Heath and Wellbeing

 

As I said last week; this week was the beginning of a new unit on health and well being within cultures and societies. I found today very interesting as it was mainly focused on at risk behaviours for individuals. We began with an interactive quiz which got us all moving about on a Monday morning. This was favoured by some, while others wanted to just hide away on an early Monday morning.

 

I will firstly point out some facts that stuck out for me from throughout the course of the day:

• The Glasgow effect document provides a lot of statistics on poor health. I will attach a link as I would advise reading it as it was extremely interesting to be educated on some of the effect of living in Glasgow.
• Glasgow is one of three of the poorest cities along with Manchester and Liverpool.
• Premature deaths are around 15% higher in Glasgow than the rest of the country
• Scotland are 50% more likely to be diagnosed with heart disease
• 9% of adults had two or more depression systems
• 1 in 5 say they smoke
• 3 in 10 children are overweight in Scotland
• 44% of adults in the United Kingdom have some sort of long-term illnesses.
• Average Life Expectancy = 79.1 years
• Average Healthy years = 61.3 years

 

We began to talk about at risk behaviours and how they can affect the quality and quantity of lives and the health and wellbeing of individuals. We spoke about what risk behaviours are and we found that they are: actions that a person chooses that threatens health. It can cause injury, illness and premature deaths. Most at risk behaviours:

• are established during youth
• can persist into adulthood
• are preventable
• are all interrelated and can cause serious health defects
• can contribute to poor health, education, social outcomes

 

The Quality and Quantity of our lives dependents on 3 main factors:

• Behavioural
• Hereditary
• Personal Beliefs

On a more positive note I was pleased to find out that mortality rates in different aspects have been declining for a number of years.

• 20% for all causes of death
• 10% for cancers
• 45% for heart disease
• 44% for strokes
• 11% for respiratory diseases

This showing that as our health improves we are being less risky with the behaviours we chose in everyday life. However, one aspect that has not improved over the years is alcohol-related deaths. In which case, has increased for both males and females. Also, for suicides although the female population has decreased in mortality rates in the last few years; the mortality rate for males has increased.

Some of the consequences of at risk behaviours listed above can be passed down through learned behaviours as children, meaning we have to have positive behaviours as adults and set a good example or we could be setting bad examples of risky behaviours that children could learn from.

 

The government has set a vision for which they want to achieve by 2020 regarding the health and wellbeing for people in Scotland. The following should be achieved by 2020:

• appropriate working, housing and living conditions
• less smoking
• healthier eating more activity in daily life
• less binge drinking
• producing an improvement in quality of peoples’ lives
• enhance well-being
• increase life expectancy
• fewer early deaths from heart disease; diabetes and cancer

 

The main causes of deaths amongst young people are:

• Motor vehicle crashes
• other unintentional injuries (falls, fires, drowning)
• suicide

 

The six categories of risk behaviours and are most common amongst people are:

• Tobacco use
• Behaviours contributing to unintentional/intentional injures
• alcohol and drug use
• sexual behaviours resulting in unintended pregnancy and STD’s
• dietary patterns and choices leading to different diseases
• lack of physical activity due to choice or disability etc.

 

The above main at risk behaviours can be guided by such things as:

• heredity
• environment
• culture
• religion
• friends/social
• family
• media
• medical community
• education

 

The areas that can influence our behaviours and can guide us to the behaviours that influence our choices we make are:

• Individual/community
• school/peers
• community
• policy/ society

 

There are places throughout Scotland that can support and guide the choices and behaviours we make:

• parents and families
• schools
• community agencies
• media
• post secondary institutions
• faith-based organisations
• employers
• government agencies

 

As you can see from the above summary of what we have learned about in the lecture, there can be a lot of factors which can contribute to whether someone decides on any risky behaviours and the consequences that can come with these risky behaviours. Although, in a more positive note, to see the government setting out a vision for 2020 shows that they think we are improving and that we can achieve a healthier society. Also, as we were given statistics on how the country is improving this is showing that people are being more healthy and making better choices and choosing to be less risky with their behaviours. To see that nearly all mortality rates are declining or have declined by 20% is excellent. Overall, I can clearly see that at risk behaviours can have serious consequences on individuals. However, as  a society we are improving and becoming more conscious with the choices in our behaviours.

 

More on this topic next week!