Prospective Students
What is Health Behavior?
Key causes of chronic disease (e.g., heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes) are behavioral--eating, drinking, physical activity, and tobacco and other substance use. For example, without the effects of the addictive behavior of cigarette smoking, lung cancer would be a rare disease, instead of a major killer. Other disease and problems have a major behavioral component (e.g., drunk driving leading to automobile crashes, not heeding warnings to avoid contaminated food, not practicing safer sex or safer "sun"). Behavioral change is often crucial for enhancing public health, and, at the same time, behavioral change can be very difficult to accomplish.
Health behavior is the scientific study of the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations that promote health and prevent chronic disease. Health behavior scientists study patterns, determinants, and consequences of behaviors related to health, including topics such as addictions, stress & coping, physical activity & nutrition, policy development & implementation. Epidemiological methods are important tools in this area.
Health behavior experts work in a wide variety of settings including public health agencies at the local, state, and national, or international level; health care delivery systems such as hospital and managed care organization; private research firms;pharmaceutical companies; and academia. The MPH core prepares graduates for a wide range of public health settings, and the health behavior concentration adds skills related to policies and programs that promote behavioral health.
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