Future of Health Psychology

Future of Health Psychology

Health Psychology -- Future Challenges

In Health Psychology, Taylor (2011) notes that in thinking about future challenges to health we must acknowledge that we have made great strides in health-related issues over the past years. In the past decade, life expectancy has risen, death rates have dropped, there have been fewer traffic fatalities and children are missing fewer days of school (2011). All this is great new, but there is still progress to be made and there are some future challenges that are unavoidable.

One unavoidable challenge facing us is the fact that there is a rapid aging population. Taylor (2011) notes that by the year 2021, "we will have the largest elderly cohort ever seen in this and other countries." However, the cohort can go one of two ways: it can be healthy or it can be plagued by illness. Obviously, having a healthy elderly population is the ideal, but in order to have this, there has got to be attention paid to certain aspects of health -- for example, diet and exercise, regular doctor physicals and staying on top of immunizations (2011). Getting older, which often comes along with aches and pains and stress about one's health and future, can lead people to deal with their stressors in a variety of ways. Some may choose to find healthy ways to deal with this stress, while others may choose not-so-healthy ways (for example, drinking too much). There are many different ways that people learn to deal with stress in their lives, but positive stress release could make a huge difference in the way a person ages.

Another problem that we will have to face in the future is the toll that a lack of health care/insurance will have on future generations. Not everyone in the world -- or even in the United States -- has access to adequate health care. Not having adequate health care can be detrimental. More children will be born underweight; there will be a higher rate of infant mortality; there will be more chronic illness; and, there will be more deaths that could have been preventable (Taylor 2011). While individuals with a lower socioeconomic status (SES) will be personally affected by this, it really is an issue that will affect the entire society.

Another interesting fact that Taylor (2011) brings up in her book is that women are not used as research studies of several major diseases. Why is this an issue? The problem is that there are things that may be more detrimental to a woman's health than a man's health. For this, Taylor gives the example of smoking. Alcohol also affects women differently than it does men. One challenge that we face may be getting women into more of these studies so that we can find out how their health can be affected by different elements and how we can prevent disease.