Abstract
The understanding that immunity could be strengthened in the general population (e.g., through vaccine interventions) supported global advances upon acute infectious disease epidemics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. However, in the twenty-first century, global populations face chronic disease epidemics. Research demonstrates that diseases largely emerge from health risk behavior. The understanding of how health behavior, like the biological immune system, can be strengthened in the general population, could support advances in the twenty-first century. To consider how health behavior can be strengthened in the general population, the authors present a theoretical model of population health behavior. The model operationalizes health behavior as a system of functions that, like the biological immune system, exists in each member of the population. Constructs are presented that operationalize the specific decisions and habits that drive health behavior and behavior change in the general population. The constructs allow the authors to present parallels (1) among existing behavior change theories and (2) between the proposed system and the biological immune system. Through these parallels, the authors introduce a model and a logic of population-level health behavior change. The Adaptive Behavioral Immune System is an integrative model of population health behavior.
Highlights
The understanding that immunity could be strengthened in the general population supported global advances upon acute infectious disease epidemics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries
Consistent references to a human “immune system” did not emerge until researchers in the second half of the twentieth century proposed that integrated functions facilitate immunity (Moulin, 1989)
Epidemiological research has identified that a small number of behavioral risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors are the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and premature deaths in populations (Mokdad et al, 2018)
Summary
Microbiome (Saad and Prochaska, 2020). New microorganisms enter the human microbiome from the environment each moment, leading it to vary from moment to moment. Variation in the microbiome and precision of the host-defense system reciprocally integrate to support biological immunity (see Fig. 1). Functional variation in one’s habits (i.e., healthy habitual patterns of breathing, drinking, eating, and moving) supports and reinforces the development of functional decisions. New environmental conditions (e.g., changes in temperature) impact our habits (e.g., our rhythms of breathing) each moment, leading them to vary from moment to moment When we detect these changes, our decisions can act to prioritize functional variations in our habits so that our “lifestyle” is balanced. Variation in habits and precision of decisions reciprocally integrate to support behavioral immunity (see Fig. 1). Alcohol abuse, unhealthy diet, and inactivity are not just separate behaviors They evidence dysfunctional patterns of four integrating, habitual functions: breathing, drinking, eating, and moving. When observing dysfunctional rhythms or variations in these fundamental functions one may observe a disease in the present moment
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