Being diagnosed as having a chronic disease means that the illness cannot be prevented by vaccines or treated by medication, nor will it disappear all together. This is true for someone that has diabetes mellitus. Someone with this disease may be exposed to a succession of greater risk and developing other diseases. Multiple factors such as, bacterial infections, overactive immune systems, and genetic vulnerability do contribute to the cause of this chronic illness, but as with other chronic conditions, we find that it is randomly distributed throughout ethnic groups. (Straub, 2014, pg.401). While diabetes is one of the most common, costly, and preventable diseases, when considering other health problems, it proves to be unavoidable for some …show more content…
For example, someone without a support system may not find the motivation to continue on with health promoting activities as would someone who is self-willed or motivated by others. Remembering that the biopsychosocial model determines the outcome of health and other behaviors through the interactions of biological mechanisms, psychological processes, and social influences, this model provides the means in which to explain how the mind and body responds to certain behaviors. (Straub, 2014, pg.17). In the same way, health behavior research helps predict and modify the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors. In theory, humans have the ability to control their conduct, so health altering behaviors can be eliminated as a result of self-regulatory efforts just as well as health-enhancing behaviors, i.e., exercise, can be applied. (Ryan, 2009). Thus, health behavior change speaks to the motivation and actions that help protect the individual from compromising behaviors in favor of adopting and maintaining health promoting