HEALTH BEHAVIOR AS BASIC RESEARCH Health behavior is not a traditional discipline, but a newly emerging interdisciplinary field. It is still in the process of establishing its identity. Few institutional or organizational structures, i. e., departments and programs, reflect it, and few books and journals are directed at it. The primary objective of this book is thus to identify and establish health behavior as an important area of basic research, worthy of being studied in its own right. As a basic research area, health behavior transcends commitment to a particular behavior, a specific...

This landmark treatise provides the first comprehensive review of basic health behavior research. In four volumes, multidisciplinary contributors critically assess every aspect of health behavior, giving special attention to the interrelationship between personal/social systems and risk behavior. Volume 1 presents useful conceptions of health and health behavior and describes the influence of personal, family, social and institutional factors. Each volume features extensive supplementary and integrative material prepared by the editor, the detailed index to the entire four-volume set, and a...

Volume 2 discusses the relationship between patient and caregiver in terms of structural and interactional determinants. The impact of provider characteristics on "compliance" and "adherence" is given especially noteworthy treatment. Each volume features extensive supplementary and integrative material prepared by the editor, the detailed index to the entire four-volume set, and a glossary of health behavior terminology.

Volume 4 considers the importance of health behavior research in practical settings. Particularly notable are treatments of the "narrative approach," the taxonomy of health behavior, and the organization of health behavior knowledge. Each volume features extensive supplementary and integrative material prepared by the editor, the detailed index to the entire four-volume set, and a glossary of health behavior terminology.

Volume 3 relates the demography of health behavior to developmental and diversity issues. Unique discussions of the health behaviors of gay males, lesbians, persons with HIV, and caregivers themselves are included. Each volume features extensive supplementary and integrative matrial prepared by the editor, the detailed index to the entire four-volume set, and a glossary of health behavior terminology.