HEALTH BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOURS
Over the last century health behaviours have played an increasingly important role in health and illness. This relationship has been highlighted by McKeown’s book, The Role of Medicine (1979), which discusses the decline of infectious diseases in the nineteenth century, which forms the focus for medical sociology. It also highlights the increasing role of behaviour in illness in the twentieth century. The latter represents the focus for health psychology. The commonly held view is that the decline in illnesses such as TB, measles, smallpox and whooping cough was related to the development of medical interventions such as chemotherapy and vaccinations. For example, antibiotics are seen as responsible for the decline in illnesses such as pneumonia and TB. But McKeown showed that the decline in infectious diseases had already begun, before the development of medical interventions. He claimed that, looking back over the past three centuries, this decline is best understood in terms of social and environmental factors. McKeown also examined health and illness throughout the twentieth century. He argued that contemporary illness is caused by an individual’s own behaviours, such as whether they smoke, what they eat and how much exercise they take, and he suggested that good health was dependent on tackling these habitsMcKeown’s emphasis on behaviour is supported by evidence of the relationship between behaviour and mortality.
Over the last century health behaviours have played an increasingly important role in health and illness. This relationship has been highlighted by McKeown’s book, The Role of Medicine (1979), which discusses the decline of infectious diseases in the nineteenth century, which forms the focus for medical sociology. It also highlights the increasing role of behaviour in illness in the twentieth century. The latter represents the focus for health psychology. The commonly held view is that the decline in illnesses such as TB, measles, smallpox and whooping cough was related to the development of medical interventions such as chemotherapy and vaccinations. For example, antibiotics are seen as responsible for the decline in illnesses such as pneumonia and TB. But McKeown showed that the decline in infectious diseases had already begun, before the development of medical interventions. He claimed that, looking back over the past three centuries, this decline is best understood in terms of social and environmental factors. McKeown also examined health and illness throughout the twentieth century. He argued that contemporary illness is caused by an individual’s own behaviours, such as whether they smoke, what they eat and how much exercise they take, and he suggested that good health was dependent on tackling these habitsMcKeown’s emphasis on behaviour is supported by evidence of the relationship between behaviour and mortality.
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