Self-efficacy and Health

The quality of health is heavily influenced by lifestyle habits. By exercising control over health habits people can live longer, healthier and slow the process of aging. Among the mechanisms of self-management, none is more central or pervasive than people's beliefs in their efficacy. Unless people believe they can produce desired outcomes by their behavior, they have no incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Belief in one's capabilities to affect one's health exerts its influence in two major ways. At the more basic level, perceived efficacy to cope with stressors affects biological systems that mediate health and illness. At the second level, beliefs of personal efficacy foster direct control over modifiable behavioral and environmental determinants of health. A resilient sense of efficacy affects each of the basic processes of personal change—whether people even consider changing their health habits, whether they mobilize the motivation and perseverance needed to succeed should they choose to do so, their ability to recover from setbacks and relapses, and how well they maintain the habit changes they have achieved. Perceived collective efficacy contributes to health promotion and disease prevention by supporting health policy initiatives and public health approaches that have large-scale impact.