Health belief model

• Theory explains why people do or don't engage in behaviours that will help.
• Perceived susceptibility is how vulnerable a person believes they are in getting a disease that is related to their behaviour.
• Perceived seriousness is how serious a person thinks an illness related to their behaviour is.
• Perceived benefits/barriers is when a person will weigh up the pros and cons of behaviour change.
• Health motivation is how much value a person puts on their health, those with a high value are more likely to change their behaviour.
• Cues to action are stimuli that make a person want to change their behaviour.

  Internal cues are things such as experiencing symptoms.

  External cue is receiving advice from a doctor.
• Self-efficacy this is a persons belief in their ability to perform a task.
• Gorin and Heck (2005)

  Used the health belief model to understand how likely women are to get screenings for cervical changes.

  If women saw potential illness as severe, recognised the benefits as high and the costs as low then they would be more likely to attend.
• Beck et al (1978)

  Looked at compliance in mothers giving asthma medication to their children.

  There was a positive correlation between perception of severity and perception of susceptibility to asthma attacks.

  Demographic variables included marriage and being highly educated.

  Perceived barriers include difficulty getting prescription and disruption to everyday activities.
• The model is based on the assumptions that our choices are always rational and it doesn't take into account choices affected by emotions.
• It is hard to know whether all health benefits or other factors the model describes are equally important in affecting behaviour change.