OAE Health (023) cheat sheet

Health education is defined by the profession as any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and skills needed to make quality health decisions.

The Eight Areas of Responsibility for health education specialists (from the national role delineation) are: needs assessment and capacity building; planning; implementation; evaluation and research; advocacy; communication; leadership and management; and ethics and professionalism.

The health belief model predicts behavior from perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, plus cues to action and self-efficacy; barriers are usually the strongest single predictor.

Social cognitive theory holds that behavior is shaped by reciprocal determinism among personal factors, behavior, and environment; key constructs are observational learning, outcome expectations, self-efficacy, and reinforcement.

The transtheoretical model stages are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance (termination sometimes added); processes of change are matched to stage, with consciousness raising and dramatic relief used early and counterconditioning and stimulus control used in action and maintenance.

The theory of planned behavior predicts intention from attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; intention plus actual behavioral control predicts behavior.

Diffusion of innovations adoption categories are innovators (about 2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%), and laggards (16%); adoption is faster when the innovation has relative advantage, compatibility, simplicity, trialability, and observability.

The PRECEDE-PROCEED model is a planning framework in which predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors are diagnosed before educational and ecological interventions, followed by implementation and process, impact, and outcome evaluation.

The core ethical principles applied in health education are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and fidelity; informed consent operationalizes autonomy, and confidentiality protects both autonomy and fidelity.

The professional code of ethics obliges health education specialists to disclose potential conflicts of interest, protect participant privacy, obtain informed consent, and report evaluation results honestly, including unfavorable findings.

Certification (such as the Certified Health Education Specialist credential) is a voluntary, time-limited credential earned by examination and maintained through continuing education; licensure is a mandatory legal credential granted by a state.

Scope of practice: health education specialists do not diagnose or treat disease; screening or clinical services require referral to qualified clinical providers, and any screening program must include a defined referral pathway.

Advocacy is a professional responsibility and follows a sequence: define the issue, set goals, identify decision makers and audiences, build coalitions, select strategies (media, lobbying, grassroots), then evaluate the effort.

Coalitions succeed when they have clear mission and structure, diverse membership, shared decision making, adequate resources, and visible early wins; failure is commonly tied to unclear goals or unequal power among partners.

Cultural competence progresses from cultural destructiveness through incapacity, blindness, pre-competence, competence, and proficiency; cultural humility adds lifelong self-reflection and openness to correction.

Health education specialists must obtain institutional review board approval before collecting identifiable data for research and must guard participant records under applicable privacy law.

Levels of prevention: primary prevents onset (immunization, fluoridation, education), secondary detects early (screening, mammography, blood pressure checks), tertiary limits disability and restores function (cardiac rehabilitation, support groups).

The ecological model nests influences at intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy levels; interventions that act at multiple levels are more likely to be sustained than single-level programs.

Leading actual causes of death in the United States are tobacco use, poor diet and physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, microbial agents, toxic agents, motor vehicle crashes, firearm incidents, sexual behavior, and illicit drug use.

Healthy People objectives are organized by topic areas with measurable objectives, baselines, and targets; the initiative emphasizes health equity, social determinants of health, and health literacy.

The Ottawa Charter health promotion actions are building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services.

Screening program validity depends on sensitivity (true positives detected), specificity (true negatives correctly excluded), and positive predictive value, which rises as disease prevalence in the screened population rises.

Health communication planning follows audience segmentation, formative research, message design, channel selection, pretesting, and evaluation; plain-language materials are typically written at or below a sixth- to eighth-grade reading level.

Behavior change maintenance is supported by self-monitoring, social support, relapse prevention planning, and environmental cues; single-session education alone rarely produces durable behavior change.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years and emphasize a healthy dietary pattern across the lifespan, variety and nutrient density, and limiting added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.

Acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges for adults are 45-65% of calories from carbohydrate, 20-35% from fat, and 10-35% from protein.

Energy balance: one pound of body weight corresponds to roughly 3,500 kilocalories, so a deficit of about 500 kilocalories per day predicts roughly one pound of loss per week.

