WEEK 7

• Rosenstock’s 1996 Health Belief Model is one of the earliest theories of health behaviour. It consists of perceived susceptibility/vulnerability, perceived severity, benefits and barriers, and cues to action.
• Perceived susceptibility/vulnerability involves a person’s perception that they are likely to contrast/experience a particular illness/negative outcome from engaging in the behaviour.
• Perceived severity is a person’s perception of the impact or severity that a particular illness/negative outcome would have on them.
• Benefits and barriers involved when deciding to engage or not engage in health behaviour, people evaluate the benefits gained from stopping the behaviour and the barriers associated with stopping the behaviour.
• Cues to action involve factors that influence whether or not a person is willing to begin a new behaviour or stop engaging in an old one. Example cues include advertisements, smells, sounds, and friends/family.
• Rogers' 1975 Protection Motivation Theory is essentially the health belief model with self-efficacy added.
• Perceived response efficacy is one’s expected efficacy that performance of the recommended behaviour will avoid the threat/negative outcome.
• Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability that they can successfully avoid a behaviour.
• Ajzen & Fishbein’s 1985 Theory Of Reasoned Action is similar to other theories, the theory of reasoned action takes a social-cognitive view towards health behaviours. It has been successfully applied to various health and environmental behaviours.
• The Theory of Reasoned Action proposes that behaviour is predicted by attitudes, subjective norms, and intention.
• Attitudes are the beliefs that someone has about the behaviour, and that it will produce a particular outcome.
• Subjective norms are the perception of how significant others will view the behaviour, and the individual’s motivation to comply with these views.
• Intention is an individual's motivation to engage in or perform a particular behaviour.
• Ajzen’s 1991 Theory Of Planned Behaviour is the theory of reasoned action and perceived behavioural control.
• Perceived behavioural control is one’s belief that they have the ability to enact or avoid a behaviour (that is, self-efficacy).
• The Theory of Planned Behaviour is more often applied than the Theory of Reasoned Action.
• Prochaska & DiClemente’s 1984 Transtheoretical Model proposes that health behaviour change involves progress through six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination/relapse.
• The Transtheoretical Model is sometimes called “the stages of change.”
• The main difference of the Transtheoretical Model is that it takes into account people who don’t want to change.
• Lifestyle choices and health-compromising behaviours are major contributors to the leading causes of death.
• Health-compromising behaviours include obesity, cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse, and STIs.
• Barriers to health promotion include individual barriers, family barriers, health system barriers, and community and cultural barriers.
• Individual barriers include gender, negative behaviours being rewarding, and negative effects and consequences are not immediate.
• Family barriers include the fact that children often model the behaviour of their parents, and it is important to remember that genetics can play a role, but it is not the sole reason.
• Health system barriers include the fact that doctors and health professionals are trained to focus on illness, not health, there is a lack of private health insurance, and the nature of the patient-practitioner relationship.
• Community and cultural barriers include norms and health disparities.
• The biopsychosocial model of health behaviour has biological, social, environmental, and psychological aspects. They overlap like a Venn diagram.
• Death rates from some preventable diseases are improving (for example, cancer, and asthma), but mainly due to science and medical advances.