Having a Healthy Life

Health is the optimal aim that every person is looking for. However, having a healthy life is not easy. Researchers believe that more than half of disease is linked to individual’s behaviors . People can reduce the probability of being sick or living with chronic symptoms by engaging in health behavior and controlling their desires and habits. From this perspective and by reviewing a ten years peer-reviewed published papers, Ryan, a post-doctoral student, was thinking of developing a theory that assists individuals to reach a sustainable change in their unhealthy behaviors.Integrated Theory of Health Behavior Change (ITHBC) is an example of descriptive midrange theories that concentrate on practice.

In contrast, grand theories are more generalized and not focused on practical section (Ryan ; Sawin, 2009). ITHBC is compiled from multi concepts from deferent theories. For instance, the theory of reason Action which focus on intention, health belief model, and social cognitive theory that consider environmental factors to impact behavior change . ITHBC is a patient-centered intervention that is more effective than standardized interventions in facilitating health behavior change.ITHBC assumed that behavior change is a repeated, changeable theory. Also, it is mandatory to have a desire and to be motivated by behavioral change.

In addition, self-evaluation maintains progress and social support influences individual’s desire. The theory has a short-term outcome which is engagement in healthy behavior, and it has a long-term outcome which is health improvement. The Primary constructs of ITHBC are knowledge and beliefs, self-regulation skills and abilities, and social facilitation. All the three components assist to emerge in a behavior of self-management which is the proximal outcome in order to reach the distal outcome which is good health status. Knowledge and beliefs construct is composed of behavior-specific knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and goal congruence.

The construct of self-regulation skills and abilities comprises the processes of decision-making, planning for and engaging in specific behaviors, self-monitoring and reflective thinking, self-evaluation, goal setting, and the management of physical, emotional, and cognitive responses associated with health behavioral change. Social facilitation contains the concepts of social support, social influence and active collaboration related to health outcomes among individuals, relatives and health practitioners .

The study of testing the Integrated Theory of Health Behavioral Change for postpartum weight management aimed to investigate the relationship between the constructs of the ITHBC and how they influence weight self-management of women after giving a birth. The sample size was 250 postpartum women. Only 179 women completed the follow-up questionnaire and they were, African American, Latina, and White women, and they were classified based on their weight into normal weight, overweight, and obese.The strength of this paper is by giving a view of weight self-management after having a baby requiring active engagement and management.

Further, The THBC is a good tool in framing weight self-management in the context of health behavior self-management, and it supports the impact of race on weight self-management. In contrast, the weak points are the study constructs need a tool to measure the components of the theory for postpartum weight management. In addition, it did not test the whole theory constructs like the distal outcome.