The document provides an overview of the Health Belief Model (HBM). It was developed in the 1950s to explain why people do or do not engage in health-promoting behaviors. The HBM posits that individuals will take action to prevent or control illness if they feel susceptible to a condition, believe it could have serious consequences, believe a course of action can reduce susceptibility or seriousness, and feel the benefits outweigh the costs. The model's key components are perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers. Cues to action and self-efficacy were later added. The HBM is applied to develop health messages focusing on threat, coping responses, and self-efficacy to influence health behaviors. While useful

3. HEALTH BELIEF
MODEL
Deblina Roy
M.SC Nursing 1st year
K.G.M.U. Institute of Nursing

4. Model
• Model is a theoretical way of understanding concept or
idea.
•Health Beliefs:
• These are person’s Ideas, convictions, attitudes about
health and illness.

5. History of the HBM
• Developed in the 50’s by the U.S. Public Health Service
• Social psychologists were asked to explain why people do
not participate in health behaviors (Rosenstock, 1960;
1966)
• Developed based on operant and cognitive-behavioral
theory

6. Premise of the Health Belief Model
• Individuals will take action to ward off, to
screen for, or to control an ill health condition
if:
• 1) they regard themselves as susceptible to the
condition
• 2) they believe it to have potentially serious
consequences
• 3) they believe a course of action can reduce the
susceptibility and seriousness
• 4) they believe the costs of the action are outweighed
by its benefits

7. Components of the HBM
• Perceived Susceptibility
• an individual’s perception of her or his risk of contracting a health
condition
• Perceived Severity
• an individual’s perception of the seriousness of a health condition if
left untreated
• Note: the combination of these is the perceived threat of the health
condition (emotive response is fear)

8. Components of the HBM
• Perceived Benefits
• the perceived effectiveness of taking action to improve a health
condition
• Perceived Barriers
• the perceived impediments to taking action to improve a health
condition

9. Components of the HBM
•Cues to Action
• Body or environmental events that trigger the HBM

10. Additional Components?
• Self-Efficacy
• confidence to continue the healthy behavior and overcome
temptations

11. Where Do We Intervene?
• Educate about threat (vulnerability, susceptibility)
• Fear appraisals
• Educate about coping (response efficacy, self-efficacy)
• Health education

12. Evaluating the HBM
• APPLICABILITY TO PRACTICE (IS IT USEFUL?)
• Coping efficacy is the most important component
• Self-efficacy (and perceived barriers) is the most influential
component for health behavior
• Perceived severity is the weakest component
• Health behaviors are long-term?
• Perceived vulnerability often influences intentions but not
behavior

13. Evaluating the HBM
• COMPREHENSIVE (Does it explain behavior completely?)
• No
• What about other motives for behavior other than health? These
motives appear untapped for explaining behavior.

14. Application Exercise
• Please choose a health behavior and population
• Assume you are an specialist contracted to develop a
persuasive communication (poster, news advertisement
etc.) to improve the health behavior for the population
• Create a message that includes severity, susceptibility,
response efficacy, and self-efficacy for the target
population

15. Questions?

16. Bibliography
• Potter P.A,Perry A.F,Stokert P.A,Hall A.M.Fundamentals of
nursing. 3rd Ed;Elsevier,Noida( India);2013.p03-05
• Klenpell RM. Advanced nursing practice ,3rd ed ;Sprigers
Publishing Company, New York;2013.p13
• Polit DF, Beck CT. Nursing research:Principles and
methods. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins; 2007
• Black JM, Hawks JH, Keene AM. Medical surgical
nursing. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Mosby; 2006.

17. Thank You