Health Belief Model

The Health Belief Model is the model I have selected to guide me through the internship. In the Health Belief Model there is the assumption that people will take responsibility and action if they believe that their health issues is possible to address, they have a positive outlook on the proposed plan of action, and if the person believes they are able to take the proposed action. The levels of the Health Belief Model go step by step with how people process their logic of the health issue they are faced with. Taking obesity in children. If the child or parent takes an assessment of how likely they are to get the perceived issue of obesity is perceived susceptibility.

The Health Belief Model is commonly used for health promotion and health education. Its’ underlying concept is that health behavior is explained by perception of the disease and the strategies available to lower its occurrence. There are four perceptions of the HBM, which are perceived seriousness, perceived benefit, perceived susceptibility and perceived barriers. In addition to that, more constructs are added to health belief model that includes motivating factor, cues to action and self-efficacy. Each of these constructs in combination or individually, could be used to determine health behavior. The HBM also provides guidelines for the program development allowing planners to address reasons for non-compliance with recommended health action. The health belief model is a process used to promote healthy behavior among individuals who may be at risk of developing adverse health outcomes. A person must gauge their perceptions of severity and susceptibility of developing a disease. Then it is essential to feel vulnerable by these perceptions. Environmental factors can play a role as well as cues to action such as media, and close friends. In order to determine that taking action will be meaningful, the benefits to change must be weighed, against the barriers to change behavior (Green & Murphy, 2014).

During the week in Chicago, I grew closer to God, learned how to be a better leader, and learned to put others before myself, which is what helped me become a better person. Serving others that had situations worse than I could imagine was life changing. The idea I could make such a tremendous change in someone’s life while doing activities I enjoyed, opened my eyes to the potentials of serving. After the week ended and I returned home, I wanted to do more for the people around me who were less fortunate. Going into freshman year, I made the decision to volunteer at Urban Vision. I help kids who have newly immigrated to Akron and the United States find items at a holiday shop for their families and themselves. Many of these kids went directly to the necessity aisle, (i.e. toilet paper, laundry detergent, and soaps) to get these items for their families, even though there were plenty of toys for the kids themselves. These kids helped me realize I should be grateful for everything in life, from shelter over my head to the clothes on my

Acknowledging how the patient perceives illness and health, helps in understanding the beliefs and how they relate with preventing

The Health Belief Model (HBM) of health behaviour change was originally developed in the 1950s in order to understand and explain why vaccination and screening programs being implemented at the time were not meeting with success (Edberg 2007). It was later extended to account for preventive health actions and illness behaviours (Roden 2004). Succinctly, it suggests that behaviour change is influenced by an individuals’ assessment of the benefits and achievability of the change versus the cost of it (Naidoo and Wills 2000).

According to Glanz, Rimer, and Viswanath (2008) the Health Belief Model attempts to explain why people do or do not engage in specific health behaviors such as taking action to prevent, screen for, or to control illness conditions through concepts including susceptibility, seriousness, benefits and barriers to a behavior, cues to action, and self-efficacy. Perceived susceptibility is defined as a person’s beliefs about the likelihood of getting a disease or condition. Perceived severity is defined as a person’s feelings about the seriousness of contracting an illness or of leaving it untreated. Perceived benefits are described as influencing whether a person’s perceived susceptibility will lead to behavior change. Perceived Barriers are described as

The healthy belief method was demonstrated with this study. The study demonstrated that the impact of health beliefs on behavior showed a direct relationship between health

Out of all the vaccine preventable diseases, pertussis challenges most infectious diseases in severity and importance in children. In 2014, the incidence rate of pertussis in the United States increased by 15%, with almost 33,000 cases reported (Centers for Disease Control, 2015). The bacterium that causes this illness attacks an unprotected immune by attaching to the lining of the respiratory system. After initial attack, begins the release of the toxins that prohibit the respiratory system from working functionally. Because of this, mucus builds up in the lungs, causing an uncontrollable cough that makes breathing difficult (Tan et al, 2005). This illness is very contagious and almost always deadly in children. However, it can be prevented with proper vaccination. This problem can be addressed with the Health Belief Model (HBM), which encourages preventive health actions in order to prevent unwanted adverse conditions, with the idea that action depends on the value and expectancy of the behavior.

