Building Better Health. A Handbook of Behavioral Change

This handbook blends tried-and-true disease prevention practices and behavioral science principles into a hands-on manual for health workers, community health promoters, nurses and family physicians. Many others, such as social workers and teachers, can also learn here how to promote health and prevent disease. The book offers step-by-step instruction in behavioral change techniques to use at the society, community, family, and individual levels. The author, Dr. C. David Jenkins, is an internationally known health worker, researcher, and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, of Epidemiology, and of Psychiatry.

The book is structured into five sections, which detail theoretical and practical aspects of health promotion. Within the handbook’s pages there is an overview of principles of disease prevention and strategies of community health intervention, including practical examples and step-by-step planning. The book also includes an in-depth examination of the causes of morbidity, disability, and premature mortality that most seriously burden broad age groups across the life cycle and a review of the protective and risk factors for each of the leading forms of disability and death. Throughout its chapters, the book recommends simple, hands-on preventive interventions.