Source: Lecture Notes 3–4, Textbook pp. 206, 228
Difficulty: Introductory to Intermediate. Prerequisites: Week 4 exercise notes; familiarity with self-efficacy, social engineering, and health behaviour models.
This set of notes covers three areas of health promotion beyond exercise: preventing accidents (home, workplace, and road), cancer-related screening behaviours (mammograms, colorectal screening, and sun safety), and dietary health. All three share common themes from health psychology, including the roles of self-efficacy, social support, social engineering, and community-level interventions. If you have not yet reviewed the exercise notes, start there, since several concepts (self-efficacy, relapse prevention, social engineering) are introduced in that context and reappear here.
Accidents are a leading cause of death across the lifespan, preventable through both social engineering (helmet laws, speed limits) and individual behaviour change. Cancer screening uptake depends on self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and social norms, but is held back by fear, cost, and embarrassment. Diet is a controllable risk factor for many diseases, yet people resist dietary change because it is restrictive, expensive, and competes with stress-driven eating habits.
Social engineering (health promotion)
Policy-level or environmental changes that nudge populations toward safer or healthier behaviour. Examples include helmet laws, speed limits, and reducing sugary drink sizes.
Think of it as redesigning the world so the safer choice is also the default choice.
Mammogram
An X-ray screening used to detect breast cancer early, before symptoms appear. Recommended annually for women 50+ and for at-risk women 40+.
In simple terms, it is a routine scan that catches breast cancer while it is still treatable.
Colorectal cancer screening
Procedures used to detect colorectal cancer or precancerous polyps. It is the screening for the second-highest cause of cancerous deaths.
In simple terms, it is a check for cancer in the colon or rectum, often avoided because of fear or discomfort.
Motivational interviewing
A non-judgmental counselling approach in which the clinician helps clients talk through the issues and struggles of behaviour change (e.g., dieting) without pressure or criticism.
Think of it as a conversation where the therapist helps you find your own reasons to change, rather than telling you what to do.
Self-monitoring (dietary)
The practice of tracking what you eat, when, and how much, to build awareness of your actual dietary patterns.
In simple terms, it is keeping a food diary so you can see what you are really eating rather than what you think you are eating.
Implementation intentions
See the Exercise study notes for the full definition. In the dietary context, these are specific if-then plans for eating behaviour (e.g., "If I am offered cake at work, then I will have one slice and stop").
Home and workplace accidents are the most common cause of death and disability among children under the age of 5.
Precautionary measures for children:
Install safety catches and gates in the home
Place poisons out of reach
Teach children safety skills (e.g., not touching hot stoves or power outlets)
Provide training and parenting classes to parents
Fall-related accidents are a common cause of death and injuries in older adults.
Strategies to reduce falls in older adults:
Dietary and medication intervention (e.g., taking drowsiness-causing medication only at night)
Physical activity training
Environmental modifications: better lighting, nonslip bath mats, shower grab bars, hand rails
Fall prevention programmes
Motor vehicle accidents are the greatest cause of accidental deaths overall.
Social engineering solutions:
Helmet laws
Lower speed limits
More stop signs
0.08 BAC alcohol driving laws
Psychological interventions:
Getting people to be more mindful while driving
Promoting safer behaviour on the road through awareness campaigns
Mammograms have helped reduce breast cancer mortality. They are especially important for older and high-risk women because:
Breast cancer affects approximately 1 in 8 women
Early detection is much cheaper than treating advanced stages
Survival chances improve significantly with early detection
Women 50+ should get one every year; at-risk women should start at 40+
Why mammogram usage declines with age:
Fear of radiation
Embarrassment over the procedure
Anticipated pain
Anxiety
Fear of receiving a positive cancer result
Concern over costs
Lack of awareness, time, and resource availability
Measures to promote mammogram screening:
Changing attitudes through interventions
Improving social support
Colorectal cancer is the second-highest cause of cancerous deaths.
Participation in screening is predicted by:
Self-efficacy
Perceived benefits of screening
Physician recommendation
Social norms favouring it (the more people who get screened, the more normalised it becomes)
Barriers remain: fear of the procedure and fear of a cancer diagnosis
Measures to promote colorectal screening:
Community-based mass media programmes
Community-based education
Interventions through social networks
Recommendations from healthcare providers
Reminder notices ("You have done this before, come on in again")
The primary risk factor for skin cancer is excessive exposure to UV radiation.
Measures to promote safe sun practices:
Educational interventions, especially in high-UV areas
Teaching effective sunscreen usage
Diet is a controllable risk factor for many leading causes of death. Dietary change is critical for people at risk for, or already diagnosed with, chronic diseases.
