Description
This package of inventories and educational materials has been carefully designed to provide you with information on how you can deal more effectively with the stress you experience, assess your present level of health, reduce the negative health consequences associated with stress, and move toward optimal health. After you have completed the package, you will be aware of your self-care options-the practical things you can do to improve your health and to gain a greater sense of control over your life.
Several data sources have been used in establishing the risk levels presented in this package. These sources include others who have completed the inventories, the National Center for Health Statistics; the National Cancer Institute; the National Heart, Lung, and t Blood Institute; the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs; numerous research studies that make use of the scales included in this package; and The American Journal of Health Promotion. The package consists of three parts:
1. Part 1 contains the inventories as well as some introductory information on the basics of good health. It concentrates on the subjects of stress; strain; changes in your job and in your personal life; chronically stressful conditions in your job and in your personal life; the importance of your psychological outlook; and the roles played by your lifestyle habits, such as social support, nutrition, exercise, drinking. and other behaviors.
2. Part 2 provides a means for scoring and interpreting the inventories completed in Part 1.
3. Part 3 offers detailed information on the specific effects of various stressors and health threats as well as how to deal with these stressors and threats by creating a personal health plan.
An additional component of the package is a list of suggested readings, which follows Part 3.
