Healthy or Unhealthy Behavior
(1) believe they are susceptible to a particular health problem, (2) believe the health problem they risk is a serious one, (3) believe compliance will significantly reduce their risk, and (4) do not perceive any significant barriers to compliance. health care convergence Ways in which international health care systems become increasingly similar over time because of similar scientific, technological, economic, and epidemiological pressures. health lifestyle theory A theory that attempts to predict why groups adopt patterns of healthy or unhealthy behavior by showing how demographic circumstances and cultural memberships combine with socialization and experiences to produce both life chances and life choices. These life chances and choices in turn lead to habitual dispositions toward healthy or unhealthy behaviors, which then lead to actual behaviors. health maintenance organizations (HMOs) Organizations that provide health care based on prepaid group insurance. Patients pay a fixed yearly fee in exchange for a full range of health care services, including hospital care as well as doctor’s services. health project The intense focus on actively protecting one’s health to such an extent that doing so becomes central to one’s identity and life. health social movements Informal networks of individuals who band together to collectively challenge health policy, politics, beliefs, or practices. heroic medicine System of treatment used by allopathic doctors before around 1860 that emphasized curing illnesses by purging the body through bloodletting, causing extreme vomiting, or using repeated laxatives and diuretics. See also allopathic doctors.
