Personal Health Assessment and Health Behaviour Change Plan

Running head: HEALTH ASSESSMENT & BEHAVIOUR CHANGE PLAN
Personal Health Assessment and Health Behaviour Change Plan
In Partial Fulfillment of HEED105-Fall 2019
Hafsa ali-Student ID# 123456
October 10, 2019

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HEALTH ASSESSMENT & BEHAVIOUR CHANGE PLAN
Personal Health Assessment and Health Behaviour Change Plan
When people think about health and wellness, they think in terms of physical health
but it’s so much more than that. According to the definition of the World Health Organisation
(2019) comprehensive health and well-being have seven different aspects and these include
physical, intellectual, environmental, vocational, social, emotional and spiritual health. The
following assignment will incorporate my own assessment of wellness in the seven different
dimensions of health. The assignment will also illustrate a detailed plan focusing
implementation of change of two of my present health habits that will help in strengthening
my comprehensive health and wellness.
Overall Health Assessment
As per my own understanding, my health condition is better than the average group of
population. This is because, I have less reported cases of seasonal flu or other infections and
communicable diseases. According to Soares, Teixeira and Moita (2017), people who have
high level of innate and adaptive immunity are less likely to develop infectious and
communicable diseases. I have a joint family with loving and caring members who always
love to stay connected. No matter where we are or what we are doing, we still make time to
spend quality time with each other. We always stand by each other during hard times and
deal with every problem in unison. This family structure of mine has helped me to develop a
sense of connection and belonging. I would like refer my family as my well-developed
support system that helps me to maintain a healthy mental health. I nurture strong religious
beliefs that have always helped me to understand the meaning in life. My health weaknesses
are mainly minor because I received an acceptable score on most of the dimension of health
assessment apart from physical fitness. I lack ability to recognize the need for physical

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HEALTH ASSESSMENT & BEHAVIOUR CHANGE PLAN
activity. As a first year nursing student, I have been too busy with school and other academic
activities and thus failed to take out time from my busy schedule to conduct physical exercise
and thus increasing my own health risk. Although I always try to maintain healthy lifestyle
like heating healthy and having adequate sleep at time, my gap in conducting mild to
moderate physical activity is making me physically unfit. Thus it is important that I set goals
to change these behaviours of mine in order to improve my overall physical fitness and
thereby helping to improve comprehensive health and well-being.
Determinants of Health
Health determinants are factors that put people at high risk of developing health-
related complications. According to the World Health Organization (2019, para: 1), social
determinants of health are defined as condition under which people are born, grow, work, live
and then simultaneously age. These circumstances are shaped by the proper distribution of
power, money and resources at the global, national and at the local level. The social
determinants of health are responsible for the generation of the health inequalities. The social
determinants of health are categorised by socioeconomic, biological, environmental and
cultural factors (Patil, 2019). These determinants tend to be forgotten by policymakers when
they try to find solutions to health issues. For example, the poverty levels of some members
of the community may lead to a generation of high-stress level, which could lead to drug
abuse. In the majority of the cases, persistent drug abuse increases the vulnerability of
developing mental health complications. It is, therefore, important to consider these health
determinants in the pursuit of a much healthier state.
In Canada, the Determinants of Health are classified under 12 different factors that
are known to have a significant impact on Canadians health either due to their presence or
absence. These 12 factors are:

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HEALTH ASSESSMENT & BEHAVIOUR CHANGE PLAN
1. Income and social status
2. Employment and working conditions
3. Education and literacy
4. Childhood experiences
5. Physical environments
6. Social support
7. Healthy behaviours
8. Access to health services
9. Biology and genetics endowment
10. Gender
11. Culture
12. Race / Racism
(Government of Canada, 2019, para. 3)
Several of these factors highlighted above have had a significant influence on my
present health. The first two factors include gender and culture. I grew up in a country where
culture and gender played an important defining the upbringing of the children. My parents
are always very strict about following certain specific rules (cultural and societal norms) that
had substantial impact on the way I viewed things. For example, our culture beliefs provide
limited scope towards practising and preaching rigorous physical activity and exercise.
During my childhood, I never saw my mother to do anything proactively to take care of her