A community is considered to be a group of people who live in a specific place. Considering the fact that the community consists of individuals, it means that every person affects it in one way or the other.
Individual Factors
Community health is considered to be a field of public health and concentrates on the study and improvement of health characteristics of different communities ( Kirch, 2008) . Individual factors highly influence the community health. These factors include personal characteristics that include the emotional and effective traits and state of individuals often affect their health. In addition, the lifestyle of individuals also affects the community health. The main issue that is addressed includes the physical and diet activity, drug intake, sexual activities, and alcohol and tobacco use. Other issues that relate to the lifestyle of individuals include the use of seat belts and exposure to the sun. There have been various attempts aimed at promoting public health that has focused on individuals and their lifestyle.
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Actions That Can be taken by Policymakers and Others
Improving behaviors that are related to health is often vital in public health activities and can be done by policymakers and others. Policymakers can promote habits that improve public health by enacting laws, regulations, and policies that can positively affect health behaviors such as increasing the tax that is attached to cigarettes and thus increasing their prices, which in turn, discourages people from buying them. Advocates can influence people to make individual and social changes so that they can enhance the quality of life.
Conclusion
Understanding and improving individual factors is vital to the well-being of people and an improvement in community health. Even though laws, regulations, and policies affect the health behaviors, individual factors like lifestyle also need to be considered in the public health efforts.
References
Kirch, W. (2008). Encyclopedia of public health . Dordrecht: Springer.
