Health consciousness is a psychological state that predicts diverse health-related attitudes and behaviors. Despite its predictive power, previous research has not defined and operationalized health consciousness in a coherent fashion.
Being health conscious requires self-discipline. It can help you eliminate bad habits that are detrimental to your health, such as smoking and eating junk food.
Well-being
Wellness consciousness is a personal attribute that predicts diverse health-related attitudes and behaviors. Previous studies have analyzed and measured this concept using various behavioral measures, but they have not fully understood its true nature and related phenomena. This study aims to explore this concept and its relationship to other variables, and develop a more comprehensive model.
The facets of wellness include physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Physical wellness includes exercising regularly, eating a nutritious diet, and abstaining from unhealthy habits such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. It also involves getting regular medical checkups and avoiding risk factors that can lead to illness, such as unprotected sex and extreme sports.
The results of factor analysis showed that several health-related behaviors – such as exercise and food consumption – were not cohesively grouped together in the original set of items. Moreover, some of the items did not correlate with other dimensions of wellness. This suggests that the concept of health consciousness may not be a valid and reliable measure of individual’s attitudes toward health-related behaviors.
Spiritual wellness
Spiritual wellness is about connecting to something larger than yourself, such as a higher power or nature. It involves embracing your beliefs, values and morals in order to find meaning and peace in your life. It can be nurtured through prayer, meditation, time spent in nature and self reflection.
Having a sense of purpose and feeling like you’re part of a community are also indicators of spiritual health. You may also feel gratitude and a desire to help others.
Interviews with experts were conducted using conventional content analysis to offer definitions, components and indicators of spiritual wellness. The interviews were guided by a set of guidelines designed to enhance quality, credibility and transferability. A total of 22 experts were interviewed. Generally, the definitions, components and indicators were similar across participants. Some experts defined spiritual wellness differently than the others, however. This is a reflection of the fact that different worldviews lead to varying understandings of spirituality.
Relationships
Wellness involves many different aspects of life, including body, mind, work, spirit, finances, community and emotions. Each area can be affected by the others and is a vital part of the total picture. People who focus on wellness can be happier and more successful in all areas of life.
Previous studies have analyzed the concept of health consciousness using several scales. These include the health consciousness scale (Dutta-Bergman, 2004a, 2005, 2006), the health information seeking and usage scale (Furnham & Forey, 1994; Gould, 1988, 1990; Iversen & Kraft, 2006) and the health motivation and health value scale (Jayanti & Burns, 1998).
The result shows that when a person is conscious of their health they tend to develop a better mood and are more self-disciplined. They also become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, which makes them more likely to be able to accept and overcome obstacles in life. In addition, they are more tolerant of other people’s flaws, which leads to better relationships.
Community
As the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened people’s sense of fragility, they have rediscovered the importance of health-related behaviors. However, how to turn this awareness into actions is still not clear. This study aims to explore the relationship between health consciousness and home-based exercise. The results show that health consciousness influences home-based exercise through the mediating mechanism of perceived behavioral control.
Gould [42] framed health consciousness as comprising four dimensions: greater concerns to health, caring about health, engaging in searching for health information, and valuing healthy conditions. A health conscious individual would search for a good source of nutrition, such as liquid milk (LM), which provides vitamins and minerals.
This study surveyed 712 households that purchase LM, using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling. The findings support the hypothesis that health consciousness influences consumers’ perceived knowledge, belief, and attitude. Furthermore, belief mediates the relationship between health consciousness and purchase intent.
