Examples of public health in the following topics:
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- Health psychology is the application of psychological theory and research to health, illness, and healthcare.
- Health psychology addresses individual and population-level issues across four domains: clinical, public, community, and critical (social justice).
- Public health psychology investigates potential causal links between psychosocial factors and health at the population level.
- Public health psychologists present research results on epidemiological findings related to health behaviors to educators, policy makers, and health care providers in order to promote public health initiatives for at-risk groups.
- Community health psychology investigates community factors that contribute to the health and well-being.
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- Behavioral medicine and health psychology are two approaches to understanding stress and its relationship to mental and physical health.
- Behavioral medicine and health psychology are two approaches to analyzing and discussing stress.
- Prolonged psychological stress may negatively impact health, and has been cited as a factor in cognitive impairment with aging, depressive illness, and expression of disease.
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- Stress is a biological factor that has positive and negative effects on humans, but if chronically experienced, can lead to health problems.
- Stress not only impacts our psychological well-being, but can contribute to physical ill-health as well, such as digestive disorders, sleep disturbances, and general lack of energy.
- Identify the impact of both chronic and acute stress on an individual's physical and mental health.
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- Human nutrition and health are inextricably linked because proper nutrition maintains overall health and well-being.
- The key to understanding why food has such an impact on overall health lies in the physiological needs of human cells.
- Micronutrients include dietary vitamins and minerals which are necessary to sustain health.
- Consequently, one of the best things a person can do to promote overall health and wellness is to maintain adequate nutrition.
- Grains, vegetables, dairy, and fruits are more necessary to healthful diets than meat and beans.
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- The biopsychosocial model of health and illness is a framework developed by George L.
- Biological influences on health include an individual's genetic makeup and history of physical trauma or infection.
- This exerts social pressure to attain this "ideal" body image despite the obvious health risks.
- Health promotion must address all three factors, as a growing body of empirical literature suggests that it is the combination of health status, perceptions of health, and sociocultural barriers to accessing health care that influence the likelihood of a patient engaging in health-promoting behaviors, like taking medication, proper diet or nutrition, and engaging in physical activity.
- This diagram shows how biological, psychological, and sociological factors overlap to determine overall health.
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- Part of health psychology is understanding how psychological factors (such as attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, moods, and emotions) and overall quality of life impact a person's health.
- These factors may impact our health directly, or they may influence our behaviors, which in turn affect our health in either positive or negative ways.
- Moods also have important implications for mental and physical health.
- Although causality cannot always be determined, poor quality of life is often correlated with poor health, and high quality of life is often correlated with better health.
- Research suggests that optimism and positive outlooks are associated with increased health and well-being, while pessimism and learned helplessness decrease health.
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- Physical and mental health have a bidirectional relationship that can be influenced by many factors, such as exercise and hormones.
- Negative emotional states may also indirectly affect disease processes through their influence on health behaviors.
- Socially, people with low incomes have less access to health resources and screening processes.
- Two symptoms of depression are particularly salient in the context of physical health: lack of motivation and fatigue.
- Analyze how psychological and behavioral factors can impact health, and vice versa.
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- In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental-health profession.
- Careers in health settings can vary widely and include health psychology (sometimes called health-and-wellness psychology), occupational-health psychology, and medical psychology.
- Health psychology concerns itself with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness; health psychologists generally work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, although many also teach and conduct research.
- Medical psychology involves the application of a range of psychological principles, theories, and findings to the effective management of physical and mental disorders to improve the psychological and physical health of the patient.
- Occupational-health psychology (OHP) is a relatively new discipline concerned with identifying psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that give rise to health-related problems in people who work.
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- Along with healthy body weight, exercise has other physical health benefits.
- Research shows that exercise reduces cortisol levels, a hormone that is released when the body is stressed and has been shown to have negative health consequences (including heart disease and depression) when chronically elevated.
- Research shows that physical exercise also plays an important role in promoting mental health.
- Running is an aerobic exercise that increases cardiovascular function and overall health and wellness.
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- Individuals who use substances to the point of dependence are at even greater risk for physical health problems, or even overdose, due to development of tolerance, or needing to use more and more of the substance to obtain the desired effect.
- In addition to adversely altering the mental health of users, substance abuse can have a significant and long-lasting impact on the body.