Health Belief Model In The Healthcare World

In the Healthcare world, people may not be familiar with the Health Belief Model (HBM). The Health Belief model is a model that helps explains why individuals adopted or reject healthy lifestyles or behaviors. The Health Belief Model was originally developed in the 1950s by several social psychologists by the names of Hochbaum, Rosenstock, and Kegels working in the U.S. Public Health Services. According to the Euro Med Info, The Health Belief Model helps explain why individual patients may accept or reject preventative health services or adopt healthy behaviors(1). Along with model, the Health Belief model is constructed by six categories which include perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues

The first category of the HBM is perceived susceptibility. Perceived susceptibility refers to how much risk a person perceives he or she has and one’s opinion of chances of getting a condition. According to the website, an example of perceived susceptibility is youth believe they can get STIs or HIV or create a pregnancy (http://www.etr.org/recapp/theories/hbm/Resources.htm). This example shows how perceived susceptibility affects one’s health by a person’s mindset of whether they have a negative health condition. The second category of the HBM is perceived severity. The definition of perceived severity refers to how serious the consequences might be and one’s opinion of how serious a condition and its consequences are. The example used for perceived severity is the youth believe that the consequences of getting STIs or HIV or creating a pregnancy are significant enough to try to avoid. The category of perceived severity can apply to a person’s health because the individual should know the status of their condition and know the caregivers perspective of how serious the condition

Cues to action is defined as strategies to activate readiness and consists of education, symptoms, and media information. I feel that this category is to take specific steps to achieve healthy behaviors in the health belief model. Cues to action will affect one’s health in a positive way by inspiring the person to strive for success for healthy lifestyles. The example of cues to action goes back to the condom education example used in the web article. The example is youth receive reminder cues for action in the form of incentives with printed messages “no glove, no love” or reminder messages. I like the cues to action category because it shows a positive message to the youth population about condom education and safe sex. The final category that makes up the Health Belief Model is Self-Efficacy. This category is defined as confidence in one’s ability to take action. I believe that is this the highest and most challenging category for a person to reach because he or she would have to stay disciplined about their health. Self efficacy is based on feelings of self confidence and control. It is a good predictor of motivation and behavior. This could affect one’s health because it would be up to the individual to maintain their health and avoid negative health conditions. The example used for the self-efficacy category is the youth are confident in using a condom correctly in all circumstances. Once a person