Home / Education

Model of Factors Influencing Health Behavior


of the subject needing TT-GDSK.


2.1. Thoughts and feelings

Faced with events and problems in life, each of us may have different thoughts and feelings. Our thoughts and feelings originate from our knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and values. It is the level of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and values ​​that make us decide to practice this or that behavior.

Maybe you are interested!

2.1.1. Knowledge

Knowledge or understanding of each person is gradually accumulated through learning and experience gained in life. We can gain knowledge from teachers, parents, friends, colleagues, people around us, books, and the mass media . In life, each of us can check whether our understanding is correct or incorrect. From specific events encountered in daily life, each person's knowledge is accumulated . Children put their hands in fire, they know that fire is hot and painful. This makes children gain the understanding of never putting their hands in fire again . Children can see an animal running across the road and being run over by a car , from this incident children learn that running across the road can be dangerous and need to be careful when crossing the road . Knowledge is one of the important factors that help people have the right thoughts and feelings, thereby leading to appropriate behavior in each incident. Knowledge of each person is accumulated throughout life. Having knowledge or understanding of health diseases and health protection and promotion is a necessary condition for people to have the basis to practice healthy health behaviors. Knowledge of health care, protection and promotion is a necessary condition for people to have the basis to practice healthy health behaviors. Knowledge of health care and protection can be obtained from different sources and accumulated through practical activities. The role of the health sector and health workers in providing knowledge to people in the community is very important, through the implementation of the task of TT-GDSK.

2.1.2. Belief

Beliefs are social products of individual perceptions and group experiences. Every society forms and builds beliefs about all aspects of life. Most beliefs are deeply rooted and therefore accepted by society and rarely questioned. Beliefs are often derived from parents, grandparents and people we respect. We often accept beliefs without trying to determine whether they are true or false. A belief is formed through learning throughout life and observing others. Beliefs formed at a young age, or from trusted people, are difficult to change.

In many countries around the world, it is believed that pregnant women should eat and avoid certain foods. For example, in one region it is believed that pregnant women should avoid eating certain types of meat, otherwise the children they give birth to will behave like the animals whose meat they ate while pregnant. These beliefs have discouraged women from having children.


Pregnant women eat certain foods, which will not be beneficial to the health of the child. Any country and any community have their own beliefs. Beliefs can be right, can be wrong, some beliefs are beneficial to health, some beliefs are harmful to health. Beliefs are part of the way of life of people. It shows what people accept and what people do not accept.

Beliefs are powerful, they influence people's attitudes and behaviors. Beliefs are often difficult to change. Some health workers or health educators believe that all traditional beliefs are wrong and need to be changed. This is not entirely true. The task of health educators is to first determine which beliefs are right, which beliefs are wrong , which beliefs are harmful, which beliefs are beneficial to health, and then plan to change behaviors stemming from beliefs that are harmful to health. However, depending on each specific case, health education should be conducted to change behaviors related to beliefs appropriately... The belief that pregnant women should not eat eggs is a belief that is harmful to the health of the mother and future child because eggs are a source of protein . Before wanting to change this belief, we need to consider the discovery that if pregnant women are fed foods rich in protein and other nutrients such as meat, fish, cheese, peanuts, sesame, etc., then there is no need to worry too much about beliefs related to egg abstinence during pregnancy. In one locality, people believe that if pregnant women work at noon under the hot sun, "evil spirits" can enter the mother's body and destroy the fetus. This belief is not true, but it has the effect of advising pregnant women not to work under the hot sun, which is harmful to the fetus. With these types of beliefs that are incorrect, but the behavior related to this belief is beneficial to health, it is necessary to explain to the subject who has this belief to clearly understand the basis of the behavior that is beneficial to health so that they can maintain it.


Belief analysis has practical implications for information and education. For example, a person agrees that alcoholism is serious and preventable, but does not believe that he or she is susceptible to becoming an alcoholic. Therefore, in this case, we should not spend time and effort educating this person about the seriousness of alcoholism but rather focus on making him or her realize that he or she is at risk of alcoholism. A woman believes that her child can get measles and that it will lead to serious consequences. However, she may not believe that measles can be prevented by vaccination. In this case, an important basis for information and education strategy should focus on the message that vaccination can prevent measles in children.

