Health Psychology and Asthma: Importance of Health Education and Lifestyle Modifications

This presentation discusses the importance of health education and lifestyle modifications in the treatment of asthma through the lens of health psychology. It explores different frameworks and models that healthcare professionals can use to help patients modify their behaviors and prevent asthma attacks. The presentation also provides statistics on asthma in the nation and highlights the signs that asthma is worsening. It concludes with a list of lifestyle habits and triggers that should be controlled for effective care and management of asthma symptoms.

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one important thing that should be noted is that until
and unless the patients are educated and encouraged to
live healthy lifestyles by changing their behaviors that
aggravate the symptoms of asthma, the action plan
would be futile. hence modifying the lifestyle and
behaviors of patients are extremely important.
IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH EDUCATION OF THE
PATIENTS IN TREATMENT OF ASTHMA:
• Medication that is provided by the professionals to the
patient is not enough to help the patient cure from asthma
until they learn to recognize the triggers and accordingly
develop lifestyles that would prevent such triggers
(Fitzgerald et al., 2015)
• The professionals in the presence of the patients should
develop asthma plan. This should outline in writing when to
take the medications or when to increase or decrease the
dose of the medication based on the symptoms. The list of
triggers should be included. Also steps needed to taken to
avoid asthma should be discussed.
Asthma:
Asthma can be described as the condition that involves
narrowing and swelling of the airways along with the
production of extra mucus. This results in breathing
becoming very difficult for the patients that are followed
by the triggering of the coughing, wheezing and
shortness of the breath (Price et al., 2014). For some of
the people, asthma does not affect much of their lives but
for many of the patients, asthma has the capability of
interfering with the different daily activities. This might
lead to different life threatening asthma attacks.
SIGNS THAT ASTHMA IS WORSENING:
• It is very important for the primary healthcare nurses to
realize the worsening symptoms of asthma so that they
can handle the crucial situations effectively and guide
the patients in a way by which severe life threatening
situations can be prevented (Rodrigues et al., 2016).
• These would include monitoring the asthma signs and
symptoms that are more frequent and bothersome.
• The healthcare professionals should also check for
increasing difficulty in breathing. This can be checked
by measuring it with the peak flow mete. This is the
device by which they can check how well the lungs are
working
• The primary healthcare professionals also need to see
that whether the patients are using quick relief inhaler
more often (Peytremann et al., 2015)
STATISTICS:
• 5.4 million people in the nation are currently seen to be
receiving the treatment for asthma with 1.1 million
children and 4.3 million adults
• The nation is seen to have some of the highest rates in
Europe and on average about 3 people a day die from
the asthma
• In 2016, 1410 people has been seen to have died from
asthma
• The NHS has been seen to be spending around 1
billion a year about treating and caring for the patients
with asthma (Merchant, Inamder & Quade, 2016)
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY:
Health psychology is the aspect of healthcare that
mainly deals with the psychological and behavioral
processes in health, healthcare as well as illness. This
theory mainly helps in understanding how different aspects
like psychological, cultural as well as behavioral factors
contribute to different types of physical health as well as
illness. Present day researchers are also of the opinion that
psychological factors can also affect health directly (Archer
et al., 2016).
BENEFITS:
The main benefit of introducing the concept of health
psychology is that it helps people in modifying their
behaviors and their lifestyles in ways by which different
health problems can be prevented and health problems can
be recovered from. Many of the researchers are of the
opinion that this area of healthcare also focuses on the
service user’s mental as well as emotional reaction to an
illness or recovery from that illness. Therefore, it can be
seen that by applying proper health psychology theories,
different lifestyle factors that cause diabetes in patients can
be modified. Following are the different models by which
the healthcare professionals can ensure lifestyle
modifications in the service users and can protect them
from being affected by the disease (Klonek, Isidor &
Kauffeld, 2015).
FIRST EXAMPLE:
Stages of change model or the Trans-theoretical model:
This theory mainly helps in explaining the readiness of an
individual in changing their behaviors and the change of the
behaviors can be divided into a number of the following
changes. The stages are mainly
• Pre-contemplation stage when the service user will not
have the intention to take any action
• Contemplation stage where the client will develop the
intentions to take actions and a plan to do the same in the
near future
• Preparation stage where the service user with asthma will
develop the intervention for taking action and accordingly
steps would be taken to achieve the goal
• Action stage where the service user with asthma will have
his or her behavior changed over a short period of time
(Bandra, 2014)
• Maintenance stage where behavior of the client has
already changed and would continue to be maintained for
the long term
• Termination is the final change where the professionals
have to evaluate and make sure that there is no desire in
the service user to return to the prior negative behaviors
Following the above mentioned frameworks, the
following lifestyle habits and triggers should be
controlled so that effective care and management of
asthma symptoms can be carried on:
• Utilization of the air conditioners as it reduces the
amount of airborne pollen from tress, weeds as well as
grasses that are present in the indoors. It also results in
lowering the humidity of the indoor areas. This results in
reduction of the exposure to the dust mites. The
windows should be kept closed if one cannot possess
air conditioning mainly in the pollen season.
• The patients should learn to decontaminate of the décor.
