardiness. However, the Hardiness X Health Concern interaction was significant. This was interpreted to mean that for those individuals with a high concern for health, as opposed to those low in health concern, hardiness was significantly related to health behavior. The findings, in general, illustrate the need to consider moderator variables when investigating the determinants of complex behaviors such as health behavior and, in particular, point to the necessity of including such variables in the analysis of the hardiness-health-behavior relationship.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Type of social support among homeless women: its impact on psychosocial resources, health and health behaviors, and use of health services.

BACKGROUND: Information about whether specific types of support are associated with poor psychosocial profiles, health behaviors, and positive use of medical care is critical for identifying homeless women at highest risk for negative outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the impact that various levels of support from substance users and nonusers have on homeless women's psychosocial profiles, health and health behaviors, and use of health services. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey used a sample of 1,302 sheltered homeless women. Using controls for potential confounders, outcomes were compared across four mutually exclusive subgroups of women reporting support from substance users only (n = 58), substance nonusers only (n = 439), both users and nonusers (n = 136), and no one (n = 669). Structured and psychometrically sound instruments measured social support, substance use, self-esteem, coping, and psychological symptoms. Additional instruments measured sociodemographic characteristics, sexual risk behavior, health status, and use of health services. RESULTS: As compared with those who have little or no support, women whose support included substance nonusers reported better psychosocial profiles and somewhat greater use of health services. Support from substance nonusers only was associated with better health behaviors and greater use of health services. Support from substance users only was essentially equivalent to not having support. CONCLUSION: Modifying the social networks of homeless women appears to be associated with improved mental health outcomes, less risky health behaviors, and greater use of health services.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1984

Reasons for the lack of association between changes in health behavior and improved health status: an exploratory study.

Persons with arthritis who attended a 12-hour self-management course generally showed improved health behaviors and improved health status. However, no association was found between the two. We therefore interviewed 54 course participants to determine factors that were associated with positive and negative health-status outcomes. Persons having positive outcomes indicated that they had more control over their disease and had a positive emotional status. Persons with negative outcomes indicated a lack of control and generally had a negative emotional status. These differences were statistically significant.

Arthritis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Normative beliefs of health behavior professionals regarding the psychosocial and environmental factors that influence health behavior change related to smoking cessation, regular exercise, and weight loss.

PURPOSE: To examine the degree of consensus among health behavior change professionals regarding the personal and environmental factors they believe most strongly influence health behavior decisions related to smoking cessation, regular exercise, and weight loss. DESIGN: A factorial survey design was implemented. This method combines the positive elements from simple sample surveys and factorial experiment designs. A total of 44 independent psychosocial and environmental variables are used to randomly construct vignettes, or short stories, to collect dependent variable data. SUBJECTS: A probability sample of 311 health behavior change professionals was selected from the Society for Public Health Education, Inc., the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and faculty from the 1986 Harvard University Symposium on Health Promotion in the Work Place. MEASURES: Judgment ratings on the probability that the person described in each vignette would initiate the behavior in question. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis indicates that the multidimensional model explained approximately one half of the variance in the judgments across the three health behaviors (smoking cessation, R2 = .52; weight loss, R2 = .49; and regular exercise, R2 = .49). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a high degree of consensus among the sample regarding the personal and environmental factors that influence health behavior judgments. Here, the subjects perceive both behavioral intentions and self-efficacy as the most powerful determinants of judgments to initiate weight loss, regular exercise, and smoking cessation.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A vision for doctoral research training in health behavior: a position paper from the American Academy of Health Behavior.

OBJECTIVE: To establish and disseminate the position of the American Academy of Health Behavior (The Academy) on doctoral research training. METHODS: A collaborative process involving the Work Group on Doctoral Research Training with input from The Academy membership led to the development of the guidelines described herein. RESULTS: A set of guidelines is provided that describe the process of learning to be a scholar/researcher and the outcomes of learning the practice of health behavior research. CONCLUSIONS: The doctoral students who are to become the stewards of our field should be prepared to engage in scholarship that creates new knowledge, uses research to transform practice, and effectively communicates research findings.

Behavioral Research↗
PubMed1991

Health behaviors, risk factors, and health indicators associated with cigarette use in Mexican Americans: results from the Hispanic HANES.

