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| Health behaviour |
Health behaviour
Mental health also influences physical health through its influence on health behaviour, which is socially patterned and deeply embedded in people’s social, cultural and material circumstances (NICE 2007). The relative contribution of individual characteristics (affect, cognitive and social skills), social context (peers, social networks, relationships) and material factors (income, access to healthy products) is difficult to untangle and interventions to improve health behaviour through improving mental health (in schools for example) often attempt to address all three areas.
Positive mental health is associated with:
• Improved sleep, exercise, diet (Pressman and Cohen 2005; Mental Health Foundation 2006a)
Improving positive mental health reduces:
• Alcohol intake (Graham et al 2005; Petersen et al 1998 ; Mental Health Foundation 2006b)
• Smoking (Graham et al 2005)
• Delinquent activity20 (Windle 2000)
There is some dispute as to whether alcohol misuse precedes, or is a consequence of, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression (Kessler et al 1996; Merikangas et al 1998; Rehm et al, 2003) and in many cases there is likely to be a dynamic interaction.
The marked relationship between socio-economic factors and health behaviour raises a number of questions about the extent to which psychological factors pattern behaviour. A significant context for understanding the link between mental health and behaviour is the extent to which health-damaging behaviours may be survival strategies in the face of multiple problems, anger and despair related to occupational insecurity, poverty, poor housing, exclusion and other indicators of low status. These problems impact on intimate relationships, the care of children and on self care (Rogers and Pilgrim 2003). In the United Kingdom, the 20% - 25% of people who are obese or continue to smoke are concentrated among the 26% of the population living in poverty, measured in terms of low income and multiple deprivation of necessities (Gordon et al 2000). This is also the population with the highest prevalence of anxiety and depression (Melzer et al 2004). Capacity, capability and motivation to choose health are strongly influenced by mental health and wellbeing, making these pathways a feature of the growing interest in positive mental health as a route to achieving behavioural change (Stead et al 2007). Mental health may also be a factor in helping to explain the wider international data which shows that socio-economically disadvantaged conditions are not universally correlated to all forms of health-damaging behaviours (CSDH 2007).
Mental health also influences physical health through its influence on health behaviour, which is socially patterned and deeply embedded in people’s social, cultural and material circumstances (NICE 2007). The relative contribution of individual characteristics (affect, cognitive and social skills), social context (peers, social networks, relationships) and material factors (income, access to healthy products) is difficult to untangle and interventions to improve health behaviour through improving mental health (in schools for example) often attempt to address all three areas.
Positive mental health is associated with:
• Improved sleep, exercise, diet (Pressman and Cohen 2005; Mental Health Foundation 2006a)
Improving positive mental health reduces:
• Alcohol intake (Graham et al 2005; Petersen et al 1998 ; Mental Health Foundation 2006b)
• Smoking (Graham et al 2005)
• Delinquent activity20 (Windle 2000)
There is some dispute as to whether alcohol misuse precedes, or is a consequence of, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression (Kessler et al 1996; Merikangas et al 1998; Rehm et al, 2003) and in many cases there is likely to be a dynamic interaction.
The marked relationship between socio-economic factors and health behaviour raises a number of questions about the extent to which psychological factors pattern behaviour. A significant context for understanding the link between mental health and behaviour is the extent to which health-damaging behaviours may be survival strategies in the face of multiple problems, anger and despair related to occupational insecurity, poverty, poor housing, exclusion and other indicators of low status. These problems impact on intimate relationships, the care of children and on self care (Rogers and Pilgrim 2003). In the United Kingdom, the 20% - 25% of people who are obese or continue to smoke are concentrated among the 26% of the population living in poverty, measured in terms of low income and multiple deprivation of necessities (Gordon et al 2000). This is also the population with the highest prevalence of anxiety and depression (Melzer et al 2004). Capacity, capability and motivation to choose health are strongly influenced by mental health and wellbeing, making these pathways a feature of the growing interest in positive mental health as a route to achieving behavioural change (Stead et al 2007). Mental health may also be a factor in helping to explain the wider international data which shows that socio-economically disadvantaged conditions are not universally correlated to all forms of health-damaging behaviours (CSDH 2007).
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