Scientists use the health belief model (HBM) to attempt to predict health behaviors.
Components of the Health Belief Model
There are six main components of the health belief model.
Four of these constructs were main tenets of the theory when it was first developed.
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Two were added in response to research on the model related to addiction.
For example:
The severity of an illness can have a major impact on health outcomes.
Perceived Susceptibility
People will not change theirhealth behaviorsunless they believe that they are at risk.
For example:
Research suggests that perceived susceptibility to illness is an important predictor of preventive health behaviors.
People don’t want to give up something they enjoy if they don’t also get something in return.
Changing health behaviors can require effort, money, and time.
Disease prevention programs can often do this by increasing accessibility, reducing costs, or promoting self-efficacy beliefs.
These two elements arecues to actionandself-efficacy.
Cues to action are external events that prompt a desire to make a health change.
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacywasn’t added to the model until 1988.
Self-efficacy looks at a person’s belief in their ability to make a health-related change.
Finding ways to improve individual self-efficacy can have a positive impact on health-related behaviors.
The researchers concluded that teaching mothers to be more confident about breastfeeding would improve infant nutrition.
Thinking that you will fail will almost make certain that you do.
Recap
There are six components of the Health Belief Model.
For example, experts may be interested in understanding public attitudes about cancer screenings.
The health belief model may also be used for public health programs.
How Effective Is the Health Belief Model?
The health belief model has been used for decades to help produce behavior change interventions.
Of the studies they looked at, 39% reported moderate to large effects related to health interventions.
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