Why people dont conform to health advice?

Answer 1

Many people are educated about health where they are given advice and informed about different choices they could make concerning their health. However, many individuals fail to take in the advice and ignore it; this is because they think nothing will happen to them and they have a negative perspective to health. An example is if a child is eating too many sweets that could damage their teeth and a parent not telling them off, or if someone who is aware of the risks of alcohol is drinking too much, this person clearly has a negative perspective to health.

Another reason why people often ignore health advice is due to peer pressure, if a group of teens are drinking alcohol other teens could be pressurised into making the wrong decision and it this could affect their health.

Individuals often fail to conform to health advice because they feel it is their choice to follow the advice they are given and that they have the freedom to choose how to live their lives. An example of this is when Labour MP Alex Cunningham recently proposed a private members bill to ban smoking in cars, due to the reason that an adult can get into a car with another adult and choose to smoke however, the real truth is that a child doesn't have the choice to make this decision. Also due to the fact that the NHS has to pay £2.7 billion a year on treating diseases caused by smoking. This example shows that individuals are ignoring health advice to such a degree where their own kids are at risk of getting bad health from smoking like lung cancer.

People can find health education advice very confusing, one day something is good for your health the next day you discover it is very bad for your health; this can also happen with many other health issues, several news reports say the opposite to what other reports have to say. People who smoke and drink often know the advice but tend to ignore it because they enjoy smoking or they may be addicted to drinking too much. When people go out for a drink they don't care how much alcohol they are drinking, many young people enjoy being drunk and believe it is fun. They know it will harm them and are aware of the health warnings but choose to carry on.

Many people are fed up of the "nanny state" telling them what is good and bad for their health; they say that "it has never happened to me" or that "it has never caused any harm to me". Keith who is 42 said that he never really considers health advice on smoking because "my dad smoked 50 cigarettes a day and he lived until 90," and that "a bit of what you fancy does you good." Another example of a person who does not conform to health education advice is Quinn who is 50 she said that "I have always put salt on my food, and I have been doing this for 40 years" now that she has been told too much salt is bad for her she has rebelled about being told what do, she carries on putting salt on her food she said that "I am still in excellent health."

Individuals would rather do something which feels good at that point rather than worry about the effects they will see later in life.