Exploring Health Beliefs
Exploring Health Beliefs
Yanita Chatoori
820 247 773
October 10th 2013
NURS 162: Health Assessment
Franklin Gorospe
Humber College ITAL
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Exploring Health Beliefs
Exploring Health Beliefs
Our health is dependent on different aspects; this paper will focus on the behaviour
aspect. It will incorporate the definition of health, personal opinion on health and their
determinates, cultural reasoning, personal health improvements, discussion of others opinion,
and future nursing practice affects. Health is a broad topic everyone determines differently, thus
it is important that as individuals we can understand what shapes our personal beliefs.
Definition of Health
Optimal health is very important in life, for myself I constantly gain new knowledge that
makes me redefine my definition of health. The way in which I define health is that our lifestyle
choices affect our health. To achieve optimal health it is necessary that we eat right such as
proper portion sizes, commit ourselves to some type of physical activity for 30 minutes daily,
and to have adequate sleep on a daily basis. I believe that our behaviour in making choices to do
these things is what leads to optimal health “The behavioural approach places responsibility for
health on the individual, thereby favouring health promotion strategies such as education, and
social marketing” (Potter Perry Stockert and Hall 2014 page 4). It is our responsibility to make
the best decisions possible for what we believe will achieve our optimal health. Knowing the
risks of certain aspects that affect our health it is our responsibility upon reducing risks that may
occur.
Current Health Beliefs
Physical health including eating healthy, and any type of physical activity affect my
current health beliefs as our health is dependent on our choices. My optimal health includes
eating properly, such as portion sizes. Others include having sufficient amount of sleep on a
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daily basis and being physically active. These beliefs on health are ideal to obtain my optimal
health because these are what will maintain my health currently and later in life. Some
determinates of health that have influenced me to have this beliefs are education and social
environment. Education is the main determinate due to the fact that eating healthy and physical
activity are consistently promoted in elementary schools. In many cases the first time that we are
educated on health outside our home is done through elementary schools. This is where I was
first introduced to the Canadian Health Food Guide and have frequently seen it countless times
over the years. It is a widely know symbol of the rainbow that represents the appropriate foods
and servings sizes that are recommended for optimal health. Not only does education start
through our school systems but it is promoted throughout the years through various sources such
as the media, government and restaurants. We are unable to go throughout the day without being
aware of the new promotions and medical finding of healthy eating, proper portion sizing, and
affects of adequate sleep. The other determinate of health is social environment because the area
and lifestyle that I have been exposed to growing up has affected my health beliefs. I believe that
in many cases where I have grown up affects the way I act or perceive different aspects of health.
In the society that I have grown up in, it is important to be healthy such as eating appropriately
and physical activity because these factors have an impact on your personal appearance. In many
cases our personal appearance is one of the most important things especially since the media
constantly portrays an idealistic healthy appearance that should be achieved by everyone within
society. Over the years I have found myself slowly trying to configure to this ideal image
because some aspects make sense to my personal health beliefs. There are certain things that our
society endorses even though some maybe unrealistic such as body image, their opinion on the
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types of food and health exercise that will benefit me in the long-term are what I have applied to
my current health beliefs.
Cultural Beliefs
My culture beliefs affect my current opinion on health because my parents have always
instilled in me the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. In many cases when my parents have
discussed health they are primarily focused on eating right and having proper sleeping habits to
ensure that we have a healthy body. Their belief is primarily based on the idea that to be healthy
your body has to have healthy characteristics before you can ensure your wellbeing. This is
where my belief on health essentially comes from due to the fact that over the years my parents
have constantly told me that it is important to make choices that are going to benefit me. In many
cases the reason I have never saw the “cool” benefits of smoking is because I frequently heard
the many risk factors that are associated with smoking. Furthermore my parents have told me it
is important to eat food that are homemade meals as it usually is healthier compared to eating
fast foods. My family’s culture has had a great influence on my person beliefs on health;
especially since my parents were raised in a different county, my belief is comprised of two
different cultures.
