Health behaviour refers to the actions individuals take that affect their health, including both protective practices such as vaccination, balanced nutrition, and physical activity, and risk behaviours such as tobacco use, excessive salt intake, and unprotected sexual activity. Within preventive medicine, understand…
Health behaviour refers to the actions individuals take that affect their health, including both protective practices such as vaccination, balanced nutrition, and physical activity, and risk behaviours such as tobacco use, excessive salt intake, and unprotected sexual activity. Within preventive medicine, understanding and modifying these behaviours is central to reducing the burden of communicable and non-communicable disease before clinical illness develops. Health behaviour is shaped by psychological, social, and structural determinants, and is frequently analysed through theoretical frameworks that specify constructs such as attitudes, self-efficacy, social influence, and risk perception. Research on this topic examines the predictors of behaviours such as condom use among young people, parental involvement in childhood immunisation, vaccine uptake among healthcare workers, dietary patterns including salt overconsumption, and self-monitoring as a mechanism of behaviour change. It also considers how communication, education, and context influence sexual and reproductive health practices and adherence to preventive recommendations. By identifying the factors that drive uptake or avoidance of healthy practices, behavioural research informs the design of interventions, screening programmes, and public-health campaigns. The study of health behaviour thus connects individual decision-making with population-level prevention, providing the evidence base for promoting sustained, health-protective change across diverse settings.
9 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 9 articles above have been cited 62 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Health Behavior, linking to each citing work.