Body mass index equals weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared; adult categories are underweight below 18.5, healthy 18.5-24.9, overweight 25.0-29.9, and obesity 30.0 and above.

Physical activity guidelines for adults are 150-300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening on two or more days per week.

Children and adolescents need 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, including aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activity at least three days per week.

MyPlate proportions are roughly half the plate fruits and vegetables, with grains slightly more than a quarter and protein slightly less than a quarter, plus a dairy serving; half of grains should be whole grains.

Food labels list total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars, and protein, with percent daily values based on a 2,000-calorie reference diet.

General adaptation syndrome has three stages: alarm (fight-or-flight activation), resistance (continued coping with sustained arousal), and exhaustion (depletion of adaptive resources and increased illness risk).

The autonomic nervous system splits into sympathetic (arousal, increased heart rate, pupil dilation, digestion inhibition) and parasympathetic (rest, digestion, lowered heart rate) branches.

Eustress is positive, motivating stress; distress is negative stress perceived as exceeding coping resources; the appraisal of a stressor matters more than the event itself.

Depression diagnostic markers include depressed mood or anhedonia for at least two weeks plus changes in sleep, appetite, energy, concentration, and suicidal ideation; persistent symptoms warrant referral to a licensed clinician.

Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, and specific phobias; they differ from ordinary worry by duration, intensity, and functional impairment.

Relaxation techniques with evidence include diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, mindfulness meditation, and biofeedback; they reduce sympathetic arousal.

Suicide risk factors include prior attempts, accessible lethal means, substance misuse, social isolation, recent loss, and hopelessness; protective factors include connectedness, coping skills, and restricted access to means.

Mental health stigma reduction relies on contact-based education, accurate language, and disclosure by trusted figures; labeling people by diagnosis tends to increase stigma.

Nicotine is the primary addictive agent in tobacco; dependence involves tolerance, withdrawal, and compulsive use, and combined pharmacotherapy plus counseling is more effective than either alone.

The legal minimum drinking age in the United States is 21; alcohol is a known human carcinogen and a teratogen, and no amount is considered safe during pregnancy.

Blood alcohol concentration rises with amount consumed, faster absorption (carbonation, empty stomach), lower body weight, and female sex; it falls only with time, at roughly 0.015 per hour on average.

Standard drink equivalents in the United States are 12 ounces of regular beer at about 5% alcohol, 5 ounces of wine at about 12%, and 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits at about 40%.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability; effects include facial dysmorphology, growth restriction, and learning and behavioral problems.

Opioid overdose response includes calling emergency services, supporting breathing, and administering naloxone, which reverses opioid-induced respiratory depression but has no effect on non-opioid depressants.

Prevention approaches with strong evidence include increasing price and taxation, restricting access and marketing to youth, enforcing sales and hosting laws, and school-based life-skills programs rather than information-only curricula.

Harm reduction strategies include syringe services programs, naloxone distribution, and medication for opioid use disorder; they aim to reduce consequences without requiring abstinence first.

Erikson's psychosocial stages pair each life phase with a crisis: trust versus mistrust (infancy), autonomy versus shame (toddler), initiative versus guilt (preschool), industry versus inferiority (school age), identity versus role confusion (adolescence), intimacy versus isolation (young adult), generativity versus stagnation (middle adult), integrity versus despair (older adult).

Piaget's stages are sensorimotor (birth to about 2 years, object permanence), preoperational (2-7, symbolic thought, egocentrism), concrete operational (7-11, conservation, reversibility), and formal operational (11 and up, abstract and hypothetical reasoning).

Kohlberg's moral development moves from preconventional (punishment and reward) to conventional (social approval and law and order) to postconventional (social contract and universal principles).

Puberty typically begins between ages 8 and 13 in girls and 9 and 14 in boys; girls generally begin growth spurts earlier, and secondary sex characteristics are driven by estrogen and testosterone.

Contraceptive effectiveness is reported as typical use versus perfect use; long-acting reversible methods such as implants and intrauterine devices have failure rates under 1% per year and do not depend on user adherence.

