ABSTRACT
On the surface, prevention of illness looks easy. If behavioral risk factors associated with an illness are known, one simply has to convince people to stop engaging in the faulty practices and the likelihood of developing the illness will be reduced significantly. However, this assumes that the antecedents are identifiable and that the factors operative in the persuasion process are obvious. Even if you can identify antecedents and convince people of the value of preventive practices, behavioral change is not ensured. Moreover, even if individuals are convinced to change their immediate behavior, long-term change is not guaranteed.
