Understanding Health: Models and Beliefs

Health Overview

• Health as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• Health involves realizing inherent and acquired human potential through goal-directed behavior, competent self-care, and satisfying relationships.
• Individual perceptions and definitions of health are shaped by age and health beliefs.

Models of Health and Illness

• Models help explain complex health concepts.
• Clinical judgement helps identify which model to use.
• Health beliefs are a person's ideas, convictions, and attitudes about health and illness.
• Positive health behaviors maintain, attain, or regain health and prevent illness.
• Negative health behaviors are practices harmful to health, such as smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, risky sexual behaviors, poor diet, and refusing medications.

Health Belief Model (HBM)

• The HBM addresses a connections between a person's beliefs and behaviors, consisting of three components.
• First, it involves an individual's perception of susceptibility to an illness.
• Second, it is an individual's perception of the seriousness of the illness.
• Third, it's the likelihood that a person will take preventative action.
• This model can help to understand patients' perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors for more effective plans to maintain or restore health and prevent illness.

Health Promotion Model (HPM)

• Health is defined as a positive, dynamic state, beyond the mere absence of disease.
• Describes the multidimensional nature of people interacting with their environment to pursue health.
• The model focuses on individual characteristics and experiences; behavior-specific cognitions and affect; and behavioral outcome.
• Health-promoting behaviors lead to improved health, enhanced functional ability, and better quality of life at all developmental stages.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Nurses use Maslow's hierarchy to understand the interrelationships of basic human needs.
• Certain human needs are more fundamental, requiring fulfillment before others.
• Self-actualization represents the highest expression of individual potential, enabling continual self-discovery.
• Bottom to top, the needs are: Physiological, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization

Holistic Health Model

• The relationships among body, mind, and spirit impacts overall health.
• This model promotes realizing an optimal level of health by considering the interactions among the emotional, spiritual, social, cultural, and physical aspects of an individual’s wellness.
• Individual choices significantly influence one's health.
• Common holistic interventions are meditation, music therapy, reminiscence, relaxation therapy, therapeutic touch, and guided imagery.

Variables Influencing Health

• Factors that affect health beliefs and practices include internal and external variables.
• Internal variables include developmental stage, intellectual background, perception of functioning, and emotional and spiritual factors.
• External variables include family practices, psychosocial/socioeconomic factors, and cultural background.
• Health beliefs influence health behaviors or health practices, affecting a patient's health positively or negatively.
• Perceptions of health and related behaviors changes over time through the development stage.
• Intellectual background influences how a patient thinks about health.

External Variables

• Family's roles and organization shape health definitions, illness understandings, and health practices within the family.
• Health levels correlate to personal circumstances and environment.
• Culture, including social context, influences a patient's beliefs, values, and customs.
• Cultural background shapes beliefs about causes and remedies for illness.

Health Promotion, Wellness & Illness Prevention

• Public health focuses on health promotion, wellness, and illness prevention.
• Through actively enhancing one's current health, individuals engage in healthy activities, such as regular exercises, and good nutrition for health stability.
• Health education gives physical awareness, and stress management, boosting individual abilities to improve their health.
• Illness prevention are activities like immunization programs and blood pressure screenings to protect people from actual or potential health risks.

Three Levels of Prevention

• Primary prevention is TRUE. It is done to reduce the incidence of disease.
• Health education programs, nutritional programs, and physical fitness activities are primary preventions and maintaining general health
• Secondary prevention focus on preventing spread of any disease.
• Activities are diagnosis and prompt intervention, reducing severity and enabling early return to a normal health level.
• Tertiary prevention occurs when a defect or disability is permanent and irreversible, minimizing long-term effects of disease
• Interventions aims at preventing further complications and deterioration.

Risk Factors

• A risk factor means any attribute, quality, environmental situation, or trait to an illness or accident.
• Risk factors are impaired gait, reduced vision, and lower extremity weakness
• Non-modifiable risk factors like age, gender, genetics, and family history cannot be changed.
• Behavioral risk factors are modifiable and include smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and lack of rest
• The physical environment where one lives or works might also cause illnesses.

Risk Factor Identification & Changing Health Behaviors

• Health risk appraisals help identify potential health threats based on existing risk factors.
• Once a patient's risk factors are identified, you give education with relevance to improve their behaviors.
• Nursing interventions should align with their particular stage of change to be the most effective.

Illness Defined

• Illness and disease are different concepts
• Illness involves the diminished or impaired physical, emotional, intellectual, social, developmental, or spiritual functioning leading to a feeling of poor health.
• Disease refers to a medical condition that causes distress for the person who is experiencing related symptoms.
• Acute illnesses are short and reversible. Symptoms are quick to appear, are intense, and subside after a short period.
• Chronic Illnesses lasts more than 6 months and are irreversible, affect more symptoms, and can fluctuate and relapse.
• Illness Behavior is people's cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to their diseases, influenced by sociocultural and psychological factors. Internal variables are perceptions of symptoms and the nature of a disease.

Variables influencing Illness

• External variables impacting illness include visibility of symptoms, social group, cultural background, economic status, healthcare access, and social support.
• Short-term, non-life-threatening diseases cause few changes in functioning.
• Body image alterations, because of diseases affect physical appearance.
• Self concept changes from body image, roles, psychology, and spirituality.
• Diseases or illnesses can impact family dynamics.
• Nurses must be competent, quality, and safe, so they must take care of themselves to remain healthy.

Explore the definition of health, models of health and illness, and the Health Belief Model (HBM). Understand how individual beliefs and behaviors impact overall well-being. Learn about positive and negative health behaviors and their effects.