What is the health belief model and does the health belief model really have a chance of working?

It is unusual to think that someone would actually not care about their overall health and engage in behaviors that could potentially put them at risk. However, the sad reality is that there are many individuals that do not think about the consequences of their behaviors. The health belief model was originally formulated to try to predict people’s health behaviors in regards to how they view their susceptibility to illness, their perceived severity of illness, their general understanding of health, expectation of treatment success, self-efficacy, their perceived barriers, and cues to action (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2017). It has been around since the 1950s and was later reestablished in the 1980s (Boskey, 2019). The question remains though on if this model really does work in helping people to modify their health behaviors in a positive way.

To understand this further on the core parts of the health belief model, it is important to look into the key points of this model. The first portion is the general health values. The health belief model would predict that people do have some interest and concern in their health and maintaining good health. The second is how they perceive their susceptibility to not being healthy. This is determined on how likely they believe that they will get a specific disease or disorder. The next is whether they perceive an illness to be severe. This helps them to truly understand whether or not they think an illness is severe enough where they should do something about it. Moving on to treatment success, if a person believes they can change a behavior then will it reduce the likelihood of them getting a certain disease or illness. Self-Efficacy is whether or not a person believes they can actually go through with changing their health habits and perceived barriers, which is weighing out the cost and benefits of changing health behaviors. Lastly, the cue to action is when people become aware or hear about something happening that triggers them to start engaging in healthier habits (Gruman et al, 2017). All of these are the prime points of the health belief model that can lead a person to start creating a healthier lifestyle.

Now that the health belief model has been established in full, it is important to understand if people can actually go through with all of these steps, without backing out. If people believe they are not likely to get a disease or an illness and believe they are the one individual who won’t get it, chances are they do not have an open mind. An example was given in an article stating that people who do not think that they are at risk for acquiring HIV from unprotected sex are less likely to use a condom (Boskey, 2019). There are so many individuals in this world that believe that are invincible, but the reality is they aren’t and precautions still should be taken. If this thought was engraved in people’s heads that unprotected sex could lead to an STD as severe as HIV, then absolutely the thought of susceptibility would cross their minds. As far as perceived severity, that is another issue that people do not think about. An example of people not wanting to stop kissing if their lover has a cold, but would probably feel differently if they had the chance of catching Ebola (Boskey, 2019). This example is an interesting one because again nobody considers any possible negative outcomes of something so harmless; however, if we all took a minute to stand back and look what is in front of us, it is possible that something as little as kissing could affect a person’s health. As previously discussed, nobody thinks anything will happen to them, but once again, they could be wrong and who wants to actually take that chance. Perceiving benefits is definitely a huge problem with the health belief model. Everyone wants positive benefits when they make changes in their life. It is difficult for some people to want to make a change when they do not believe it will benefit them in any way. People are not going to want to change the behavior if there is not something in it for them (Boskey, 2019). She also explains that a person isn’t going to want to quit smoking If it doesn’t improve their life in any way (Boskey, 2019). If I didn’t think exercising would give me more energy, I probably wouldn’t do it either, but I have witnessed it first-hand that it does.

Nobody likes change. That is another difficult part of the health belief model besides the fact that there are so many factors to abiding by this model. People do not like to change their health behaviors if they believe or perceive it to be difficult to do (Boskey, 2019). I can relate to this one because I was on a very strict diet at one point as a challenge for my kickboxing class. It was probably one of the hardest diets I have ever been on in my life, and after only four days and feeling as if I had the flu, I had to modify the diet to feel better. However, some people like a challenge, so it is possible that even though something is hard, they may be more motivated to do it. Self-efficacy is probably the most beneficial part of the health belief model. It involves a person’s belief in themselves to make a health change (Boskey, 2019). People who are confident and who are open-minded are the ones who are more than likely going to succeed in making valuable changes to their health. It is so important to believe in yourself and know that if you want to make a change in your life that you can.

The health belief model is something that can be extremely useful in helping a person change their life for the better. All a person has to do is be open to change and understanding that it will not always be easy to try to alter health behaviors that you are used to, but it can happen with time. It is easy for me to say that as I am not a scientist, but I believe that if you 100% have the willpower to change you can. Although, according to our textbooks, even though this health belief model has been supported by research, it still has studies that have not found supportive results and has limitations (Gruman et al, 2017). As with all research, this health belief model will continue to have supported and refuted studies that will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how people can make positive changes in their lives.

 

REFERENCES

Boskey, E. (2019, January 14). Linking condoms use and perceived risk using the health belief model. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/health-belief-model-3132721

Gruman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

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