# "What's Health?" Discussion

## September 9th, 2020

-   Okay, belatedly, let's watch the "Weight of the Nation"/Chapter 1 discussion! Let's start with some discussion questions?
    -   What stood out to you watching the film? Comparison of obesity to the tobacco industry?
    -   What government/program encourages the growth of corn and soy, as opposed to produce?
        -   "You WILL be tested on this, so pay attention"
        -   It's called SUBSIDIZATION, the idea that the government incentivizes farmers to grow these crops by paying them extra (for corn, specifically, it's known as "The Farm Bill," and people are trying to extend it to fruits and vegetables)
    -   What did the mothers in Santa Ana try to get built?
        -   Parks, and a playground!
    -   What has a higher profit margin: soda or produce?
        -   Soda, by a HUGE margin: 90% vs 10%!
    -   Bringing it back to our reality, what in our community helps to promote a healthy lifestyle? Or to hurt one?
        -   Here in Atlanta, the Atlanta Beltline helps a lot of neighborhoods get exercise
        -   Having to walk to the College of Business for class (because, y'know, building Scheller in a reasonable location is impossible)
        -   Georgia Tech having exercise equipment and fields open to students
            -   In contrast, not having these fields or parks make it difficult to exercise

-   Now, let's start talking about health - what does it MEAN?
    -   Health can mean different things to different people (*relativism inserted*); for our class purposes, health isn't just the absence of disease or sickness, and it includes multiple dimensions
        -   The World Health Organization says HEALTH is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"
            -   This is in contrast to the more reactionary medical model of health
    -   Choosing healthy behaviors NOW provides immediate benefits, but it's also essential to ensuring you'll stay healthy in the long term
        -   In your textbook, there's a chart of impediments to academic performance; the big ones include:
            -   Excess stress/anxiety
            -   Lack of sleep
            -   Sicknesses (flu/colds)
            -   Non-academic work
            -   Depression
        -   What kind of health consequences are there for your behavior?
            -   In the short term:
                -   Looking better by brushing your teeth, staying hygenic, etc.
                -   Preventing diseases by taking care of your immune system
                -   Staying productive by not drinking excessively, getting good sleep, etc.
                    -   "There's research that not sleeping enough actually makes you hungry, which makes you eat more, which can lead to weight problems (since, if you're sleepy, you don't feel like exercising)"
            -   In the long-term:
                -   Maintaining those healthy habits into the future
                -   Avoiding long-term, chronic health issues
                    -   One concrete example: it's important to maintain your bone mass as a young person because, when you get older (40+), your bone mass starts deteriorating and makes it easier to break bones, harder to walk, etc.
                    -   In your late teens and early 20s, though, is when you can build up your bone mass the most by doing weight-bearing exercises and keeping calcium/vitamin D in your diet

-   So, let's continue talking about that
    -   In chapter 1, LIFE EXPECTANCY is how long you're expected to live (usually in number of years)
        -   HEALTHY life expectancy is how long you're expected to enjoy full health without disability/chronic pain/significant illness/etc.
        -   HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE relates to, well, the overall quality of your life, and in particular to WELL-BEING, the positive aspects fo your life and how satisfied you are
    -   Right now, the average life expectancy for someone born in 2014 in the U.S. is 78.8
        -   In the early 1900s, though, it was just 47!
        -   What changed? Back then, many people died from infectious diseases; these days, antibiotics and vaccinations have cut those deaths down dramatically
            -   The leading causes of death THEN were TB, pneumonia, and influenza
    -   Nowadays people are living longer, but most people die from chronic diseases, and often are quite sick in their final years
        -   Currently, the largest cause of death is heart disease; for people aged 14-44, most deaths are from fatal accidents (falls, car accidents, etc.)
            -   Why do you think that is? Partly its because young people are healthy and don't die of sickness often, but also because young people take more risks, drink alcohol (which impairs decision-making), etc.

-   Now, there are 6 dimensions of health; we've gone over these in your textbook, and are pretty obvious, but to list them again:
    -   Physical
    -   Social
    -   Intellectual
    -   Emotional
    -   Spiritual
    -   Environmental
        -   "Most people get caught up in thinking health is all about the physical part, about our bodies, but really that's just 1 small part of having a healthy life - we emphasize a holistic approach to health. Just because someone's walking down the street lookin' good doesn't mean they're healthy (even physically, sometimes - they might still have physical problems!)"

-   So, there are 2 models of health we've talked about
    -   The MEDICAL MODEL is all about treating diseases after they occur, and is very individual focused
    -   The PUBLIC HEALTH model is more recent and holistic, and focuses on PREVENTING disease by trying to control the environment around people (e.g. building better sewers to lower disease risks)
        -   Nowadays, this informs a lot of our approach to health - GT does this by having stress management workshops, seminars on sexual violence, etc.

-   Yet ANOTHER thing to to talk about: HEALTH DETERMINANTS!
    -   These are things that, well, determine your health, and there are 5 we'll talk about in this class
        -   BIOLOGY are an individual's genetics, gender, ethnicity, age, etc.; for the most part, these can NOT be changed - meaning they're NON-MODIFIABLE determinants
            -   ...although with biology, our diet, etc. does impact our genes a little bit ("epigenetic activity")
        -   INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR are how we choose to act day-to-day; this is VERY modifiable
            -   The 4 leading causes of chronic disease in the U.S. are ALL related to individual behaviors, involved in 70% of U.S. deaths:
                -   Physical inactivity
                -   Poor nutrition
                -   Excessive alcohol use
                -   Smoking (this is most detrimental)
        -   SOCIAL/ECONOMIC FACTORS, like what neighborhood you grew up in, access to nearby grocery stores, living in poor housing, polluted environments, access to exercise areas, etc., and are somewhat modifiable (but often not)
        -   POLICYMAKING can have significant effects for good or bad; these are things like wearing seatbelts, helmet mandates, vaccine subsidies, etc.
            -   These can serve a key role in promoting healthy behaviors
        -   HEALTH CARE/INFORMATION can be crucial to identifying issues and having access to treatment for diseases

-   So, hat are some big public health achievement this century?
    -   Vaccinations are big, car safety laws are big, controlling infectious diesases, making food safe, etc.

-   NOW, you should've brought an article with you to calss - based on the NIH article about evaluating websites, tell me if this article is credible
    -   As a reminder, the NIH lists 10 questions to ask for determining a credible article:
        -   Who runs the site?
        -   Who pays for it?
        -   What is the site's purpose?
        -   Where does the information come from?
            -   The person may have a PhD., but is it peer reviewed? Would they get any benefit from you believing them?
        -   What basis is given for the information?
        -   How was the information selected?
            -   People might quote the CDC, but are they twisting the lines to say what they want?
        -   How current is the information?
        -   How does the site choose which other sites to link?
        -   What information does the site collect about you?
        -   How does the site manage visitors?

-   Now, let's talk about 3 models of "behavior change"
    -   We know that knowing something isn't the same as actually doing, it, but why? How do we go from "knowing" to "doing?" That's why these 3 different models were made, to explain this
    -   The HEALTH-BELIEF MODEL is determined by someone's perception of a disease - if someone thinks they aren't seriously at risk for a disease or that the disease isn't bad, they might not try to change their behavior to avoid it
        -   For example, someone might not think that texting and driving is that dangerous until a friend gets into a serious accident - and then, you'll probably take it more seriously and avoid it
    -   The SOCIAL-COGNITIVE MODEL (on the slides)
    -   The TRANSTHEORETICAL MODEL (on the slides)

-   Okay, you have an exam next week! Study hard and good luck!