Case studies: Improving the macrosocial environment

Abstract

Health is a function of individual and ecological risk factors (Lloyd, 1978). Highrisk behavior, such as smoking, drug abuse, unsafe sex, overeating, or physical inactivity, can negatively affect personal health, and health promotion advocates have long stressed the importance of behavioral change to ameliorate adverse health outcomes. The benefits of changing personal health behaviors seem intuitive, tangible, and direct. A preponderance of interventions that address individual behavioral changes have already been studied; regrettably, well-designed evaluations of behavior-change interventions have consistently revealed disappointing results. Upon extended follow-up, the interventions have not met their health targets (Dansinger, Gleason, Griffith, Selker & Schaefer, 2005). © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.