RESUMEN
Abstract The physical, mental and social well being, refers to a new concept of health, far from a conceptualisations of absence of disease Additional challenges emerge as individuals face deep social inequities depending on their ethnicity, rural residence or low educational level, as these translate to poor access to health services and more difficulties to adhere to healthy living behaviors. The objective of this study was to assess the perception that adolescents and young adults in Latinamerica have of the importance of healthy living behaviors (HLB) in the physical, emotional and lifestyle spheres. The approach is considered quantitative and descriptive with a cross sectional design. The sampling consisted of 192 young adults in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The results show that participants prioritize higher emotional wellbeing. They state that the health crisis changed the perception, as now the value more the emotional side of health, and understand the status of a combination of the different aspects of wellness. The Latinamerican context poses a challenge in designing strategies with a holistic health perspective, with complexities in the economic and sociocultural domains.
Resumo O completo bem-estar físico, mental e social se refere a um novo conceito de saúde, muito além da ausência de doenças. Se os indivíduos são confrontados com profundas desigualdades sociais, em que fatores como etnia, moradia em zona rural ou baixo nível educacional se traduzem em um acesso menos adequado aos serviços de saúde, podendo ser um desafio adicional para aderir a comportamentos de vida saudável. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a percepção de adolescentes e adultos jovens na América Latina sobre a importância dos comportamentos de vida saudável (CVS) nas esferas física, emocional e de estilo de vida. A abordagem é considerada quantitativa e descritiva, com desenho transversal. A estratégia de amostragem foi por conveniência. A amostra foi composta por 192 adultos jovens em três países da América Latina: Brasil, Colômbia e México. Os resultados mostram que os participantes priorizam um maior bem-estar emocional. Eles afirmam que a crise de saúde mudou a percepção, pois agora valorizam mais a saúde emocional e compreendem a importância da combinação dos diferentes aspectos do bem-estar. O contexto latino-americano desafia o desenho de estratégias com uma perspectiva holística da saúde, com complexidades nos domínios econômico e sociocultural.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Recently, the concept of health is being extended to physical, mental and social aspects, which leads people to pursue health positively behavior. But the evaluation of health condition shows a tendency to be biased to functional side. It means the absence of well being sensation that anyone feels like he has poor health. In this case, even if he is in physically good health, he is not rated as healthy. We analyzed the relationship between one's health state and the factors related with health perception including health behavior, mind and social environment. METHODS: For a month of May 1996, we surveyed those who visited for Periodic medical check-up at one general hospital in Seoul. The questionnaire consisted of the total of 25 items ; diet behavior, weight control, coffee, coke, tea, drug use of, smoking, drinking, exercise, leisure, safety belts use, jay walking, sleep, stress, personality, anxiety, depression, occupational satisfaction, relationships with family and friends. Five point scale is used as the answer of each question item with high point as good living behavior. Among 406 who had sincerely answered the questionnaire, we divided them into healthy and unhealthy group and compared with the point of each question item and with the laboratory data(obesity, blood pressure, hemoglobin, fasting blood sugar, cholesterol and ALT). RESULTS: Among 406, the number of those who perceived themselves to be healthy was 175(43.1%, healthy group) and the one of those who did not was 231(56.9%, unhealthy group), The difference between both groups was not significant in distribution of sex, age, academic career, income and religion. In laboratory data and living behavior they showed same results, also. But the points of unhealthy group were significantly lower than those of healthy group in coffee, coke, tee, drugs usage, exercise, leisure, stress, personality, anxiety, depression, occupational satisfaction and relationship with family and friends. So was the total point of all items of unhealthy group in comparison with that of health group. In the case of male, the points of unhealthy group were significantly lower in smoking, safety belt use, fay walking, sleeping as well as the above items. On the contrary, in the case of female, both groups were not significantly different all item except exercise and leisure. CONCLUSIONS: Health perception is influenced by psychosocial factors and living behavior more than by physical health. Therefore family physician must be concerned about patient's living behavior, mental and social problems and must make an effort to change their perception of health as well as physical improvement.