Prevention and health promotion: decades of progress, new challenges, and an emerging agenda.
Daily habits (e.g., smoking, diet, and exercise) and their immediate consequences (e.g., obesity) confer risk for most of the major health problems in industrialized nations. Hence, determinants of these behaviors and their modifications have been central topics in health psychology. Considerable scientific and applied progress has been made, but the field faces important challenges and opportunities in the future. These challenges and opportunities include changes in demographics and patterns of health, the need for a more comprehensive model of the domain of health behavior and prevention, the need to integrate behavioral and psychosocial risk and resilience, the incorporation of new technologies, and addressing a variety of professional and economic barriers to the implementation of prevention in health care.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. tim.smith@psych.utah.edu
Timothy W
TW
Smith
C Tracy
CT
Orleans
C David
CD
Jenkins
D001524:Behavioral Medicine; D019049:Developed Countries; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D011584:Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States