2.1.3. Attitude

Attitude is considered as the state of readiness of the body to respond to specific situations or circumstances. Attitude reflects what people like or dislike, believe or disbelieve, agree or disagree, support or oppose... Attitude often originates from beliefs, experiences or is accumulated in life, and attitudes are also influenced by people around. People living close to us can make us think, the way we act.


perception of the problem, the level of concern about the problem, which leads to changes in attitude. Our attitudes can be derived from other people, especially those we respect.


Attitudes are influenced by the environment and circumstances. In certain circumstances, people are not allowed to behave in accordance with their attitudes. For example, a mother really wants to take her child with a high fever to a health station for examination and treatment, but because it is nighttime and the health station is far from home, the mother is forced to take her child to a private doctor near her home. This does not mean that the mother has changed her attitude towards the health station. Sometimes people's incorrect attitudes are formed from events that have no valid basis and are not representative. For example, a person comes to buy medicine at a health station for treatment but the illness takes a long time to heal. This person forms the thought that the health station sells bad medicine, from which he has an attitude of distrust in the health station and does not go to the health station for examination and purchase medicine anymore. In this case, there can be many reasons for the illness taking a long time to heal, not because the medicine sold by the health station is not of guaranteed quality. Attitude is very important leading to each person's behavior, so when considering an unreasonable attitude towards illness and health issues, it is necessary to clearly understand the cause of this attitude, from there find a reasonable TT-GDSK method to convince the subject to change their attitude.

2.1.4. Value

Values ​​are standards that play an important role in influencing people's thoughts and feelings. A standard that a person considers valuable to them will be a motivation for action. Values ​​are also qualities that stand in the way of some obstacle, such as courage or intelligence. Values ​​for someone might be reflected in the following statement: "The most important things to me are...". Examples of standards or characteristics that may be considered valuable by a community include:

+ Mothers with many children are considered happy mothers;

+ Mothers with healthy children are happy mothers;

+ Having many poultry, private fields and gardens is followed by friends;

+ High cultural level is respected by the community;

+ Having many friends is luxurious;

+ Health is a valuable asset of every person.

Each person, each family, each community may have different value concepts. Value concepts often become the driving force for behaviors related to striving to achieve desired value standards. Each individual may have his or her own value standards, but often values ​​are part of cultural life and are shared in a community or in a country. Health is one of the important values ​​of each person. In TT-GDSK, we need to try to make people understand the value of a healthy life, the value of health, thereby encouraging people to think about the value of health for life and take practical actions to maintain and develop health.


2.2. Key influencers

One reason why health education programs fail may be that they focus on individuals without considering the influence of others on their behavior. In reality, few people decide to act without considering the opinions or views of those around them. We are all influenced by others in complex social networks. When someone is considered important by the community, the community is more likely to listen, trust and follow what they advise or do. Some people want to act, but others have the opposite view. Who has more influence on an individual or community depends on the individual 's relationships, circumstances, beliefs, and community culture. For example, in some communities mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law influence child care behavior. In some other communities, older people, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, have more influence on child care. The people who have a major influence on each person's behavior can vary across time and space in life.


Typically, the people who have the most influence on us are our parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, teachers, friends, leaders, colleagues, people with a lot of experience, high qualifications, special skills. Health care workers have an important influence on the health behavior of individuals and communities.


For children when they are young, first of all, parents, grandparents, and siblings are the most important influence on them. When they grow up and go to school, teachers have an extremely important influence. The younger the student, the more influenced by the behavior of teachers. Friends who study together and are of the same age influence each other's behavior. In a group of friends, we can observe the similar behavior of group members. For example, in a group of adolescents, a child who smokes can see other children smoking. In an organization, the behavior of employees can be influenced by the leader. In each community, community leaders have an important influence on the behavior of community members. Thus, when conducting health education communication, it is necessary to pay attention to the influence of people around them on changing the behavior of the subjects. The influence of people around them can create social pressure that strongly affects the subject. Examples of social pressure include a woman who does not use contraception because her husband does not agree, a young man who starts smoking because his friends encourage him to. A young mother who wants to give her child water when he has diarrhea but is prevented by her grandmother . Many children brush their teeth because they follow their mother's example. Families build two-compartment latrines because the religious leader in the community wants them to build two-compartment latrines. Thus, social pressure can have both positive and negative effects on health promotion and protection practices. The health education practitioner needs to identify key players who can create positive influences for promoting health behaviors and limit the negative influences of those who hinder the practice of health behaviors.


