why is it important to comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and prevention?

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• Why is it important to comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and prevention?

• What is a carcinogen?


1. Draw and label the health triangle.

Goals/Objectives

2. Discuss ten factors that affect health status.

3. Identify seven life skills to practice.

4. Discuss the steps to follow to help you comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention.

5. Discuss four kinds of skills needed to be a health-literate person.


• health• mental-emotional health• family-social health• health status• health knowledge• risk• random event• wellness• health concept• health-literate person

Key Terms


Your Health

• Health is a collective quality of life, that include physical, mental-emotional, and family-social health.


What to Know About the Health Triangle

• The Health Triangle shows relationships among:

– Physical health is the condition of a person’s body.



– Mental-emotional health is the condition of a person’s mind and the ways that a person expresses feelings.



– Family-social health is the condition of a person’s relationships with family members and with others.



• If one of the points on the Health Triangle is missing or impaired, it can begin to lose its balance, which can affect the other two points.


Health Status

• Health status is the sum of positive and negative influences on a person’s health and well-being.


Factors That Affect Health Status

1. Health knowledge

– Health knowledge is the information and understanding a person has about health.



2. Accessing health information, products, and services

– When you access useful health information, you help yourself make decisions about products or services and choose behaviors that will keep you healthy.

– A health service is help that is provided by a health-care facility or a health-care provider.

– A health product is something that is used to restore or maintain health.



3. Behaviors

– A person’s behavior is the way a person chooses to act or respond to a situation.

– Two types of behavior can affect health: healthful behaviors and risk behaviors.


Behavior Choices and Health Status


Healthful Behavior

• Promotes health

• Prevents injury, illness, and premature death

• Improves the quality of the environment

• Examples: wearing a safety belt, exercising regularly, and eating healthful foods

Risk Behavior

• Threatens health

• Can cause injury, illness, and premature death

• Damages or destroys the environment

• Examples: playing sports without safety equipment, smoking, and drinking alcohol


– Many people and circumstances affect your health each day, including:


4. Influences such as culture, media, and technology

• Culture: the arts, beliefs, and customs that make up a way of life for a group of people at a certain time

• Media: various forms of mass communication

• Technology: the practical application or use of knowledge


• Conflict-resolution skills are steps that you can take to settle a disagreement in a responsible way.

– Communication skills are the ways in which a person chooses to share feelings, thoughts, and information with others.


5. Communication skills

• Resistance skills are methods a person can use to say “no” to an action or situation that could damage health status.


– Many decisions you make have long-term consequences and might cause you to take actions that affect health status.


6. Decisions involving choices



TABLE 1.1 Decisions and Health Status

Responsible Decisions Irresponsible Decisions

• Promote health • Can harm health

• Keep safety in mind • Result in unsafe behaviors

• Follow laws • May be illegal

• Show respect for self • Show disrespect for self and others and others

• Follow guidelines of parents • Show disregard for guidelinesand adults of parents and others

• Demonstrate good character • Are part of normal characterdevelopment



– Health-advocacy skills are used to influence the health behavior and decisions of others and to advance health-related beliefs and concerns.

7. Health-advocacy skills

– A health advocate is a person who influences the health behavior and decisions of others and advances certain health-related beliefs and concerns.



– Heredity is the passing of characteristics or traits from biological parents to their children.

– Inherited characteristics may be protective factors or risk factors.

8. Heredity

• A protective factor is something that increases the odds of a positive outcome, such as healthful traits.

• A risk factor is something that increases the odds of a negative outcome, such as a risk factor for some diseases.



– Your environment is everything around you, including the air, the water, and the place in which you live.

– An environment can be a protective factor or a risk factor depending on access to basic needs.

9. Your environment



– A random event is an incident over which a person has little or no control.

10. Random events



Health Skills to Practice for LifeYou promote the health of others and the quality of the environment when you:

• comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention;

• access information about health products and services;

• analyze influences on health, such as culture, media, technology, and other factors;

• practice healthful behaviors; • use communication skills,

resistance skills, and conflict-resolution skills;

• set goals and make responsible decisions;

• advocate for personal, family, and community health.


