Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy: A Longitudinal Study of the Sense of Control in Illness

This article presents a multidimensional model of psychosocial determinants of health behavior for health promotion research and policy analysis. Frequently, health promotion focuses almost exclusively on intrapsychic determinants and on individual level behavior. Based upon Field Theory and attitude theories, this proposed model holds that in populations with comparable sociodemographic and biological status (exogenous variables) a health behavior is a function of direct and interaction effects of five key intrapsychic and external variables. These are: behavioral intentions, social support, accessibility of means for action, personal autonomy, and action situation. Empirical tests with cross-cultural studies in Venezuela, Kenya, and the Philippines provide substantial support for the model. The findings suggest that while health promotion strategies should deal with intrapsychic determinants of behavior, key extrapsychic factors (such as social support, quality and accessibility of health care measures, and situational factors) all have direct and independent effects on health behavior as well. Health promotion research and interventions which aim exclusively at intrapsychic determinants would thus have rather limited overall value. The article discusses key research and policy implications of the model presented.

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Testing Links Among Uncertainty, Affect, and Attitude Toward a Health Behavior

Science Communication ◽

10.1177/1075547017748947 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 33-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Timothy K. F. Fung ◽

Robert J. Griffin ◽

Sharon Dunwoody

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Health Risk ◽

Great Lakes ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Preventive Behavior ◽

Full Model ◽

Environmental Health Risk ◽

Fish Avoidance

This study examines the conceptual linkages between individuals’ uncertainty judgments and affective reactions (worry and anger) within the context of an environmental health risk. It uses data from a longitudinal study of people’s reactions to the risks of eating contaminated fish from the Great Lakes that employed the risk information seeking and processing model and incorporates a set of variables from the full model, which includes preventive behavior. Findings support the model and indicate that worry and anger strongly influenced uncertainty judgments but worry and anger influenced attitudes toward fish avoidance and information insufficiency differently.

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Living strategies for disability in men ageing with HIV in Ontario, Canada: a longitudinal qualitative study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031262 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. e031262

Author(s):

Patricia Solomon ◽

Kelly K O'Brien ◽

Rebecca McGuff ◽

Michelle Sankey

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Older Men ◽

Self Management ◽

Sense Of Control ◽

Episodic Nature ◽

Problem Solve ◽

Living With Hiv ◽

Over Time

ObjectivesTo examine the living strategies used by older men living with HIV to deal with the episodic nature of disability and associated uncertainty, over time.DesignQualitative longitudinal study in which men living with HIV were interviewed on four occasions over 20 months.SettingMen were recruited from HIV community organisations in Canada.Participants14 men with a median age of 57.5 years and median time since diagnosis of 21.5 years.ResultsFive themes depict the living strategies used to deal with the episodic nature of disability and uncertainty over time. Actively engaging in problem-solving by prioritising and modifying activities and avoiding stress, advocating for support, being positive and future oriented, engaging in healthy pursuits and providing social support to others helped men to mitigate their disability. By following participants over time, we were able to gather insights into triggers of episodes of disability, and perceptions of the success of implementing their living strategies and avoiding uncertainty.ConclusionsParticipants used living strategies to deal with uncertainty and mitigate episodes of disability over time. This study supports the importance of programmes that promote self-management for older men living with HIV through helping them identify triggers of disability, set realistic goals and problem-solve. These may help build self-efficacy, increase sense of control, and decrease feelings of uncertainty and episodes of disability.

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The Cultural, Economic and Political implications of New Media

Cultural Identity and New Communication Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-591-9.ch005 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 90-109

Author(s):

Fredrick Kang ’ethe

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Personal Autonomy ◽

Mobile Telephony ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Sense Of Control ◽

Cultural Economic ◽

Texting While Driving ◽

Political Implications ◽

Great Sense ◽

Indispensable Tool

The findings point out that mobile telephony has become an indispensable tool for most youth providing them with a great sense of control and freedom. However, the technology is also rife with concerns about personal autonomy, dishonesty, breach of cultural norms, personal security and that of others, especially when texting while driving, et cetera.

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A longitudinal study of the relationship between the changes of health behavior and the parameters of glucose and lipid metabolism.

SANGYO EISEIGAKU ZASSHI ◽

10.1539/sangyoeisei.kj00001990423 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 40 (Special) ◽

pp. 602

Author(s):

N Shouno

Keyword(s):

Lipid Metabolism ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Glucose And Lipid Metabolism ◽

The Relationship

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Potentiating Death and Governing Uncertain Futures: Guns, Assisted Dying and the Production of Sovereign Subjects

Anthropologica ◽

10.3138/anth-2019-0032 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 62 (2) ◽

pp. 394-405

Author(s):

Bradley Dunseith ◽

Ari Gandsman

Keyword(s):

End Of Life ◽

Personal Autonomy ◽

Right To Die ◽

Assisted Dying ◽

Sense Of Control ◽

Life And Death ◽

Good For ◽

Similar Kind

Both gun rights advocates and right-to-die activists shape their moral selves through time in relation to a demand of personal autonomy. Practising autonomy – having a sense of control over one’s own life and death – becomes the principle of the good for both gun advocates and right-to-die activists. Though the ethical aims of both groups could not be more different, both movements produce a similar kind of subject. Whether through guns or end-of-life technologies, the person who has control over death has control over life, resulting in a subject actively working in and through time. However, while right-to-die activists take their own lives into their sovereign hands, gun owners engage with an ethics of time to prove their capacity in deciding who may live and who must die.

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Clustering of Unhealthy Behaviors: Protocol for a Multiple Behavior Analysis of Data From the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

JMIR Research Protocols ◽

10.2196/24887 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. e24887

Author(s):

Zack van Allen ◽

Simon L Bacon ◽

Paquito Bernard ◽

Heather Brown ◽

Sophie Desroches ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Life Satisfaction ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Health Behavior ◽

Health Care Utilization ◽

Health Behaviors ◽

Everyday Life ◽

Baseline Data ◽

Health Science ◽

Care Utilization

Background Health behaviors such as physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, smoking tobacco, and alcohol use are leading risk factors for noncommunicable chronic diseases and play a central role in limiting health and life satisfaction. To date, however, health behaviors tend to be considered separately from one another, resulting in guidelines and interventions for healthy aging siloed by specific behaviors and often focused only on a given health behavior without considering the co-occurrence of family, social, work, and other behaviors of everyday life. Objective The aim of this study is to understand how behaviors cluster and how such clusters are associated with physical and mental health, life satisfaction, and health care utilization may provide opportunities to leverage this co-occurrence to develop and evaluate interventions to promote multiple health behavior changes. Methods Using cross-sectional baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, we will perform a predefined set of exploratory and hypothesis-generating analyses to examine the co-occurrence of health and everyday life behaviors. We will use agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis to cluster individuals based on their behavioral tendencies. Multinomial logistic regression will then be used to model the relationships between clusters and demographic indicators, health care utilization, and general health and life satisfaction, and assess whether sex and age moderate these relationships. In addition, we will conduct network community detection analysis using the clique percolation algorithm to detect overlapping communities of behaviors based on the strength of relationships between variables. Results Baseline data for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging were collected from 51,338 participants aged between 45 and 85 years. Data were collected between 2010 and 2015. Secondary data analysis for this project was approved by the Ottawa Health Science Network Research Ethics Board (protocol ID #20190506-01H). Conclusions This study will help to inform the development of interventions tailored to subpopulations of adults (eg, physically inactive smokers) defined by the multiple behaviors that describe their everyday life experiences. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/24887

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