2.3. Resources

To practice many health-promoting and disease-preventing behaviors, communities or individuals need to have the necessary resources. Resources for implementing behaviors include factors such as time, human resources, money, facilities and equipment. Many individuals have enough knowledge, they clearly understand their health care needs, but because of lack of resources, they cannot perform the desired behaviors. However, in reality, health information and education people need to pay attention to educating some subjects who, although they have the ability in terms of resources, use the reason of lack of resources to refuse to perform healthy health behaviors.

2.3.1. Time

Time is a very important factor that affects human behavior. There are behaviors that take time to practice or to change. For example, a tailor has a lot of work to do in a short period of time. Unfortunately, he has a headache, he wants to go to the hospital to see a doctor, but he is afraid that he will have to wait a long time because the hospital is very crowded and he will not be able to deliver the goods to the customer on time. This will lose his reputation with customers, so he decides to go to a pharmacy near his house to buy medicine to treat himself. The source of medical services is very important, but if it is not convenient (too crowded), it will also negatively affect the behavior of using those services.

2.3.2. Human resources

Human resources can have a decisive influence on the health behavior of the community. If a community can mobilize human resources , organizing welfare labor activities for the community will be carried out easily. For example, mobilizing human resources to clean up village roads, improve water supply sources, build schools, health stations, public sanitation works... Many health promotion and education activities, especially health promotion and education activities on implementing common preventive measures such as improving the environment, providing clean water... need resources from the community to participate in creating a movement, spreading influence, and influencing changes in the general health behavior of the whole community.

2.3.3. Funding

Money is essential to be able to practice some health behaviors. Because of lack of money, some mothers cannot buy enough nutritious food for their children, even though they have enough knowledge about child nutrition care. Some people are forced to do dangerous jobs , lacking labor protection equipment, which can endanger their health and life to earn money. In rural areas, many people lack money to build standard sanitation facilities. Because of lack of money, some people do not have regular health check-ups that can detect potential health problems early.

2.3.4. Facilities and equipment

Facilities and equipment are necessary conditions to support changes in some health behaviors. If the health station has good facilities and equipment, it will attract people to use the medical examination and treatment services provided by the station . Means of support for health information and education activities such as audio-visual equipment, beautifully printed health education materials, etc. will attract people to come and participate.


attend TT-GDSK activities.


2.3.5. Community cultural factors

It can be said that the factors that influence human behavior are different from one community to another. Common factors that create behavior such as knowledge, beliefs, socially accepted values, the use of resources in the community, social communication, ethical standards... are factors that contribute to the formation of lifestyle and are understood as culture . Culture is a synthesis of many factors including knowledge, beliefs, customs, arts, ethics, laws, habits and all the abilities that people acquire in life. Culture is expressed in the daily life of social members, culture is a "way of life" (according to the definition of author Otto Klin Berg). Each culture has its own characteristics, representing a way that the community finds to live together in their environment.


Culture has been developed over thousands of years by people living together in a community, society and sharing experiences in a certain environment. Culture continues to change, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly as a result of natural and social processes or cultural exchanges between people from different cultures. Human behavior is a manifestation of culture and culture has a profound influence on human behavior. When observing and studying communities, we can see, hear and understand the culture of the community. Each culture has its own characteristics, representing a way that the community finds to live together in their environment. Health workers and health care workers, when working with a community, must learn about the characteristics of the community's culture, know how to listen and observe to carefully study the causes of health-related behaviors originating from the culture of the community. This will help the TT-GDSK staff to be accepted by the community and to find TT-GDSK intervention solutions that are suitable for the community culture.


Thus, there can be many factors that influence health such as common actions and behaviors, not just medications and medical services.


