Socioeconomic and Psychological Factors of Public Health Behaviors in Response to Global Health Crises
A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 2594
Special Issue Editors
Interests: behavior determinants; behavioral economics; migration; public health psychology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
During the 20th and early 21st century, a number of major global public health crises such as HIV/AIDS, H5N1, SARS, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic emerged, creating significant impacts on community health, the loss of life, and the economy and challenges to health care systems and policies. Especially in the case of COVID-19, it is anticipated that the physical, psychological, social, and economic effects will last a long time after the official ending of the pandemic. Additionally, the impact of these crises is harshest on those groups that were already in vulnerable situations. These groups include minorities and people on the move, such as migrants and people who leave their homes due to war, natural disasters, and human rights violations either within their own countries or across international borders.
Besides the traditional public health weapons that can be utilized against health crises (i.e., quarantine and the development of effective vaccines), the way individuals (re)act during the phases of a health crisis is also significant. Health behaviors are all activities that people engage in and affect their health and well-being as a bio-psycho-social entity. Health behaviors may support, protect, maintain, or enhance health (i.e., eating well, being physically active, and taking all necessary vaccines), or may weaken or jeopardize health (i.e., smoking or risky sexual activity).
Health behaviors are multidimensional and determined by a number of individual (i.e., cognitions, intentions, and emotions), societal (i.e., education, social status, media, peers, ideology, and societal organization), economic (i.e., income), and environmental (i.e., catastrophes, emergencies, and epidemics) factors. Addressing as many of these factors as possible will contribute to peoples’ and communities’ empowerment in light of future health crises.
By considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, the aim of this Special Issue is to highlight specific psycho-social and economic factors that affect health behaviors (i.e., compliance with restriction measures, use of protection measures, vaccination, etc.). To this end, we are interested in receiving papers that highlight the role of specific determinants on health behaviors. We encourage papers to also focus on theory-based factors and that can suggest public health policy measures addressing these determinants.
The contributions for this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- COVID-19 representations and protective behaviors.
- Compliance with restriction measures and trust.
- Vaccination, conspiracy theories, and mass media.
- Vulnerability and health behaviors.
- Public health interventions for health behaviors.
- Interdisciplinary approach to health behaviors.
In this Special Issue, contributions have to follow one of the three categories of the journal like paper, article, conceptual paper or review, and address the topic of the special issue.
Dr. George Koulierakis
Dr. Vassiliki Siafaka
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- health behaviors
- social determinants
- public health
- health crises
- COVID-19
- HIV/AIDS
- people on the move
- health interventions
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