Key Factors Influencing Health: A Comprehensive Analysis
Key Factors Influencing Health
The main factors affecting health are environmental, social, biological, and behavioral factors.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors, also known as the environment, are linked to a large group of variables, such as seasonal changes, pollution, housing, and urban infrastructure.
Social Factors
Social factors relate to security, education, transportation, safety, health, and favorable environmental factors.
Biological Factors
Biological factors are linked to age, gender, ethnicity, and genetic predisposition.
Behavioral Factors
Behavioral factors, in turn, are linked to lifestyle and can be active or sedentary, positive or negative, becoming the main focus of study of our discipline.
Classic Health Indicators
- The vitality and functional status of the person assessed.
- Their epidemiological conditions.
- Their quality of life.
The functional status of a person is influenced by various aspects such as age, nutritional status, history of illness, and level of fitness. The latter suffers the direct influence of the person’s daily physical activity level.
Lifestyles
Sedentary vs. active athlete.
Health-related physical fitness was defined as the ability to accomplish tasks with vigor in everyday life, including cardiorespiratory endurance, also known as aerobic capacity.
Morphological Limits
Natural limitations of motion. Flexibility varies from person to person and is influenced by several factors, the main ones being age, gender, and specific training.
Health Definition
For the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1978, health was defined as a multiplicity of aspects of human behavior directed to a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease, as many imagined. Nowadays, to best understand the greatness of this little word, we need to understand that we must not look only to biological factors, but mainly to how we live, or to the lifestyle.
Environment
Where they live and in the relationship with nature.
Seasonal Factors
Based on this year’s weather conditions.
Urban Infrastructure
Basic sanitation, sewerage, streets and sidewalks or paved promenade, plazas, tree-lined parks, etc.
Multidisciplinary Approach
A collaborative re-analysis done by a team of professionals from the most diverse areas of knowledge, on a specific problem that receives influence from several factors.
Epidemiology
The science that studies the phenomenon of the relationship between health and disease and its determinants.
Energy Expenditure
It is caused by the expenditure of energy accumulated in the organism in glycogen and fat during physical activities.
Amateur vs. Professional Athletes
Professional athletes live the sport they practice.
Chronic Diseases
Illnesses that install themselves on people’s bodies slowly and lastingly. For our study area, we stick to non-communicable (chronic degenerative non-communicable diseases), similar to coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, among others.
Endogenous Factors
Factors that manifest internally within the organism or the body.
Exogenous Factors
Factors that are manifested externally and intensely affecting the body.
VO2max
Maximum volume of oxygen a person consumes during an intense physical activity effort over a prolonged period.
Biological or Sexual Maturation
The area of Physical Education can observe this phenomenon through secondary sexual development, verified by the development of the genitalia and pubic hair for boys, and breasts and pubic hair for girls. On average, this process begins between 10.5 and 11 years for girls, extending until 13 or 14 years. And for boys, starts at approximately 11 or 12.5 years, extending to 14 or 15 years.