Applying Theory to Practice: Health Behavior Assignment, Week 3

This assignment delves into the significance of social determinants of health, emphasizing their direct impact on individuals' well-being based on their birth, growth, and living conditions. It highlights key determinants like literacy, behaviors, income, and employment, illustrating how they can positively or negatively influence health outcomes. The assignment then focuses on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), developed by Prochaska and DiClemente, which outlines the stages people go through when changing unhealthy behaviors. It describes the six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination, providing examples of how individuals progress through these stages to modify their behaviors. The assignment references studies supporting the relationship between social determinants, unhealthy behaviors, and lifestyle diseases, and explains how the TTM can be applied to promote health behavior change.

Of the many forms of health available, I find social determinants of health to be the most
significant. Social determinants of health refer to the conditions in which a person was born,
grew and lived in that affect his health either positively or negatively (Braveman & Gottlieb,
2014). In most cases, the availability of resources, power, and money shape these conditions.
The social determinants are the most important form of determinants of health because they
affect the health of people directly since people are born, grow and live with them. Various
social determinants of health exist but the most notable once include literacy levels, healthy
behaviors, income levels, and employment. All the examples of social determinants of health
above can affect the health of people negatively or positively. For example, people with
unhealthy behaviors such as poor eating habits are at high risk of getting lifestyle diseases such
as diabetes and obesity. This is so because poor eating habits are risk factors of weight gain
which leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes ( Garg et al., 2015). However, people with healthy
behaviors such as healthy eating habits have lower risks of getting lifestyle diseases. Also,
people with low levels of income are at high risk of getting lifestyle diseases such as overweight
and obesity. This is so because the only types of food that poor people are exposed to are foods
with a high caloric intake which increases their chances of becoming obese. On the other hand,
people living in affluent areas can afford a balanced diet food which enables them to live healthy
lives.
After going through the theories learned this week, I find the transtheoretical Model to be
the most significant theory. This theory was developed by Prochaska and DiClemente to explain
the stages that people go through to change their unhealthy behavior (Kowalski, Jeznach, &
Tuokko, 2014). This theory believes that there are six stages that people go through in an attempt
to change their unhealthy behavior (Mastellos et al., 2014). One of these stages is

precontemplation stage. This is the first stage of change based on this theory. At this stage,
people are showing no intention of changing their behavior because they have not found a reason
to change their behavior. For example, a person smoking tobacco chooses to continue smoking
because he does not understand the negative effects of smoking. The second stage is
contemplation stage where people start showing signs of changing their behavior after they have
recognized that their behavior is problematic. For example, a person smoking can get sensitized
about the dangers of smoking which will make him consider changing his behavior by coming
up with strategies such as going for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). The third is the
preparation stage where a person gathers necessary resources such as financial resources to
implement the strategy proposed in the previous step. The fourth stage is the action stage where a
person implements the strategy considered in the second stage which in this stage is going for
nicotine replacement therapy. The fifth stage is the maintenance stage where a person sticks to
the proposed strategy of changing behavior. For example, a person smoking can maintain using
NRT instead of going back to smoking. The last stage is the termination stage where a person has
made up his mind not to resume unhealthy behavior, for example, not going back to smoking
again.
References
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the
causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.

Garg, A., Toy, S., Tripodis, Y., Silverstein, M., & Freeman, E. (2015). Addressing social
determinants of health at well child care visits: a cluster RCT. Pediatrics, 135(2), e296-
e304.
Kowalski, K., Jeznach, A., & Tuokko, H. A. (2014). Stages of driving behavior change within
the transtheoretical model (TM). Journal of safety research, 50, 17-25.
Mastellos, N., Gunn, L. H., Felix, L. M., Car, J., & Majeed, A. (2014). Transtheoretical model
stages of change for dietary and physical exercise modification in weight loss
management for overweight and obese adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,
(2).