Sexually transmitted infection prevention includes consistent and correct condom use, vaccination against human papillomavirus and hepatitis B, testing, and partner notification; many infections are asymptomatic.

Family life education addresses communication, conflict resolution, parenting, and resource management; effective programs are skills-based, interactive, and tailored to the developmental stage of participants.

Aging changes include decreased bone density, reduced muscle mass, presbyopia, presbycusis, and slower reaction time; regular activity and adequate calcium and vitamin D slow functional decline.

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children and young adults in the United States; motor vehicle crashes are the leading contributor, followed by poisoning, falls, and suffocation.

The public health approach to injury is four steps: define the problem through surveillance, identify risk and protective factors, develop and test interventions, and ensure widespread adoption.

The Haddon matrix organizes injury factors by host, agent or vehicle, and physical and social environment across the pre-event, event, and post-event phases.

Bystander CPR for adults uses compressions at 100-120 per minute at least 2 inches deep with full chest recoil; the compression-to-ventilation ratio is 30 to 2 for one or two rescuers of adults.

An automated external defibrillator should be applied as soon as available and used with compressions paused only for analysis and shock delivery; pediatric pads or a pediatric attenuator are used for children under about 8 years or under 55 pounds when available.

Choking relief for a conscious adult or child over 1 year uses abdominal thrusts; for an infant under 1 year, use five back slaps alternating with five chest thrusts, never abdominal thrusts.

Poison exposure response is to call the poison control center at 1-800-222-1222; syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended, and activated charcoal is used only on professional advice.

Child safety measures include rear-facing car seats as long as the seat allows, booster seats until the seat belt fits properly (typically 4 feet 9 inches and ages 8-12), water supervision, and safe storage of medications and firearms.

The National Health Education Standards are: comprehend concepts; analyze influences; access valid information and products and services; use interpersonal communication; use decision-making skills; use goal-setting skills; practice health-enhancing behaviors; and advocate for personal, family, and community health.

Backward design proceeds in three stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then plan learning experiences and instruction aligned to both.

Bloom's revised taxonomy orders cognitive processes as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create; verbs in objectives should match the intended level.

A measurable objective states a condition, a performance (observable verb), and a criterion; for example, students will list three refusal strategies with 100% accuracy.

Formative assessment informs instruction during learning (exit tickets, questioning, observations); summative assessment judges achievement at the end (tests, projects, performance tasks).

Validity is the degree to which an assessment measures what it intends to measure; reliability is consistency of scores across occasions, raters, or items; a test can be reliable without being valid, but not valid without being reliable.

Norm-referenced tests compare a student with peers; criterion-referenced tests compare performance with a defined standard, which is the appropriate choice for health skill mastery.

A supportive learning environment uses clear expectations, confidentiality ground rules, anonymous question boxes, and advance notice of sensitive topics, and it avoids role-play that requires personal disclosure.

The National Health Education Standards are: comprehend concepts; analyze influences; access valid information and products and services; use interpersonal communication; use decision-making skills; use goal-setting skills; practice health-enhancing behaviors; and advocate for personal, family, and community health.

Backward design proceeds in three stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then plan learning experiences and instruction aligned to both.

Bloom's revised taxonomy orders cognitive processes as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create; verbs in objectives should match the intended level.

A measurable objective states a condition, a performance (observable verb), and a criterion; for example, students will list three refusal strategies with 100% accuracy.

Formative assessment informs instruction during learning (exit tickets, questioning, observations); summative assessment judges achievement at the end (tests, projects, performance tasks).

Validity is the degree to which an assessment measures what it intends to measure; reliability is consistency of scores across occasions, raters, or items; a test can be reliable without being valid, but not valid without being reliable.

Norm-referenced tests compare a student with peers; criterion-referenced tests compare performance with a defined standard, which is the appropriate choice for health skill mastery.

A supportive learning environment uses clear expectations, confidentiality ground rules, anonymous question boxes, and advance notice of sensitive topics, and it avoids role-play that requires personal disclosure.