¶ … Health belief model
During the 1950's, the Health Belief model (HBM) was developed from the field of social psychology. The theoretical framework offers an explanation of why individuals are motivated to participate in preventive health behaviors. The model has five perception constructs of susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and cues to action. In this setting the HBM predicts what prevention behaviors diabetic patients will engage in to avoid foot pathology and ultimately amputation. Current research indicates that the Health Belief Model (HBM) is the most common model used to study health- related behaviors. According to Ganz, Rimer, and Lewis (2002) an assumption of this model indicates people are more inclined to demonstrate disease prevention activities when they perceive (a) an increased susceptibility to the illness; (b) the illness is severe; (c) the actions are valuable; (d) the behavior has few obstacles; and (e) are prompted to execute the actions.
The application of the Health Belief Model to examine the rates of influenza vaccines in connection with a sense of vulnerability found that "it is more likely for vaccination to correlate positively with perceived susceptibility" (Chen, Wang, Schneider, Tsai, Jiang, & Lin, 2011). In addition, the model has been applicable in identifying factors influencing the underutilization of mental health service related to "perceptions of symptoms and vulnerabilities, views of the value of mental health care, the nature and severity of related barriers, and beliefs that one might be able to make effective use of mental health interventions" (Smith, 2009). Lastly, Mahmoodi et al. (2011) found that "education aimed at improving men's participation in family planning may enhance the individuals 'awareness and attitude, thus contributing to family health" with the use of the health belief model.
Health Belief Model
Health Belief Model (HBM) was created in the 1950s by a team of U.S. public Health social psychologists who sought to explain why so few people were participating in available government-benefit health programs.
Their research led them to believe that the following four factors would drive a person to take better and more earnest care in her health:
1 The person's perception of severity of a certain illness
1. The person's perception of his/her vulnerability to that illness
1. The barriers to taking action to heal himself
1. The benefits of taking that particular action to prevent illness / heal himself.
HBM has become a popular model in nursing and social work particularly in America since it provides a way of making health programs more attractive to intended users. HBM, in fact, remains one of the most popular health models of nursing on both a global and national scale and is used to address problems that evoke health concerns, such as those of high-risk sexual behavior, and the possible of contracting AIDS (Croyle, 2005).
The entire model, in short, hinges on a person's perception towards a certain illness -- his chance of incurring it and the benefits of his taking action. Perception, in other words, drives motive.
HBM has six key principles:
1. Perceived Susceptibility -- person's perception that he is susceptible to disease
2. Perceived severity -- person will only take action if he considers disease to be sufficiently severe or have high social consequences
3. Perceived benefits -- person will take action if she considers action potentially beneficial
4. Perceived costs -- person will cease to take action if she considers costs (not only economic) too steep
5. Motivation -- the desire to comply with the treatment
6. Enabling or modifying factors -- these include personality variables, patient satisfaction, and socio-demographic factors.
Health Belief Model and Nursing
The health model is similar to nursing since deals with preventing and curing disease, and the Health model serves the same purpose.
Curing disease is a costly project and much time, cost, and suffering can be eliminated if people would only learn to prevent their own disease. This is where the HBM comes into play. It is invaluable in that it provides insight as to possible cognitive / psychosocial mechanisms that impede patients from taking the necessary preemptive actions. In this way, it is supplementary to nursing; nurses use it as an aid to understanding and encouraging patients thereby improving their practice. It is also supplementary to nursing in a theoretical sense. Nursing focuses on the practicum. Nonetheless, nurse can sometime become frustrated. They may treat patients and warn them of preventative measures and patients -- at conscious risk to their lives -- continue to ignore their injunctions. Nurses, therefore, need to understand the rationalizations and mental impediments of their patients in order to most effectively ensure...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now