Many health education programs fail because they do not pay attention to the cultural, economic, social, and political factors that influence people's health behaviors. A full study of the factors that influence people's health behaviors is necessary to avoid failures in implementing health education. It is necessary to identify which behaviors are under individual control and which behaviors are influenced by the community and the nation. Furthermore, it is necessary to identify the difficulties, challenges, and equity in the community to be able to understand all individual or community behaviors. We also need to promote the influence of leaders on the course of action for changes in health and social policies that affect health behaviors. By identifying detailed behaviors, we can recognize the difficulties of individuals, families, and communities in following the advice of health workers and health educators.


If we only stop at finding out the cause of the behavior, we cannot expect the subject to change his behavior, but we need to continue to help the subject, creating conditions for them to practice new behaviors to replace the old behavior. For example, if we only say that we must breastfeed , take our children to get vaccinated, practice family planning, build sanitation facilities... it is not enough for people to do it, but we also have to consider the availability of services, the ability to access these services, the time of the mothers, the skills instruction needed for mothers to do it, as well as the resources needed to do the expected behaviors.

3. MODEL OF FACTORS AFFECTING HEALTH BEHAVIOR

From the analysis of the above factors, we can see that health behavior is influenced by many complex and interrelated factors. To change unhealthy behaviors, it is necessary to analyze to find out the underlying causes of those behaviors, that is, to "diagnose" the reason why the subject practices that behavior. A number of models and theories on behavior change have been analyzed and developed by educational psychologists and social scientists.

Below is a simple, general model of factors that influence health behavior in general. The model helps health care workers to consider behavior and the steps in making decisions about health care to change behavior, which is the BASNEF model. The BASNEF model is an acronym for the English words: beliefs, attitudes, subject norms, and factors that can influence individual behavior change (Enabling Factors). The BASNEF model is as follows:


Figure 3.1. BASNEF model of factors influencing behavior change


Applying the BASNEF model involves considering the desired behaviors of the community. When starting to plan a health education program, it is necessary to find out the important factors


include beliefs, values, social pressures and factors that can influence the community. The TT-GDSK implementer can raise questions about social influences, health beliefs and conduct community surveys and diagnostics if resources allow. Once there is sufficient information about influencing factors according to the BASNEF model, the decision making of the TT-GDSK program should pay attention to the following aspects:


- Ensure that changing old behaviors and practicing new behaviors will improve health and bring practical benefits to the community.

- Ensure that behavioral changes are feasible: avoid behaviors that are too complex, too resource-intensive, and not consistent with the community's current behavioral culture.

- Provide the elements that may be necessary to help change behavior. In the communication program, we need to ensure the resource requirements to implement certain behaviors, need to consider the conditions of the community such as time, income, housing, water supply, environmental sanitation, agricultural development, food, food. Addressing the elements that may be needed often involves integrating and coordinating cross-sectoral activities both at the local and higher levels.

- Pay attention to social pressure from family and community: when resources are available, obstacles to behavior change can be social pressure - subjective standards. Sometimes convincing the individual is not enough, but it is necessary to convince family members, people around and the community to influence behavior change.

- Identify all beliefs that influence attitudes: if the community believes that the behavior will lead to bad outcomes, the TT-GDSK practitioner needs to find out why. The community can be easily convinced if they see the benefits of the behavior clearly pointed out. It is often easier to influence newly acquired individual beliefs than beliefs that have become traditional customs of the whole community.

- Find out at what level the factors influencing behaviour work: individual, community or wider. In the past, TT-GDSK often emphasized individuals and paid little attention to other levels such as family, community. Many health problems related to behaviours that health workers choose to change are unrealistic, inappropriate and behavioural changes can only be solved through engaging the community and choosing the goals together. Work with the community to solve the bottlenecks. If communication practices need to change, it is important that the community makes decisions about how to change.

A careful analysis of current unhealthy behaviors and new beneficial alternative behaviors is the basis for planning appropriate and effective TT-GDSK interventions.

4. STEPS OF THE HEALTH BEHAVIOR CHANGE PROCESS

4.1. Steps of the health behavior change process

Step 1: Identify the new problem

Want an individual or community to change unhealthy behaviors and practices

Comment


Agree Privacy Policy *