What is public health? Students in the UGA Health & Wellness class are here to help you find out! They have strategically identified examples in the Athens community that they feel represent public health in action. This blog is dedicated to explaining, understanding, and discussing what their interpretations of public health, as well as their reactions to learning about topics of health and wellness.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Reflection/Reaction Piece


·      One of the most interesting things that I have learned in class is the Stages of Change Model.  This model is a framework that looks at the individual behavior change.  One of the main points of this model is that change is a process.  This method takes into account thinking, feelings, behaviors, relationships, and perceived self-efficacy.  Certain interventions are targeted towards specific stages.  These stages that we learned about are:
-precontemplation= someone else may suggest that you should change something but you haven’t really thought about it
-contemplation= you are weighing the pros and the cons
-preparation= the pros have won and you are coming up with a plan
-action= you have changed your behavior
-maintenance= you have maintained this lifestyle for 6 months
-termination= you don’t have thoughts about going back to your old ways
·      
This topic interested me because change is something that is happening around us everyday. It affects us personally, affects our friends and families, and affects people who surround us.  It’s interesting to think that anytime we change anything in our lives, all of these steps have happened.
·      
This topic affects my life in many ways.  An example of it affecting me spiritually is when I decided to accept the Lord as my savior. My life has changed drastically since then.   This topic has affected my study habits.  Freshman year I realized I had to change the way I studied for tests because they were harder than in high school. Change will continue to happen throughout my entire life.
·      
The topic of change is important to public health because the decisions people make to change their lives often have to do with nutrition or health decisions.  Examples could include deciding to quit smoking, deciding to give up fried foods, etc.  When people decide to stop smoking, they will hopefully pass down this belief to their children and further generations.  This will affect how many people develop lung cancer and how many people are affected by second hand smoking.  Our own personal decisions to change our lives not only affect us, but also affect the people who surround us in our lives.
·         
 Question:  Is there more than one change model that other people have created or is this the main one that is believed?

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