1.6: Factors that Contribute to Health
- Page ID
- 118138
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Diverse factors contribute to a person's health. Each of these can have an impact on the level of an individual's personal health or more broadly on a population's health. Five major factors that affect or determine health include genetics, healthcare, health behaviors, environment, and social conditions.
Most people assume healthcare is the most important factor -- and of course, healthcare is vital! But most research has shown that social conditions and health behaviors actually influence health the most. It's important to note that none of these five factors operates in isolation -- they influence one another, together shaping human health.
Social Conditions
Social conditions have an enormous -- if often overlooked -- impact on human health. By social (and economic) conditions, we mean everything that affects where we live, work and grow. The following list of social conditions gives a flavor of how broad this category can be:
- Education
- Job status
- Neighborhood quality
- Income
- Family support networks
- Political voice
- Housing availability and quality
- Community organizations
Social conditions can have a strong influence on a person's stress levels, as well as their health behaviors. Social conditions can affect a person's access to healthcare and their environmental exposures. In this sense, social conditions isn't just one factor in shaping health, it is an underlying influence on nearly all the factors.
Social conditions are explored further in a later chapter on the social determinants of health.
Health Behaviors
Health behaviors can be approached either through the lens of personal health or public health.
When thinking about personal health behaviors, you might ask questions like, do you sleep enough? do you drink enough water? how is your diet? how much physical activity do you fit into your week? what is your relationship to substance use?
When public health focuses on health behaviors, it conducts research and implements changes through programs or policies.
- Programs -- organized activities that promote health, for example, an asthma education group for parents of kids with asthma at the YMCA, or a national program like WIC that provides good nutrition to birthing parents and their children.
- Policies -- rules, regulations, and laws, like banning smoking tobacco in restaurants or requiring the use of seatbelts in cars.
Even small changes can make a difference. As an individual, eating vegetables, walking often, and avoiding tobacco can all help reduce your personal risk of cancer, for example. Public health changes -- for instance, a policy to reduce the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables -- can make it easier for people to adopt healthier behaviors.
Healthcare
Having timely medical care can play a big role in treating illnesses and injuries, reducing the length of illness, and preventing things from getting worse. Two key aspects of healthcare that affect health are access and quality.
- Access to healthcare
- Is medical care available?
- Is it convenient in terms of location and hours?
- Is it affordable? (This usually includes looking at health insurance, which is covered in a later chapter.)
- Quality of healthcare
- Is the medical care of high quality?
- Is it provided in a way that connects well with the patient (for example, in a culturally appropriate way)?
- Is it comprehensive?
Genetics
One of the biggest influences on a person's health is their genetics. Some illnesses are caused by a specific gene -- for example, sickle cell anemia, a very painful disorder that is prevalent among people of African descent and other populations who trace their ancestry to places where malaria was endemic in the past. Other illnesses aren't caused by a gene, per se, but someone's genetic makeup can make them more vulnerable to it. This it true of some cancers, for example, and even of some behavioral health problems, such as addiction or bipolar disorder.
For a long time, genes were seen as "set in stone" -- but scientific advancements in genetic testing, genetic counseling, and even gene therapies have begun to change that perception. New medical treatments have been developed that can mitigate, and in some cases even cure, genetic diseases like sickle cell.
Another way that genes can be seen as more changeable than previously thought is through their interaction with the environment. Different exposures in the physical and social environment -- whether that's a chemical in the air or a traumatic experience in early childhood -- can, in effect, turn some genes on and off. The science of epigenetics examines how this happens. While the genes themselves do not change based on environment, how they behave in the body CAN change.
Environment
Environmental exposures in air, water, and soil have a large impact on human health. These exposures can come in the form of biological risks (microbes or infectious agents), chemical risks, and radiation. Environmental factors also include the weather and even the number of hours of sunlight in a given location. A later chapter in this book examines environmental health in some detail.
References
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sic...ease/treatment
https://www.uclahealth.org/sustainab...minants-health