Introduction to Health Psychology
Senior 6 · Psychology (Languages)
Introduction to Health Psychology
Lesson 1 of 4
20 min
In 1965 researchers in Alameda County, California, in the United States, asked nearly 7,000 adults about their daily habits. Nedra Belloc and Lester Breslow (1972) focused on seven: sleeping seven to eight hours a night, eating breakfast almost every day, rarely snacking between meals, keeping a healthy weight, not smoking, drinking little or no alcohol, and being physically active. Then they followed the participants for years.
The more of these habits people had, the better their health and the longer they lived. In one widely quoted analysis, a 45-year-old man who followed six or seven of the habits could expect to live about 11 years longer than one who followed fewer than four. None of the habits involved a doctor or a medicine. They were behaviours, and behaviour is what psychology studies.
Definition
Health psychology: the branch of psychology that studies how psychological, behavioural and social factors affect health and illness, and applies this knowledge to promote health, prevent illness and improve health care.
Health behaviour: any action a person takes that affects their health, positively (exercising, sleeping enough) or negatively (smoking).
Health promotion: helping people increase control over, and improve, their health (World Health Organization).
Wellness: an active state of thriving across body, mind, relationships and purpose, not merely the absence of disease.
Prevention: action taken to stop a disease starting (primary), detect it early (secondary) or limit its harm (tertiary).
The World Health Organization estimates that noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung disease, kill about 41 million people a year, around three-quarters of all deaths worldwide. Their main risk factors are behaviours: tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol. Infectious diseases, too, depend on behaviour: sleeping under a mosquito net, washing hands, using condoms, completing a course of treatment. Knowing what is healthy is rarely enough; health psychology asks why people do or do not act on what they know, and how to help them.
Figure 1. The three levels of prevention.
| Area | Example of the work |
|---|---|
| Research | Testing why some people attend screening and others do not |
| Health promotion | Designing messages and programmes that help people stop smoking or be more active |
| Clinical work | Helping patients cope with pain, chronic illness or difficult treatment |
| Health care systems | Improving communication between health workers and patients |
| Policy | Advising on laws and environments that make healthy choices easier |
In Rwanda, much of this work happens in communities: community health workers, elected in each village, follow up pregnant women and children, encourage testing and treatment, and pass on health messages. Their success depends as much on trust, persuasion and habits as on medicines.
University of Manchester, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health: “Minute Lecture - What is Health Psychology?”. Note the examples the speaker gives of how psychology and health affect each other.
Important
Evaluate the Alameda County study. It followed a large community sample for many years, which made it a landmark. But it was correlational and relied on self-reports: people who were already ill may have slept, exercised and eaten less because they were ill, and income or education may have affected both habits and health. Later cohort studies replicated the pattern; for example, Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues (2008) followed about 20,000 adults in Norfolk, England, and found that people with four healthy behaviours had a risk of death equivalent to being about 14 years younger than people with none. Consistent findings across countries strengthen the conclusion, though each is still observational.
Warning
Common mistake: thinking health psychology is only about mental illness. It is about physical health too: how thoughts, feelings, behaviour and social conditions affect the body and illness.
Tip
Memory hook for prevention: primary prevents, secondary spots, tertiary supports.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the table, Figure 1 and the exercises.
