Health Education MIDW 303 Week 1

Study Notes

Health is universally recognized across cultures, traditionally defined as the "absence of disease."
Various concepts of health include:
- Ecological: Dynamic balance between individual and environment.
- Continuum: Ranges from optimal health to total disability or death.
- Social Wellbeing: Harmony between individuals, society, and the environment.
- Spiritual Wellbeing: Pursuit of meaning and purpose, often linked to religious beliefs.

Socioeconomic conditions significantly impact health outcomes:
- Economic Status: Influences standard of living and disease patterns. Higher socioeconomic status can correlate with lifestyle diseases.
- Education: Low education levels are associated with poverty, malnutrition, and increased mortality rates, particularly among women.
- Occupation: Employment generally promotes health, while unemployment can lead to psychological and social issues.

Aimed at improving population health, including immunization and maternal care.
Effective health services must be accessible and equitably distributed, particularly in rural areas.

Agricultural practices, urban development, and access to safe water are vital for health improvement.
In developing countries, poor sanitation and personal hygiene significantly increase illness and mortality risks.

Healthy behaviors enhance individual and community health, while unhealthy behaviors diminish quality of life.
Preventive health measures often require lifestyle adjustments to promote health.

Use of mosquito nets and insect sprays can prevent disease.
Poor hygiene practices, such as feeding children with unhygienic bottles, increase diarrheal risks.
Open field defecation leads to parasitic infections.
Unsafe sex practices elevate risks of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.

Divided into three categories:
- Predisposing Factors: Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and values that motivate behaviors.
- Enabling Factors: Resources and opportunities that facilitate or hinder health behaviors.
- Reinforcing Factors: Consequences that follow behaviors and influence future actions.

Knowledge: Information storage that influences prevention methods, e.g., understanding HIV transmission.
Beliefs: Convictions about truth or reality, often inherited culturally or socially, can be helpful, harmful, or neutral.
- Example beliefs: Iron usage during postpartum (neutral); beliefs about diarrhea leading to death (helpful); misconceptions about measles vaccination (harmful).
Attitudes: Mentalities that shape behavior, often influenced by personal experiences with health services.
Values: Collective societal ideals that determine what is considered desirable; e.g., marriage and family are valued in many cultures.