The Health Belief Model (HBM)

Question 1

The six constructs of the HBM

Answer 1

1) perceived susceptibility
2) perceived severity
3) perceived benefits
4) perceived barriers
5) cue to action
6) self- efficacy

1~4 were developed as the original tenets of the HBM
5~6 were added as research about the HBM evolved

Question 2

What is the Health Belief Model (HBM)?

Answer 2

a person’s belief in a personal threat of an illness or disease together with a person’s belief in the effectiveness of the recommended health behaviour or action will predict the likelihood the person will adopt the behaviour

Question 3

What is perceived susceptibility?

Answer 3

refers to a person’s subjective perception of the risk of acquiring an illness or disease.
- there is a wide variation in a person’s feelings of personal vulnerability to an illness or disease.

Question 4

What is perceived severity?

Answer 4

Refers to a person’s feelings on the seriousness of contracting an illness or disease (or leaving the seriousness of contracting an illness or disease untreated).
- there is wide variation in a person’s feelings of severity, and often a person considers the medical consequences (e.g. death, disability) and social consequences (e.g. family life, social relationships) when evaluating the severity

Question 5

What is Perceived Benefits

Answer 5

refers to a person’s perception of the effectiveness of various actions available to reduce the threat of illness or disease (or to cure illness or disease).

• the course of action a person takes in preventing (or curing) illness or disease relies on consideration and evaluation of both perceived susceptibility and perceived benefit, such that the person would accept ht recommended health action if it were perceived as beneficial

Question 6

What is perceived barriers?

Answer 6

A person’s feelings on the obstacles to performing a recommended health action.

• there is wide variation in a person’s feelings of barriers, or impediments, which leads to a cost/ benefit analysis.
• The person weighs the effectiveness of the actions against the perceptions that they may be expensive, dangerous (e.g., side effects), unpleasant (e.g., painful), time-consuming or inconvenient

Question 7

What is Cue to Action?

Answer 7

The stimulus needed to trigger the decision-making process to accept a recommended health action.

• these cues can be internal (e.g. chest pains, wheezing etc) or external (e.g. advice from others, illness of family member, newspaper article)

Question 8

What is Self-efficacy?

Answer 8

the level of a person’s confidence in his or her ability to successfully perform a behaviour.

• is a construct in many behavioural theories as it directly related to whether a person performs the desired behaviour

Question 9

Limitations

Answer 9

The HBM is more descriptive than explanatory and does not suggest a strategy for changing health-related actions