Health Belief Model. The Health Belief Model (HBM) originates from the 1950s and is based on the concepts that people have a desire to avoid illness and that their actions can prevent or cure an illness. It suggests that a person’s beliefs about the threat of illness, combined with their beliefs that certain actions or behavior are effective against the illness, will predict the likelihood that person will perform the behavior. It is comprised of six steps (Table 1) related to vulnerability, consequences, and action. One goal of public health is to support the acquisition and maintenance of healthy behavior. Learning new behaviors, and the skills required to perform those behaviors, is a process. Xxxxx Xxxxxxx’x social cognitive theory (SCT)59 posits that humans learn behavior through the exchanges taking place between a person and their environment. One aspect of this interchange is the modeling of others’ behavior, a process called observational learning. This process is often demonstrated between parents and children, where a parent shows a child how to perform a behavior or skill, and then the child attempts the behavior. Another aspect of Bandura’s theory is reinforcement59, which can either be positive or negative, and can originate in the self (e.g. frustration) or from the environment (e.g. praise from the parent). Self-efficacy, Table 1: Six tenets of the Health Belief Model with breastfeeding focused examples for each xxxxx. 40,60
Health Belief Model. The Health-Belief Model (HBM) is a model for explaining and predicting acceptance of health and medical care recommendations. It is used as a conceptual formulation for understanding why individuals do or don’t engage in a wide variety of health-related actions [65]. It was developed in the early 1950s by a group of social psychologists at the U.S. Public Health Service in order to understand why people refused to accept disease preventives or preventive screening tests [66]. It was later applied to patients’ responses to certain symptoms and to compliance with prescribed medical regimens. Since it was created by social psychologists the model is based on the assumption that perception of reality and personal beliefs influence individuals’ actions rather than objective reality [67]. It also aims at avoiding illnesses rather than achieving health [66]. It is currently the most commonly used theory in health education and health promotion [67]. The model itself is derived from the various models of psychological and behavioural theory, which mainly depend on two variables: 1) the value of a particular goal to the individual and
Health Belief Model. Source: Xxxxxxxxxx I., Strecher, V., and Xxxxxx, M. (1994). The Health Belief Model and HIV risk behavior change. In X.X. XxXxxxxxxx and X.X. Xxxxxxxx (Eds.), Preventing AIDS: Theories and methods of behavioral interventions (pp. 5-24). New York: Plenum Press . HBM research has been used to explore a variety of health behaviors in diverse populations such as, influenza vaccination, high blood pressure screening, smoking cessation, exercise, nutrition, breast self-examination and sexual risk behaviors. The Stages of Change Model, developed by Xxxxxxxxx and XxXxxxxxxx, evolved out of studies comparing the experiences of smokers receiving professional treatment (Xxxxx & National Cancer Institute (U.S.), 2005; Lindsay, 2000). The model’s basic principle is that behavior change is a process, not an event. As a person tries to change a behavior, he or she moves through five stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance (see Figure 3).
Health Belief Model. The Health Belief Model is an explanatory framework that suggests that people engage in health-protective behaviors after considering the severity of a health threat, their perceived susceptibility to that health threat, benefits of taking health-protective behaviors, and barriers to taking health-protective behaviors (Xxxxxxxx, 1958; Xxxxxxxxxx, 0000, 1966). In addition, the concept of self-efficacy (belief that the person can successfully perform the health-protective behaviors) and cues to action (prompting factors that encourage health-protective behaviors) are incorporated within this model (Xxxxxx, 1974; Xxxxxxxxxx, 1990). For this thesis project, only two components of this model will be considered: perceived barriers and cues to action. These elements deserve focus because the project is exploring how hair may be a unique barrier to exercise and what encourages girls to overcome this potential barrier.
