Social and behavioral sciences use different sociocultural and behavioral factors
to better understand how healthy environments are sustained among different populations
. Students concentrating in these fields learn how community and social factors contribute to a variety of public health solutions and policies.
How is behavioral science essential for public health?
Social and behavioral sciences
help illuminate public health concerns, and therefore can play a critical role in achieving public health goals
. By applying behavioral science to public health challenges, those in the field can more successfully reduce health inequities, prevent disease, and promote health.
The most common applications of social and behavioral science were
individual-level behavior change to prevent HIV transmission and community-level interventions utilizing community organizing models and/or media interventions for health promotion and disease prevention
.
What is Behavioural science in public health?
What can behavioural and social sciences contribute to public health? Behavioural sciences
bring rigour and discipline to intervention design, development, and evaluation
. They use explicit theories and models, which can underpin interventions, and provide a cumulative evidence base of what works.
Of all the public health disciplines, the social and behavioral sciences
can make unique contributions to primary prevention
. Influencing lifestyle patterns and the social context in which people live is fundamental to prevention of the major health conditions facing society today.
What is the role of behavioral science in health behavior?
Behavioral and social science research contributes to health care by
identifying potential health problems, studying risky behaviors, and evaluating the efficacy of treatments
. The influences on the patient’s health-related behaviors are similar to the influences on any behavior.
What are the Social & Behavioral Sciences? The disciplines (areas of study) in the Division of Social & Behavioral (SB) Sciences are
dedicated to understanding the human mind and human behavior in the past and present at four levels: the individual, the cultural, the societal, and the species levels
.
“Social science is
an academic discipline concerned with society and the relationships among individuals within a society
, which often rely primarily on empirical approaches. It includes anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology.
The behaviourist approach is used in a health and social care setting to do similar things as the health care services. The main aim of this is
to change and shape the individual’s behaviour to understand that there is a way in overcoming the difficult behaviour
.
The behavioural approach is
most commonly used with children or in situations where the Authority figure ‘wants’ to control the behaviour of a client
eg in a prison or residential home. It uses positive and negative reinforcement to shape a person’s behaviour. Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment.
How does public health influence nutritional health?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services discusses the importance of public health nutrition, stating that
eating nutritional meals leads to a decrease in hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and weight gain
. Adequate nutrition is also linked to good brain health and intelligence. 2.
The social determinants can impact health directly but also can indirectly impact health by
shaping how people behave
. Poverty, unemployment, and housing insecurity are all examples of social determinants that result in poor health outcomes.
Why do community health practitioners study behavioral science?
At the same time, behavioural science has
helped in understanding the complexities of effective behaviour change support, and the active ingredients of effective interventions which inform what a practitioner might helpfully say and do in an opportunistic behaviour change consultation
.
Why is Behavioural science important in nursing and medical profession?
Behavioral science theory can provide a conceptual context for understanding patient behavior, it can guide research on the determinants of health behavior and health service delivery, and it can offer alternative approaches to nursing practice that may improve the effectiveness of patient care.
What is behavioral science examples?
Examples of behavioral sciences include
psychology, psychobiology, anthropology, and cognitive science
. Generally, behavioral science primarily has shown how human action often seeks to generalize about human behavior as it relates to society and its impact on society as a whole.
Behavioral Science vs Social Science
In fact,
behavioral science pays attention to the behavior of human beings and animals.
Social science, on the other hand, focuses on the human being, but in the social context. It explores the social processes, organizations, and institutions.
clear and unequivocal: public health is an applied
social science
(1, 2).
In other words,
public health is the science of helping people
. Public health practice involves professionals from all STEM disciplines, including statisticians, biologists, epidemiologists, informaticians, data scientists, microbiologists, and economists, as well as the liberal arts and the humanities.
Social Science for Public Health is an interdisciplinary subject which combines courses in Population Health, Anthropology, Geography, History, Māori Studies, Philosophy, Political Studies and Sociology
.