The World Heath Organization defines health as being a state of wholeness in a person’s mental, physical, and social well being (Gurung, 2014). Different models of health are used worldwide to assist in achieving this state. Two widely used models of health in the United States include the biomedical model of health and the biopsychosocial model of health. They both strive to help individuals and communities achieve wholeness, while approaching this in different manners. Each model of health has strengths, drawbacks, and practical uses in the field of medicine.

Both the health belief model (HBM) and theories of reasoned action/planned behavior (TRA/TPB) are two model that has their root from psychology. Both models rely on social cognition as a mechanism to change individuals’ behaviors. Opponent criticizes the models for being unable to target social influence outside of an individual and overlook difference between target audiences.

The Health Belief model is a psychological construct that is used to predict health behavior (see Figure 1). The two components of the model that are used to predict behavior are the perception of the threat and the perception of the benefits and barriers to taking action to reduce the threat. The perception of the threat is composed of two elements: the perception of seriousness of the threat and the perception of the susceptibility to the threat (Sharafkhani, et al. 30). As an example, if the individual believes that being overweight or obese will have a very negative impact on their health, then the perceived seriousness of the threat will be high. At the other end of the spectrum, if the individual believes that being overweight or obese will have little effect of their health, the perceived seriousness will be low. The perceived susceptibility to the threat is the extent to which the individual believes that the consequences of overweight or obesity applies to them personally (Sharafkhani, et al. 30). For example, if the individual believes that they are unlikely to become diabetic or to develop high blood pressure as a result of being overweight or obese, the perceived susceptibility is low. If, however, the individual has several family members who have been diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes, they would be more inclined to believe that they have a high susceptibility to the consequences of being overweight or obese.

The health belief model was developed to explain why individuals adopt healthy lifestyles. The first element of this model states that, individuals must believe that they are susceptible to a particular health problem. Americans, in general tend to feel invincible and often do not believe that something can happen to them. The second factor states that, one must believe the problem is serious; where, Americans believe that a doctor can cure the problem, so no problem is often serious. The third factor states that they must believe that adopting preventive measures reduces risk significantly; which would imply that Americans don’t believe that not eating fruits and vegetables correleates into a serious problem. The final factor states that

Conner and Norman, 1995 describe the health belief model as ‘the oldest and most widely used model in health psychology’. It originated in the 50’s and was developed further by Hochbaum, Rosenstock and Kegals throughout the 1980’s for health education programmes and to predict different health behaviours and responses to treatments. The four terms that are the basis for the HBM are perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, perceived severity and perceived benefits. The behaviour of the individual depends on their belief that they are susceptible to a health problem, how serious they deem it to be, whether they think that treatment will benefit them and if there are barriers that may get in the way.

The Health Belief Model (HBM) is one of the first theories of health behavior. It was developed in the 1950s by social psychologists in the U.S. Public Health Services to better understand the widespread failure of tuberculosis screening programs. Today it continues to be one of the most widely used theories. Research studies use it to explain and predict health behaviors seen in individuals. There is a broad range of health behaviors and subject populations that it is applied in. The concepts in the model involve perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. Focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals being studied create an understanding of their

Health belief model was one of the first and most widely recognized theories of health behavior. (Butts & Rich, 2011). This theory was formulated in an attempt to predict health behaviors by focusing on the attitude and beliefs of individuals. It is aimed to determine the likelihood of an individual to participate in health-promotion and disease prevention programs. (Kozier & Erb, 2011). This theory postulated that if a patient is well- motivated, there is a possibility that he will participate in these activities. Motivation can be derived by the individual's perceptions towards his condition. According to Becker (1974), individual perceptions include patient's perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness of the disease and perceived threat.