BACKGROUND: Cigarette smokers often engage in other, potentially deleterious, health behaviors. Such behaviors have not been well documented in Mexican American smokers. METHODS: Data from the Southwestern sample of the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) were employed to investigate differences in health behaviors, risk factors and health indicators between cigarette smokers and nonsmokers among Mexican Americans. Differences between those smoking less than 10 and 10 or more cigarettes per day were also examined by age group and gender. RESULTS: Positive associations between smoking status and heavy coffee and alcohol consumption were found across gender and age groups. Less consistent was the finding that smokers weighed less than nonsmokers. Lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures in middle-aged smokers, and higher levels of depressive symptomatology among smoking women were found. Those smoking 10 or more cigarettes per day were more likely to report heavy coffee consumption, with younger men reporting greater activity limitation due to poor health. Middle-aged men and women in the 10+ category were generally in better health than lighter smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Modest associations between cigarette smoking, health behaviors and risk factors found in other studies were confirmed in this Mexican American population. Few significant associations between smoking and health status were noted.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

Children's perceptions of TV and health behavior effects.

PURPOSE: To understand and document children's stated experiences and beliefs about television and to elicit their suggestions for alternative activities. DESIGN AND METHODS: Eleven focus groups were conducted with 51 Anglo and Latino children, ages 7-10, in a large Northern California city. Philosophical underpinnings of developmental psychology were the basis for multiphase thematic analysis. Data were collected in 1998-1999. RESULTS: Themes were identified in five conceptual categories. Findings showed that children did not perceive many parental rules related to TV watching, rather daily routines are associated with TV viewing. Children revealed both covert and overt motivations for watching. Nearly all participants spoke of the deception of advertising, but they were unclear about the role of commercial sponsors in payment for TV shows. Children perceived both negative physical and behavioral health effects of TV and they had great difficulty imagining life without a TV. CONCLUSIONS: Children perceived television as providing educational and relational needs. Although they preferred alternatives to TV, they had difficulty articulating and getting those needs met. Clinicians and researchers can utilize these findings to design health interventions that attenuate the health-impairing effects of habitual sedentary activity in childhood.

Advertising↗
PubMed2006

Understanding and modeling health behavior: the multi-stage model of health behavior change.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Multi-Stage Model (MSM). The MSM proposes eight different stages that are distinguished by cognitions and behavior and concepts of habituation as well. The MSM stages were assessed in 835 rehabilitation patients with a questionnaire. People in the different stages were compared and trends across the means of individuals in the different stages were evaluated to test for discontinuity patterns. Discontinuity patterns across the stages were found in social-cognitive variables such as intention, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies and social support. Most predictions according to stage differences were empirically found. This supported the validity of the MSM. Implications for further investigations and stage-specific interventions are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Protecting the privacy of third-party information: recommendations for social and behavioral health researchers.

In psychosocial and health-behavioral research, we often request that research participants provide information on significant individuals in their lives, so-called "third parties". Recently there has been a greater recognition of privacy issues and risks in research pertaining to third parties. Reaction on the part of USA federal regulatory authorities to one study [Amber, D. (2000). Case at vcu bring ethics to forefront. , 14, 1], which attempted to collect survey data about the psychiatric history of respondents' parents, has generated such concern and caution that longstanding practices for the collection of social determinants of health data are being questioned and are at risk of being disallowed by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). In this paper, we consider third party research rights and risks from the perspective of social and behavioral scientists. Focusing on research about health and quality of life, we first discuss the rationale for research methods that elicit contextual information about family members, friends, co-workers, and other social contacts. Second, we discuss the matter of 'privacy' and its central role in the current third party rights and risks dialogue. Next, we describe ways to effectively manage third-party information, building upon current recommendations by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) and Botkin's [(2001). Protecting the privacy of family members in survey and pedigree research. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(2), 207-211] treatment of the matter for survey and pedigree research. Lastly, we discuss the implications of applying these data collection and management strategies in social and behavioral research. We assert that these recommendations protect the rights of, and minimize the risks to, third parties without impeding social and behavioral health research.

Behavioral Medicine↗