Risks and Random Events

• A risk is a chance that has an unknown outcome.

• Risks and random events can have positive or negative effects on health status.


How Risks Differ From Random Events

– A calculated risk is a chance that a person takes after carefully considering all possible outcomes.

• Risks

– A random event is an incident over which a person has little or no control.

• Random event

– An unnecessary risk is a chance that, after weighing all the possible outcomes, you decide is not worth it.


Responsibility for Health

• Quality of life is the degree to which a person lives life to the fullest capacity.

• Wellness is the quality of life that results from a person’s health status.

• The Wellness Scale is a scale that shows the range in quality of life.


How to Use the Wellness Scale

– Factors that have a positive effect promote optimal wellness.

– Factors that have a negative effect increase your risk of illness, injury, and premature death.

• Ten factors (see page 6 in your textbook) can affect your health status and wellness.


How to Use the Wellness Scale


• A health concept is a general idea formed from an understanding of health knowledge.

Comprehending Health Concepts

• Health concepts help you apply general ideas to real-life situations.


How to Comprehend Health Concepts

• There are skills that you can learn and practice that will help you become better at recognizing reliable health information.


How to Comprehend Health ConceptsTABLE 1.2 Steps to Comprehend Health Concepts Related to

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

The Plan Developing the Life Skill

Step 1 Study health information about heart disease.

Use valid sources, such as health textbooks and the American Heart Association Web site. You learn that eating broiled foods is more healthful for the heart than eating fried foods.

Step 2 Ask questions about heart disease information you don’t understand.

Ask your health teacher, physician, or other health expert why eating broiled foods is more healthful for the heart than eating fried foods. They tell you fried foods may contain more saturated fats. A diet high in saturated fats increases the risk of heart disease.

Step 3 Use health knowledge to form health concepts to prevent heart disease.

The health knowledge you have learned helped you form this concept: I can reduce my risk of heart disease by eating fewer fried foods.

Step 4 Use this health concept to reduce your risk of heart disease.

When you dine out, you order broiled food instead of fried food.


How to Comprehend Health Concepts

• You can understand more about any point of the health triangle using the same steps.

• Staying informed and asking questions about all aspects of your health will lead to health literacy.


Health Literacy

• A health-literate person is a person who demonstrates the skills of effective communication, self-directed learning, critical thinking (and problem solving), and responsible citizenship.


How to Attain Health Literacy

• Everyone can learn to be a health-literate person using effective communication, self-directed learning, critical thinking, and responsible citizenship.



• Effective communication

– Effective communication is expressing your health knowledge, beliefs, and ideas.



– Self-directed learning is taking personal responsibility for gathering and using health-related information.

• Self-directed learning



– Critical thinking is evaluating the facts and examining possible outcomes before making decisions.

• Critical thinking



– Responsible citizenship is behaving in ways that improve your home, school, community, nation, and world.

• Responsible citizenship


Study Guide

1. What are the three parts of the Health Triangle?

The three parts of the health triangle are physical health, mental-emotional health, and family-social health.


Study Guide

2. How is a risk different from a random event?

A risk is something that you choose whether or not to do. A random event is an incident over which you have little or no control.


Study Guide

3. Can you totally control all factors of your health and wellness? Why or why not?

No; some factors, such as heredity and random events that occur, are out of your control. You can work to control many factors, such as behaviors and decisions, that will have long-term effects on your health status.


Study Guide

4. Match the following descriptions to the skills of a health-literate person.

___ self-directed learning

___ critical thinking

___ effective communication

___ responsible citizenship

A. evaluating the facts and examining possible outcomes before making decisions

B. taking personal responsibility for gathering and using health-related information

C. behaving in ways that improve your home, school, community, nation, and world

D. expressing your health knowledge, beliefs, and ideas

B

A

D

C

End of the Lesson

why is it important to comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and prevention?

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