Dietary change feels restrictive, monotonous, expensive, and hard to implement
Requires changes in shopping, meal planning, cooking methods, and eating habits
Comfort foods are high in fat and sugars, and people tend to prefer them
Poor dietary habits are deeply ingrained
Stress has a direct and negative effect on diet, usually through cognitive and psychological stressors.
Stressed people tend to:
Be distracted
Lack self-control
Eat mindlessly, paying little attention to what or how much they consume
Maintaining a healthy diet requires:
Strong sense of self-efficacy
Knowledge about dietary issues
Social support (people encouraging you to eat well)
Perception that dietary change has important health benefits
Education and training in self-monitoring
Cognitive-behavioural interventions
Improving social support
Motivational interviewing (non-judgmental discussion of struggles with dieting)
Training in self-regulation
Adopting strong implementation intentions
Family interventions (e.g., family walks, cooking together)
Community interventions
Cost-effective interventions that do not burden the individual financially
Telephone counselling
Social engineering (e.g., reducing sugary drink sizes at cinemas; Four Loko reformulated to be safer)
Students often think mammograms are only for women who already have symptoms. They are a screening tool designed to catch cancer before symptoms appear.
Students sometimes confuse social engineering with individual behaviour change. Social engineering changes the environment or policy (e.g., helmet laws), while behaviour change targets the individual (e.g., motivational interviewing).
Students may assume that all cancer screening barriers are about fear of the disease. Cost, embarrassment, lack of awareness, and time constraints are equally significant barriers.
Students sometimes believe dietary change is primarily about willpower. The lecture emphasises that self-efficacy, knowledge, social support, and structural interventions are all necessary.
⚠️ Know the leading causes of accidental death by age group: home/workplace accidents for children under 5; motor vehicle accidents overall.
⚠️ Be able to distinguish social engineering solutions from psychological interventions for accident prevention.
⚠️ Mammogram screening barriers are a commonly tested list. Know at least five reasons usage declines with age.
⚠️ Self-efficacy, perceived benefits, physician recommendation, and social norms predict colorectal screening participation.
⚠️ Understand the relationship between stress and diet, including the three ways stressed people eat differently (distracted, lacking self-control, mindless eating).
⚠️ Be ready to list interventions to modify diet and explain motivational interviewing.
True or False: Home and workplace accidents are the leading cause of death in older adults. False. They are the leading cause of death and disability in children under 5. Falls are the major accident risk for older adults.
The 0.08 BAC limit is an example of a __________ solution. Social engineering.
True or False: Mammograms are recommended annually for all women starting at age 30. False. They are recommended for women 50+ and at-risk women 40+.
Colorectal cancer is the __________ highest cause of cancerous deaths. Second.
True or False: Motivational interviewing involves the clinician telling the client exactly what dietary changes to make. False. It is a non-judgmental approach in which the client talks through their own struggles and motivations.
Q: What are two types of preventive measures for motor vehicle accidents? Give an example of each.
A: Social engineering solutions (e.g., helmet laws, speed limits, 0.08 BAC laws) and psychological interventions (e.g., campaigns to make drivers more mindful on the road).
Q: List four barriers to mammogram screening in older women.
A: Fear of radiation, embarrassment, anticipated pain, anxiety, fear of a positive result, cost concerns, and lack of awareness or time (any four).
Q: What factors predict participation in colorectal cancer screening?
A: Self-efficacy, perceived benefits, physician recommendation, social norms favouring screening, and the absence of certain barriers (fear of the procedure and diagnosis).
Q: Why do people resist modifying their diet, according to the lecture?
A: Dietary change is perceived as restrictive, monotonous, expensive, and hard to implement. It requires changes across shopping, meal planning, cooking, and eating habits. People also have ingrained preferences for high-fat comfort foods.
Q: How does stress affect diet? Name three specific effects.
A: Stressed people are distracted, may lack self-control, and may not pay attention to their diet, leading to mindless eating.
This connects to exercise because physical activity training is one strategy to reduce fall-related accidents in older adults, and exercise interventions often bundle with dietary interventions. It connects to sleep because stress is a common driver of both poor diet and poor sleep, and the coping strategies discussed in the sleep notes overlap with stress-related eating. Social engineering appears across exercise (e.g., building cycle lanes), accident prevention (helmet laws), and diet (reducing portion sizes), so understanding the concept in one context transfers to the others.
accident prevention, home accidents, workplace accidents, fall prevention, motor vehicle accidents, social engineering, helmet laws, mammogram, breast cancer screening, colorectal cancer, skin cancer, UV radiation, sunscreen, cancer screening barriers, diet, nutrition, dietary change, stress and diet, mindless eating, motivational interviewing, self-monitoring, self-efficacy, implementation intentions, cognitive-behavioural interventions, community interventions, PSY 320, health psychology, health promotion