Alters and Schiff Essential Concepts for Healthy Living

by Jeff Housman, Mary Odum

Overview

Essential Concepts for Healthy Living, Seventh Edition urges students to think critically about their health and overall wellness and empowers them, with clearly identified tools, to help them reach this goal. It provides a clear and concise introduction to the latest scientific and medical research in personal health and highlights common behaviors and attitudes related to individual health needs. The Seventh Edition, with an all new author team, includes a wealth of new and updated data, including modern information on violence and abuse, relationships and sexuality, and physical fitness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781284098976
Publisher:	Jones & Bartlett Learning
Publication date:	02/20/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	718
File size:	46 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Assistant Professor in Department of Health&Human Performance, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Health: The Foundation for Life
Chapter 2 Psychological Health
Chapter 3 Stress and Its Management
Chapter 4 Violence and Abuse
Chapter 5 Reproductive Health
Chapter 6 Romantic Relationships and Sexuality
Chapter 7 Drug Use and Abuse
Chapter 8 Alcohol and Tobacco
Chapter 9 Nutrition
Chapter 10 Body Weight and Its Management
Chapter 11 Physical Fitness
Chapter 12 Cardiovascular Health
Chapter 13 Cancer
Chapter 14 Infection, Immunity, and Noninfectious Disease
Chapter 15 Aging, Dying, and Death
Chapter 16 Environmental Health

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: James F. Konopack, PhD (Monmouth University School of Nursing and Health Studies)
Description: This edition of a broad survey of the dimensions of human health and wellness includes many important updates corresponding to changes in the health promotion landscape in the years since the previous edition of 2012 and offers a wealth of online features that will be of use to students and instructors.
Purpose: The objective is to help students "think critically about their health and overall wellness" and provide them with the tools to reach this goal. This is undoubtedly a worthy objective, and the book, along with its accompanying web tools and instructor resources, accomplishes this objective, albeit with some room for improvement.
Audience: The book appears to be intended for college undergraduates and is most suitable for either introductory-level undergraduate students or secondary school students. It is written in easy to understand language appropriate for a lay audience without previous study in health education and science. The authors are university professors (one tenured, the other tenure-stream), and both have health education specialist certifications (first author with MCHES). Neither is a household name in the field, but both appear to be credible.
Features: This book covers every major area requisite in an introductory health behavior or personal wellness course, from physical activity and nutrition to drug abuse and violence. Though it could be argued that the chapters are thinner on data and research citations than an academic audience would prefer, the end result is, indeed, a more readable book than others in the field. However, there are a few typos (e.g., "tables" instead of "tablets" in the first section of the physical activity chapter) and more careless statements than expected (e.g., the chapter on drug abuse contains a statement about cocaine-related deaths over the past "2 decades" and lists John Belushi, who died 35 years ago). The physical activity chapter advises readers to use pedometers (now largely outdated with the ubiquity of smartphones), and the drug abuse chapter wholly omits any reference to the DSM-5.
Assessment: The value of this book is questionable compared to other introductory health books on the market. It is highly readable, however, and may be best appreciated by student audiences at or below the first-year college level. Those who adopt this book are advised to make full use of the online resources.

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