Social and behavioral dimensions of health

Abstract

Graduate public health courses that address social and behavioral dimensions of health emphasize the examination of forces beyond the individual that impact the community and the individual's health and health behavior. A goal of these courses is to shift students' focus from a traditional orientation on individual health to a population health perspective. In line with the goal of public health to understand what places people at risk for risks (Link & Phelan, 1995, p. 80), these courses look upstream at structural influences that ultimately impact the individual's biology either directly or indirectly through behavior. Some researchers in this field have argued that these upstream influences are the predominant or fundamental determinants of health (Link & Phelan). With this contextual, environmental orientation, the content of these courses share much in common with the current approach to understanding disability. However, there remains little overlap or integration between the content of courses examining social and behavioral dimensions of health and disability studies. It is therefore important that disability content be infused in courses that cover social and behavioral dimensions of health. It is the goal of this chapter to address how the understanding of social and behavioral dimensions of health can be improved by integrating disability content. First, an overview of the typical content of these courses is provided, followed by a discussion of disability-related research and finally, recommendations are offered on how to integrate the two fields. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.