Behavioral Drivers of Health
Why It Matters:
Health behaviors, including diet, physical activity, smoking, and adherence to medical advice, significantly impact disease risk and outcomes. Behavioral science helps us understand why people make certain health choices and how interventions can encourage healthier lifestyles.
Our Focus:
This Learning Zone explores:
- The psychology of health decision-making.
- Behavior change models for disease prevention.
- Addressing misinformation and health literacy gaps.
- The role of nudges and digital interventions in promoting healthy behaviors.
Resource Kits
The Learning Zone includes curated Resource Kits—collections of expert materials focused on key topics within the theme. These kits provide practical tools, insights, and evidence to support your work in advancing health prevention across the life course.
Understanding the psychological and social drivers of health behaviors is essential for designing effective interventions. This Resource Kit introduces key behavioral models—such as the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Transtheoretical Model—and shows how they guide strategies to improve outcomes like vaccination uptake, medication adherence, and lifestyle changes.
The kit also explores how social determinants—like income, education, community environments, and cultural context—influence behavior, and how public health programs can be adapted to address these factors. Additionally, it examines how behavioral economics tools, such as nudges and incentives, can encourage healthier decisions and reduce barriers to action.
