Behavior change (public health)


Behavior change, in context of public health, refers to efforts put in place to change people's personal habits and attitudes, to prevent disease. Behavior change in public health is also known as social and behavior change communication. More and more, efforts focus on prevention of disease to save healthcare care costs. This is particularly important in low and middle income countries, such as Ghana, where health interventions have come under increased scrutiny because of the cost.

Background

The 3-4-50 concept outlines that there are 3 behaviors, that lead to four diseases, that account for 50% of deaths worldwide.This is why so much emphasis in public health interventions have been on changing behaviors or intervening early on to decrease the negative impacts that come with these behaviors. With successful intervention, there is the possibility of decreasing healthcare costs by a drastic amount, as well as general costs to society. A good public health intervention is not only defined by the results they create, but also the number of levels it hits on the socioecological model. The challenge that public health interventions face is generalizability: what may work in one community may not work in others. However, there is the development of Healthy People 2020 that has national objectives aimed to accomplish in 10 years to improve the health of all Americans.
Health conditions and infections are associated with risky behaviors. Tobacco use, alcoholism, multiple sex partners, substance use, reckless driving, obesity, or unprotected sexual intercourse are some examples. Human beings have, in principle, control over their conduct. Behavior modification can contribute to the success of self-control, and health-enhancing behaviors. Risky behaviors can be eliminated including physical exercise, weight control, preventive nutrition, dental hygiene, condom use, or accident prevention. Health behavior change refers to the motivational, volitional, and action based processes of abandoning such health-compromising behaviors in favor of adopting and maintaining health-enhancing behaviors. Addiction that is associated with risky behavior may have a genetic component.

Theories

Behavior change programs tend to focus on a few behavioral change theories which gained ground in the 1980s. These theories share a major commonality in defining individual actions as the locus of change. Behavior change programs that are usually focused on activities that help a person or a community to reflect upon their risk behaviors and change them to reduce their risk and vulnerability are known as interventions. Examples include: "Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change", "theory of reasoned action", "health belief model", "theory of planned behavior", diffusion of innovation", and the health action process approach. Developments in health behavior change theories since the late 1990s have focused on incorporating disparate theories of health behavior change into a single unified theory.

Individual and interpersonal

, or BCC, is an approach to behavior change focused on communication. It is also known as social and behavior change communication, or SBCC. The assumptions is that through communication of some kind, individuals and communities can somehow be persuaded to behave in ways that will make their lives safer and healthier. BCC was first employed in HIV and TB prevention projects. More recently, its ambit has grown to encompass any communication activity whose goal is to help individuals and communities select and practice behavior that will positively impact their health, such as immunization, cervical cancer check up, employing single-use syringes, etc.

Examples

Organizations, foundations and programs