“Survival of the fittest” a common phrase originated from the Evolutionary Theory of Darwin to describe the mechanism of natural selection. As humankind experience pandemic today, their physical health and mental health is being put into test on how to survive this disaster. Each day people are facing an invisible enemy that threatened them and their family. Hence, during this time of quarantine and people staying inside their homes to survive and try to find new ways to keep themselves healthy.
Lyons and Chamberlain (2017) said that Health Psychology aims to apply psychological knowledge to all aspects of physical health and illness. Conner and Norman (2019) stressed that in the topic of contemporary health psychology, the health behavior is the main concern. As Orlowski (2015) described health behavior as activity undertaken by an individual or group for the purpose of promoting, protecting and/or maintaining health. It is evident today that people are engaging to different behaviors.
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Conner and Norman (2019) stated that there are four health behavior in the current issues that are widely studied. These are smoking, binge drinking, health diet and physical activity. In this paper, we will be covering these four health behaviors.
Smoking. In the study made by Bellew and his colleagues (2013), they described the tobacco industry of the Philippines as “the strongest tobacco lobby in Asia” which lands the country as one of the highest per capita on cigarette consumption despite the fact that tobacco is one of the leading cause of death. A study made in Bahrain indicated that people who are consuming tobacco increases their tolerance overtime hence requires higher dosage of nicotine to make an effect. They stressed that heavy tobacco consumption is correlated to stress, depression and several types of cancer specially lung cancer (Hamaden, Jamil, Kawari & Bucheeri, 2018). Valera, Bachman and Rucker (2016) had explained four main ideas regarding the smoking behavior. First is that people has been exposed to cigarette since they are little as secondhand smokers by their caregivers. Second is that people who are consuming cigarette find it as stress reliever and pleasurable. Third is that they have an easy access in acquiring cigarettes and lastly, there are many available programs in case they have decided to stop using cigarettes.
Philippines, being one of the highest consumer of cigarette also made necessary steps to reduce the consumption of cigarette such as the Smoking Cessation of Program of Department of Health. However, to make the smokers quit the habit of smoking, it must start to the change the belief of the person that smoking is not relevant to their life as well as it is dangerous and it must be stopped as mentioned in the Health Behavior Model. The practice of reducing their consumption would be better to improve their lifestyle as well as to the people surrounding them.
Binge Drinking. Another health behavior issue is binge drinking, drinking has been common to Filipinos as part of celebration. According to CNN News (2019), binge drinkers are those who consumes at least four bottles in a row, and Filipinos who are consuming that much alcohol are associated to different types of cancer and vehicular accidents. In the study of Furiscal, Pancharuniti & Keiwkarnka (2008), highschool students residing to Baguio City, ages 15-16, are already consuming alcohol due to easy access and affordable prices. Their study also showed that family and friends were also part of the contributing factors of student’s drinking behavior. However, the problem of binge drinking also extends to higher education students and to faculty members. Joris, and colleagues (2015) found out that male faculty members are more exposed to binge drinking than female faculty members. Moreover, they also found out that social drinking motivates monthly binge drinking to both female and male students and faculty.
There have been efforts to create interventions for the issue of binge drinking. It is evident that binge drinking is not a good health promotion for everyone and only damages our health. Hagger, Wong and Davey (2013) aimed to create a theory based intervention for undergraduate students using motivational and self-control intervention. Mindset plays an important role in Health Psychology because proper mindset can maximize even the smallest action a person is doing. Having a mindset of drinking alcohol only in proper occasions and does not need to drink it on excessive amount will be a good start to control drinking behavior.
Health Diet. People has been very conscious in their body image due to media presentation of beautiful and handsome. Diet is more common to women than men, since women often feel pressured to be thin and beautiful to be noticed. Mack (2008) said that healthy lifestyle of an adolescents was influenced by their primary caregiver. He emphasized that through Bandura’s Social Learning specifically modelling, a constant health behavior such as eating healthy diet can indicate the level of engagement a person has. In the Philippines, the Department of Health (n.d) stressed that healthy diet is the foundation of good health because diet can satisfy the energy and nutrients a person needs for the growth and development. However, diet does not always give us positive effects especially if engaging to a specific diet without proper consultation may cause a person to have insufficient nutrients and vitamins and worse can damage your internal organs. They also warned the people that joining a fad diet can lead to eating disorder (Geminiano,2018).
Anything about food perhaps is the Filipino’s greatest expression of their culture; from preparation to consumption of food is expressed in a very intimate way (Gallo-Crail & Hawkins,2012). However, due to low economic income, not all Filipino family were able to have a healthy diet that is sufficient to sustain their body energy. But despite the economic concern, the Philippines is still rich in vegetables and livestock which most of the people especially those who are living in the rural areas are consuming. It is important that people knows what they are eating so that they can fulfill the energy requirements and vitamins that is needed for them to survive.
Physical Activity. Motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation are consistently correlated to the physical activity of a person. Regular Physical activity is effective preventive strategy against to chronic medical conditions (Rhodes, Janssen, Bredin, Warburton & Bauman,2017). In the United States, Strowger, Kiken, and Ramcharran (2018) said that only about half of the adult population meets the basic aerobic physical recommendation while the other are inactive. As mindfulness meditation gained popularity, US adults who practice this in the past were likely to engage in physical activity and mindfulness meditation showed stronger association rather than other types of meditation. In the Philippines, Sanchez Pituk and Cagas (2019) studied the physical activities of university students and showed that male students are more physically fit than female students and female students shows higher body fat than male students. They stated that physical activity is important not only to promote fitness but also to suffice the demands of the university.
Being in the country that demand skilled worker, most Filipinos’ body was molded to be always working physically rather than sitting in the chair working in the office. Physical activities in the Philippines has always been reinforced because in the primary to secondary school morning exercise is necessary. Nowadays, Zumba sessions are offered in all age brackets everywhere accessible to people, this is the kind of health promotion the Filipinos are extending to maintain the physical health of a person. Having constant physical activity such as exercises does not only limit its effect to the fitness of the body but also helps the brain gain oxygen to function properly.
In conclusion, the issues regarding health behaviors has both negative and positive effect to a person. These behaviors that a person choose will really start to the mindset the person has, their belief really plays a crucial part in the behavior they are doing. In this age of technology, the internet helps us gain access to different health promotions that can benefit our body positively especially today, during our fight to pandemic. Helping ourselves maintain healthy body and spreading positive vibes would encourage different people to act for a better life starting now.
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