The client states, “Heart disease runs in our family. My blood pressur

The client states, “Heart disease runs in our family. My blood pressure has always been high.” The nurse determines that this is an example of the client’s:

1. Risk factors
2. Active strategy
3. Health beliefs
4. Negative health behavior

ANSWER

ANS: 1
Risk factors are anything that increases the vulnerability of an individual or group to an illness or accident. This client is identifying the physical risk factor of genetic predisposition to heart dis-ease.
An example of an active strategy would be weight reduction or smoking cessation, where the client is actively involved in measures to improve their present and future levels of wellness.
Health beliefs are a person’s ideas, convictions, and attitudes about health and illness. An exam-ple of a health belief would be if the client stated, “Heart disease runs in our family. I know I will have heart disease anyway, so why exercise?”
A negative health behavior is a behavior that may negatively impact one’s health. An example of a negative health behavior would be consistently drinking alcohol in excess.