Sometimes, we like to think of patient behavior as separate from human behavior, and analyze the two separately. But, patients, like all humans, need to be motivated. Whether this is intrinsic, extrinsic or both, we need to be motivated to take an action or complete a task. This is basic human psychology, and how we are wired.
Yet, it should not come as a surprise many people in the US, and abroad, ignore their health. People don’t care about their health until they have to. Take obesity as an example. Over the past several decades, obesity in the United States has risen dramatically from just 19.4 percent in 1997 to 35.7 percent in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
