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Qlt1 Task 1

Decent Essays

Health Profile 12: Prevention

Awareness of what health threats I might be susceptible to, and information I learned in this course about health behavior change has led me to take primary and secondary prevention actions (Straub, 2014, pp. 204). Knowing that I have a predisposition to breast cancer, ovarian cancer, hypertension, and heart problems has motivated me to exercise and improve my physical fitness, and visit the doctor more regularly to stay as healthy as possible and keep myself from getting sick. I don’t do drugs or drink alcohol because such behaviors can cause short-term and especially long-term health consequences. These are examples of primary prevention. At a recent visit to the doctor, I was informed that I have high cholesterol, …show more content…

Obesity is within the top five health problems in developed nations, and within the top ten health problems worldwide (Straub, 2014, pp. 272); there are biological, psychological, environmental, and social factors of obesity that society needs to be made more aware of. Society also needs to be aware of how obesity can be combatted. People need to take any prevalence and history of obesity in their family more seriously, and they need to adopt better eating and dietary habits. Obesity is more likely if friends and family are obese (Straub, 2014, pp. 292), so if more people took the initiative to take better care of themselves and improve their health, they could influence any friends in need to do the same. Regarding mental health, after reading George Albee’s article, I think mental health issues are misunderstood by society. It was stated that some people consider mental health disorders to be solely biological in nature (Albee, 1998); environmental and social factors have been neglected and society needs to be made more aware of them. As Albee (1998) states, social change efforts are necessary for prevention of mental disorders to be successful. There is an unfair stigma placed on those with mental disorders, and I think people should learn to be more understanding and more helpful; collectively, society needs to be more supportive of sufferers of mental disorders when they make efforts to receive any possible

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