Personal Health Practices
As a young adult I know that my personal health practices will change over the years. A
way to improve my personal health practice is to take multivitamins, develop a regular schedule,
and try new things. Multivitamins is a good way to improve my person health practice because I
am aware that on a daily basis I may not get my essential vitamins. By taking vitamins I am able
to receive some of the essential vitamins that can be more difficult to obtain. Another way in
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which I can improve my health is by scheduling everything into my day, because often I find it
difficult to do everything. Usually this happens during school, I neglect the gym because it is
difficult to find the time to work out due to my busy schedule. In other cases, I find it difficult to
choose between getting a few extra minutes of sleep or eating breakfast. By having a fixed
schedule I would see the predetermined time to do each thing that is beneficial to my health.
Conclusively, I should try new healthy foods as I'm very apprehensive when it comes to trying
new foods especially vegetables. It would be a benefit to my personal health because even
though I like vegetables by themselves and not mixed with anything, I think if I attempted to
make a healthy smoothie I would benefit with more nutrients from one glass of blended
vegetables compared to having one snack of a vegetable every day.
Compare and Contrast
My belief of health fits the definition of behaviour. I interviewed Joy Cariaso on her
belief of health and she also stated that her beliefs of health fall under the behavioural category
as well. Our beliefs, however, are different even though it is part of the same category that we
believe affects our health. For Joy her behaviour approach is not based on the social norms rather
more of personal will, “I believe that even if you don`t have the means to be eating healthy, but
if you have the will you can be resourceful enough to nourish your body well and feel good
about yourself” (J.Cariaso, personal communication, October 8th, 2013). Joy believes that some
individual may not be able to afford healthy food, which in many cases is true due to the fact that
buying fruits or vegetable from a grocery store is expensive compared to going to MacDonald’s
that has a dollar menu, which seems inexpensive in comparison to purchasing vegetable or fruits.
Even though it is inexpensive to buy food at these cheap fast food places, I believe that the long
term results of the cumulating cost buying them would be more than spending the money to buy
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the food at grocery stores. Joy believes that a person's will is what will make them healthy, "once
a thought is generated, your body follows through with the thought of being healthy” (J.Cariaso,
personal communication, October 8th, 2013). However; I believe that a person has to work
towards achieving an optimal health before they can feel healthy. In many cases social norms
have a large impact on individual's mental state. I think that even though Joy states that her belief
does not fall under social norms, at one point within her life, social norms will unconsciously
affect her health beliefs. Even though I may not agree with certain beliefs that Joy states, there
are some that are similar such as individuals having the ability to take responsibility for their
health. I believe that individuals know the risk factors that can deteriorate your health if we know
about them we have the choice to reduce or remove those factors.
Analysis
The definition of health has changed over the years after different discoveries have been
made. I believe that because in many ways I am sheltered from the outside world, my opinion is
based on the experience that I have had growing up. Personally, I know that growing up I am not
aware of some of the hardships others may endure, rather I had the privilege to be born and
raised in my current neighbourhood. After experiencing nursing practice, I know that my opinion
will change because there is always more to learn about what everyone's beliefs on health is. I
know that there are going to be new discoveries that will find new determinates of health and
other risk factors that will leave individuals to make a choice on whether they will reduce or
remove those risk factors to maintain their health. In many cases we have to be open to the idea
that our belief of health can change, it does not have to stay the same, and over the years I am
positive that my opinion on health will be altered or will incorporate more. Even though I only
discussed the behavioural aspect I do believe that there are other factors that affect out health,
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however, for me the behavioural approach incorporated the most important aspects of my beliefs
on health. The practice of nursing opens the doors to be introduced to new opinions and
experiences that without a doubt will make individuals re think their personal health beliefs.
Conclusion
Personal beliefs are primarily dependant on our behaviour through the choice in which
we choose to make after becoming aware of the risk factors. It is our responsible to reduce those
factors that we know affect our health. There are many aspects which influence our personal
beliefs on health whether it may be the way in which have been brought up, determinates and the
social influence in the end all these factors contribute to the choices we make in regards to our
personal health.
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Referances
Potter, P., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P. A., & Hall, A. M. (2014). Canadian fundamentals of nursing
(5th ed). (J.C. Ross-Kerr, M.J. Wood, B.J. Astle, & W. Duggleby Eds). Toronto: Mosby.