SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY Stressful life event classifications:
 Positive Life Events
Social and behavioral dimensions that impact human
health includes:
1. Social Adversities
2. Stress
3. Lifestyle practices
LIFESTYLE
 Defined as the choice of behavioral factors that
affect how we live; these choices often are a function
of social influences.
SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
 It is the discipline that examines the social
distribution and social determinants of states of
health.
 Covers the relationship between socioeconomic
status and health, the effect of social relationships
upon health outcomes, the epidemiology of mental
disorders and how social factors affect the choice of
health-related behaviors.
BEHAVIORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
 The study of the role of behavioral factors in health.
 Contributions of unhealthy behaviors to adverse
health outcomes.
 Behavioral choices begins during childhood and
adolescence.
 Lifestyle dimensions relate to improper dietary
choices, substance abuse and avoiding exercises.
Stress and Health
 Stress
 One being, Physical, chemical or emotional
factors that causes bodily or mental tensions and
may be a factor in disease causation.
 Stress in relation to adverse health effects :
- CVD
- Substance abuse
- Mental disorders including PTSD.
- Work related anxiety and neurotic disorders
- Chronic disease as cancer and asthma
- Impaired immune function
 Stressful Life Events
o Stressors that arise from happenings
such as job loss, financial problems, and
death of a close family members
o 2 domains of events
 Health-related
 Monetary
 Employment
 Interpersonal
- Good effects
- Examples; Graduation, marriage, birth of a new
child
 Negative Life Events
- Associated with adverse life circumstances
- Example: retrenchment, arrest, incarcerated
CHRONIC STRAINS: life events that are sustained over a
long period of time.
PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder)
 Anxiety disorder that some people develop after
seeing or living through an event that caused and
threatened serious harm death.
 Signs & symptoms : last 1 month
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Emotional numbness
- Intense guilt or worry
- Angry outbursts
- Feeling on edge or avoiding thoughts and
situations that reminds the trauma
 Coping skills
- Techniques for managing or removing
sources of stress
- Helps to mitigate the effects of stress
WORK-RELATED STRESS
 Work overload, time pressures, threat of job layoff
and unemployment, interpersonal conflicts and
inadequate compensations
 US BLS report
 5,659 stress, anxiety and neurotic disorders
cases involving days away from work in 2001,
rate declined 25% between 1992 and 2001 from
0.8 per 10,000 full-time workers in 1992 and 0.6
in 2001.
TOBACCO USE
 Cigarette smoking and other forms of tobacco use
increase the risk of many forms of adverse health
outcomes
 Conditions includes : lung diseases, coronary heart
disease, stroke and cancer
 Exposure to Second Hand Smoke
 Passive smoking refers to the involuntary
breathing of cigarette smoke by non-
smokers in an environment where there
cigarette smokers present.
 BODY MASS INDEX (BMI)
 Third hand Smoking Below 18.5 = Underweight
- Inhalation of chemicals derived from cigarettes 18.5 to 24.9 = normal
smokes that adhere to fomites. 25 to 29.9 = overweight
30 or higher = Obese
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION _____________________________________________
 Significant cause of death in the US wherein in 2005,
21, 634 persons died of alcohol-induce causes. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH
- Alcohol poisoning
- Unintentional injuries PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY
- Homicides  Studies the occurrence of mental disorders in
- Fetal alcohol syndrome the population
ALCOHOL TERMS:  Studies the incidence of mental disorders
 Heavy Drinking according to variables such as age, sex, and social
- Women : more than one drink per day on class.
average  DSM IV TR (diagnostic and statistical Manual of
- Men : more than two drinks per day on average mental disorder 4th edition is used to classify
 Binge drinking mental disorders
- Women : more than three drinks during a single - Anxiety d/o, mood d/o, impulse control d/o
occasion and substance use d/o
- Men : more than four drinks during a single
occasion Psychiatric Co-morbidity
 Excessive drinking - The co-occurrence of two or more mental
- Includes heavy drinking, binge or both disorders.
 Alcohol abuse
- It is a pattern of drinking that results in harm to Autism
one’s health, interpersonal relationships or - It is a condition that impairs the functioning in
ability to work. the social communication and behavioral
 Alcohol dependence domains.
 Chronic disease that includes - Appears by 3 years of age manifested in
- Strong craving for alcohol cognitive functioning, learning and processing
- Continued use despite repeated physical, sensory information.
psychological or interpersonal problems
- The inability to limit drinking
- The need to drink increasing amounts to feel
its effects.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE
 Methamphetamine
- Highly addictive substance that have powerful
stimulating effects upon the body
 Cannabis sativa

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY

 Increasing in prevalence in the US
 Impacts the quality of one’s life and increases the risk
of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease
and diabetes
 Factors associated with overweight and obesity are:
Inactivity, High-caloric consumption
 Body Mass Index (BMI)
o Body weight in kg /height in meters squared