Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors
"It is unreasonable to expect that people will change their behavior easily when so many forces in the social, cultural, and physical environment conspire against such change" (Kovner and Knickman, p. 139).
When seeking to lessen behavioral risk factors in different populations, one of the greatest challenges is addressing the systemic issues within the population that enable the risky behavior to occur in the first place. Consider the health risks of school-age children not being immunized or drug users sharing needles. As Dr. Beilenson discussed in the Week 4 media program, these risky behaviors led to increases in individual and population health problems. Thus, when planning health prevention programs, it is important to consider how to effectively address risky behaviors at both the individual and the population level.
The Discussion this week focuses on the use of the Population-Based Intervention Model outlined in the course text Health Care Delivery in the United States, as well as how this model can be applied to strengthen advocacy programs.
To prepare:
Select one of the behavioral risk factors from the Healthy Population 2010 Objectives (listed in Table 7.1 on p. 128 of the course text) that is of interest to you.
Using the Walden Library and other credible websites, research how this risk factor is affecting your community or state.
With your selected risk factor in mind, review the information on the Population-Based Intervention Model on pp. 136-140 in the course text,Health Care Delivery in the United States. In particular, focus on the concept of downstream, midstream, and upstream interventions.
Consider at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage.