How much of the disease causes is under our control?

The debate whether the disease causes is under our control or out of our hands raise the issue of how much control we have on it? Most of the diseases could be prevented to some extent. Part of them through our behavior and other through managing environmental risk factors.

Behavior  plays an important role in the health of the individual and the community. Many theories explained  human behavior, some of them may be better in certain diseases or health issues but not in another, this depend on the situation and health behavior and the other surrounding factors that are specific to that situation.

The Theories of health behavior explain the effect of behavior, environmental and social factors on individual health and how to promote his health through managing the behavior. Researchers explain some models for this effect, one of the Models is the health belief model, there are factors which determine whether the person is going to change his behavior or no, those include (perceived susceptibility-perceived seriousness-perceived benefits-perceived barriers-self efficacy). people usually take action if they are at risk and that risk is serious and they will gain benefits and have no obstacles in their way.

Environmental effect has been explained by the ecological model. Socio-Ecological model of health behavior has many levels of influence that determine health related behaviors, individual factors ( knowledge, attitude, skills..) social relations( family, friends,..), community ( church, community centers..), environment/social/ cultural ( government, policies…). Changing the environment can influence people behavior, e.g. Increase tax on cigarette.

Some of the factors like socioeconomic status (SES) greatly affect the people behavior and one of most important health predictors. Groups with lower SES have higher mortality rate than those with higher SES, money plays an important role in seeking medical care, and cover the cost of healthy life style from healthy food and exercise. Education also, those with higher education understand better the effect of healthy practice on the long life and try to avoid risks.  Social network and support found to have an important relation with improving health level.

Beside the behavioral part,  the researchers work on the biomedical basis of the disease to improve preventive or treatment techniques and find new ones.

Environmental care will also help us in decreasing the influence of environmental hazards on our lives.

I think that there is a good part of the disease that falls  under our control either through behavior, environmental or even in the molecular basis of the disease.