Health Behaviour and Illness Behaviour

Abstract

This chapter presents another major topic in health social sciences: health and illness behaviours. Social responses to health and illness have been widely researched for various kinds of medical conditions. The chapter proceeds with a definition of health behaviour, introducing associated concepts such as preventive health behaviour (PHB), protective health behaviour, and health-seeking behaviour. The concept of risk behaviour is examined with its specific patterns including sedentary lifestyle, alcohol and drug use, smoking behaviour and use of tobacco, sexual behaviour, and dietary behaviour. Illness behaviour is presented by examining its various conceptions. The Chrisman’s stages of illness behaviour are presented as a conceptual discourse in understanding health-seeking behaviour. The chapter ends with a discussion of factors affecting health and illness behaviours (including illness attributes/perception, socioeconomic status, gender, education, age, religion, and location) with some illustration from the African context.