Summary
The growing increase in lifestyle-related health problems has motivated a shift from treatment-and-prescription centric (reactive) healthcare system to a patient-centric (proactive) system that is based on prevention and promotion of healthy behavior around the world. A variety of health behavior interventions have been designed with a preventive standpoint toward diseases in mind.
Several health behavior theories have been used to inform health intervention designs, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Transtheoretical Model, and the Health Belief Model. However, the Health Belief Model (HBM), developed in the 1950s to investigate why people fail to undertake preventive health measures, remains one of the most widely employed theories in the design and evaluation of health behavior interventions. The HBM was developed to address problem behaviors that evoke health concerns. It postulates that an individual’s likelihood of engaging in a health related behavior is determined by his/her perception of the following six variables:
These six health determinants identified by HBM together provide a useful framework for designing both long and short-term health behavior interventions. HBM focuses mainly on health determinants; therefore, it is most suitable for addressing problem behaviors that have health consequences (e.g., unhealthy eating and physical inactivity) (Orji et al. 2012).
http://ojphi.org/article/viewFile/4321/3395
Several health behavior theories have been used to inform health intervention designs, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Transtheoretical Model, and the Health Belief Model. However, the Health Belief Model (HBM), developed in the 1950s to investigate why people fail to undertake preventive health measures, remains one of the most widely employed theories in the design and evaluation of health behavior interventions. The HBM was developed to address problem behaviors that evoke health concerns. It postulates that an individual’s likelihood of engaging in a health related behavior is determined by his/her perception of the following six variables:
- Perceived susceptibility (perceived risk for contracting the health condition of concern)
- Perceived severity (perception of the consequence of contracting the health condition of concern)
- Perceived benefit (perception of the good things that could happen from undertaking specific behaviors)
- Perceived barrier (perception of the difficulties and cost of performing behaviors)
- Cue to action (exposure to factors that prompt action)
- Self-efficacy (confidence in one’s ability to perform the new health behavior).
These six health determinants identified by HBM together provide a useful framework for designing both long and short-term health behavior interventions. HBM focuses mainly on health determinants; therefore, it is most suitable for addressing problem behaviors that have health consequences (e.g., unhealthy eating and physical inactivity) (Orji et al. 2012).
http://ojphi.org/article/viewFile/4321/3395