What You’ll Learn 1. Draw and label the health triangle. 2. Discuss ten factors that affect health status. 3. Identify seven life skills to practice. 4. Discuss the steps to follow to help you comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention. 5. Discuss four kinds of skills needed to be a health- literate person.

What to Know About the Health Triangle The Health Triangle shows relationships among: Physical health is the condition of a person’s body.

What to Know About the Health Triangle Mental-emotional health is the condition of a person’s mind and the ways that a person expresses feelings.

What to Know About the Health Triangle Family-social health is the condition of a person’s relationships with family members and with others.

What to Know About the Health Triangle If one of the points on the Health Triangle is missing or impaired, it can begin to lose its balance, which can affect the other two points.

Factors That Affect Health Status 1. Health knowledge – Health knowledge is the information and understanding a person has about health.

Factors That Affect Health Status 2. Accessing health information, products, and services – When you access useful health information, you help yourself make decisions about products or services and choose behaviors that will keep you healthy. – A health service is help that is provided by a health-care facility or a health-care provider. – A health product is something that is used to restore or maintain health.

Factors That Affect Health Status 3. Behaviors A person’s behavior is the way a person chooses to act or respond to a situation. Two types of behavior can affect health: healthful behaviors and risk behaviors.

Factors That Affect Health Status Behavior Choices and Health Status Healthful Behavior • Promotes health • Prevents injury, illness, and premature death • Improves the quality of the environment • Examples: wearing a safety belt, exercising regularly, and eating healthful foods Risk Behavior • Threatens health • Can cause injury, illness, and premature death • Damages or destroys the environment • Examples: playing sports without safety equipment, smoking, and drinking alcohol

Factors That Affect Health Status 4. Influences such as culture, media, and technology  Many people and circumstances affect your health each day, including: Culture: the arts, beliefs, and customs that make up a way of life for a group of people at a certain time Media: various forms of mass communication Technology: the practical application or use of knowledge

Factors That Affect Health Status 5. Communication skills Communication skills are the ways in which a person chooses to share feelings, thoughts, and information with others. Resistance skills are methods a person can use to say “no” to an action or situation that could damage health status. Conflict-resolution skills are steps that you can take to settle a disagreement in a responsible way.

Factors That Affect Health Status 6. Decisions involving choices Many decisions you make have long-term consequences and might cause you to take actions that affect health status.

Factors That Affect Health Status TABLE 1.1 Decisions and Health Status Responsible Decisions Irresponsible Decisions • Promote health • Can harm health • Keep safety in mind • Result in unsafe behaviors • Follow laws • May be illegal • Show respect for self • Show disrespect for self and others and others • Follow guidelines of parents • Show disregard for guidelines and adults of parents and others • Demonstrate good character • Are part of normal character development

Factors That Affect Health Status 7. Health-advocacy skills Health-advocacy skills are used to influence the health behavior and decisions of others and to advance health-related beliefs and concerns. A health advocate is a person who influences the health behavior and decisions of others and advances certain health-related beliefs and concerns.

Factors That Affect Health Status 8. Heredity Heredity is the passing of characteristics or traits from biological parents to their children. Inherited characteristics may be protective factors or risk factors. A protective factor is something that increases the odds of a positive outcome, such as healthful traits. A risk factor is something that increases the odds of a negative outcome, such as a risk factor for some diseases.

Factors That Affect Health Status 9. Your environment Your environment is everything around you, including the air, the water, and the place in which you live. An environment can be a protective factor or a risk factor depending on access to basic needs.

Factors That Affect Health Status 10. Random events A random event is an incident over which a person has little or no control.

Factors That Affect Health Status Health Skills to Practice for Life You promote the health of others and the quality of the environment when you: • comprehend health concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention; • access information about health products and services; • analyze influences on health, such as culture, media, technology, and other factors; • practice healthful behaviors; • use communication skills, resistance skills, and conflict-resolution skills; • set goals and make responsible decisions; • advocate for personal, family, and community health.

Risks and Random Events A risk is a chance that has an unknown outcome. Risks and random events can have positive or negative effects on health status.

How Risks Differ From Random Events A calculated risk is a chance that a person takes after carefully considering all possible outcomes. An unnecessary risk is a chance that, after weighing all the possible outcomes, you decide is not worth it. Random event A random event is an incident over which a person has little or no control.

Responsibility for Health Quality of life is the degree to which a person lives life to the fullest capacity. Wellness is the quality of life that results from a person’s health status. The Wellness Scale is a scale that shows the range in quality of life.

How to Use the Wellness Scale Ten factors (see page 6 in your textbook) can affect your health status and wellness. Factors that have a positive effect promote optimal wellness. Factors that have a negative effect increase your risk of illness, injury, and premature death.

How to Comprehend Health Concepts TABLE 1.2 Steps to Comprehend Health Concepts Related to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention The Plan Developing the Life Skill Step 1 Study health information about heart disease. Use valid sources, such as health textbooks and the American Heart Association Web site. You learn that eating broiled foods is more healthful for the heart than eating fried foods. Step 2 Ask questions about heart disease information you don’t understand. Ask your health teacher, physician, or other health expert why eating broiled foods is more healthful for the heart than eating fried foods. They tell you fried foods may contain more saturated fats. A diet high in saturated fats increases the risk of heart disease. Step 3 Use health knowledge to form health concepts to prevent heart disease. The health knowledge you have learned helped you form this concept: I can reduce my risk of heart disease by eating fewer fried foods. Step 4 Use this health concept to reduce your risk of heart disease. When you dine out, you order broiled food instead of fried food.

How to Attain Health Literacy Effective communication Effective communication is expressing your health knowledge, beliefs, and ideas.

How to Attain Health Literacy Self-directed learning Self-directed learning is taking personal responsibility for gathering and using health-related information.

How to Attain Health Literacy Critical thinking Critical thinking is evaluating the facts and examining possible outcomes before making decisions.

How to Attain Health Literacy Responsible citizenship Responsible citizenship is behaving in ways that improve your home, school, community, nation, and world.