This would result in minimizing the dust that results in
worsening the nighttime symptoms. This should be done
by replacing certain items n the bedroom. The pillows,
mattresses and box springs should always be present
with dustproof covers. Washable curtains an blinds
should be used and carpet should be removed and
hardwood and linoleum flooring should be installed.
• The patients should maintain proper home hygiene and
prevent formation of damp climate in the homes
• The patients should prevent mold spores by cleaning the
damp areas in kitchen, bath and around the house.
Moldy leaves and damp firewood in the yard should be
removed
• Pets with fur and feathers should be avoided if the
patient is allergic to dander, pets should be regularly
bathed as well as groomed and this may result in
reduction of amount of dander in the surroundings
• The houses should be kept cleaned, masks should be
wore while dusting or cleaning
• When asthma would be worsening by cold or dry air,
face mask should be worn
References
Archer, S., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., & Blejwas, E. (2018). Beyond the Manuscript:
Developing a Productive Workgroup Within a Community Coalition: Transtheoretical Model
Processes, Stages of Change, and Lessons Learned. Progress in community health
partnerships: research, education, and action, 12(1), 73-79.
Bandura, A. (2014). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of
moral behavior and development(pp. 69-128). Psychology Press.
Fitzgerald, M. J., Reddel, H., Boulet, L. P., & Hurd, S. (2015). Pocket guide for asthma
management and prevention (Global Initiative for Asthma). A pocket guide for Physicians
and Nurses, Updated 2015.
Green, E. C., & Murphy, E. (2014). Health belief model. The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia
of health, illness, behavior, and society, 766-769.
Klonek, F. E., Isidor, R., & Kauffeld, S. (2015). Different stages of entrepreneurship:
Lessons from the transtheoretical model of change. Journal of Change
Management, 15(1), 43-63.
Merchant, R. K., Inamdar, R., & Quade, R. C. (2016). Effectiveness of population health
management using the propeller health asthma platform: a randomized clinical trial. The
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, 4(3), 455-463.
Montano, D. E., & Kasprzyk, D. (2015). Theory of reasoned action, theory of planned
behavior, and the integrated behavioral model. Health behavior: Theory, research and
practice, 95-124.
Peytremann-Bridevaux, I., Arditi, C., Gex, G., Bridevaux, P. O., & Burnand, B. (2015).
Chronic disease management programmes for adults with asthma (intervention
Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5.
Price, D., Fletcher, M., & Van Der Molen, T. (2014). Asthma control and management in
8,000 European patients: the REcognise Asthma and LInk to Symptoms and Experience
(REALISE) survey. NPJ primary care respiratory medicine, 24, 14009.
Rodrigues, J. M., Caruthers, C. N., Moulton, J., Kanchustambham, V., Azmeh, R., Kruse,
A., ... & Slavin, R. (2016). Level of Knowledge, Concerns and Adherence to Asthma
Management Guideline Recommendations Among Healthcare Providers in Midwestern
USA. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 137(2), AB100.
Stacey, F. G., James, E. L., Chapman, K., Courneya, K. S., & Lubans, D. R. (2015). A
systematic review and meta-analysis of social cognitive theory-based physical activity
and/or nutrition behavior change interventions for cancer survivors. Journal of Cancer
Survivorship, 9(2), 305-338.
SECOND EXAMPLE:
Social cognitive theory:
This theory is mainly seen to be describing the influence of
the individual service user’s experience along with the
action of the others. It also involves the environmental
factors on the individual health behaviors. Researchers are
of the opinion that this mainly helps in providing different
scopes to the clients for social support (Stacey et al. 2015).
This is mainly done through the instilling of expectations,
using observational learning, self-efficacy and other
reinforcements for achieving behavior changes.
• Self-efficacy stage which shows that an individual has
control and thereby will be successful to be executing a
behavior
• Behavioral capability stage where the individuals are seen
to understand and thereby have the skill in performing the
behaviors
• Expectation stage where the primary healthcare nurse
would sit with patient of asthma and determine the
outcomes of the behavior change
• Expectancies stage is the stage where the professional
should help the service user to assign a value to the
outcomes of the behavior changes
• Self-control is another stage where the professional should
motivate the client for regulating as well as monitoring the
different desired behavior (Montano et al., 2015)
• Observational learning is another stage where the
professionals should give chances to the clients where the
clients would be observing other to be performing or
modeling the desired behavior. This can be achieved by
helping a successful client to speak his or her experience
in a seminar or meeting
• Reinforcement stage where the individuals would be
motivated by the professionals by helping them to set
incentives and rewards for themselves which would help in
encouraging the behavior changes
THIRD EXAMPLE:
Health belief model:
• Gathering information by conducting of the health needs
assessments by the professionals, they need to determine
who is at the risk and the populations that would be
targeted according to the prevalence
• The professionals should then convey the consequences
of the health issues that would be associated with the risky
behaviors. This should be done in a clear as well as
unambiguous fashion. This would help the patients to
understand the severity
• The professionals should then communicate the target
population about the steps that are involved in taking the
recommended actions. They would also highlight the
benefits of the action.
• The professionals would also help in providing assistance
for identification and thereby reduction of barriers to the
action
• Demonstration of the different actions with the help of skill
development activities, it would also help in providing
support that enhances self-efficacy as well as the
likelihood of the successful behavior changes (Green &
Murphy, 2015)
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY -ASTHMA