HEALTH BELIEF MODEL,

PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS
AND TREATMENT
Nayab
HEALTH BELIEF MODEL
 The health belief model (HBM) is a social
psychological health behaviour change model
developed to explain and predict health-
related behaviours, particularly in regard to
the uptake of health services.
HISTORY:
 The HBM was developed in the 1950s by
social psychologists at the U.S public health
service and remains one of the best known
and most widely used theories in health
behaviour research.
 The HBM suggests that people's beliefs about
health problems, perceived benefits of
action and barriers to action, and self-
efficacy explain engagement (or lack of
engagement) in health-promoting behaviour.
 A stimulus, or cue to action, must also be
present in order to trigger the health-
promoting behaviour.
TWO COMPONENTS OF HBM:
 Two components of health-related behaviour
are:
1) The desire to avoid illness, or conversely
get well if already ill
2) The belief that a specific health action will
prevent, or cure, illness.
 CONSTRUCTS OF THE HBM
 There are six constructs of the HBM.
 PERCIEVED SUSCEPTIBILITY
 PERCIEVED SEVERITY
 PERCIEVED BENEFITS TO ACTION
 PERCIEVED BARRIERS
 CUES TO ACTION
 PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY.
PERCIEVED SUSCEPTIBILITY
 Perceived susceptibility refers to subjective
assessment of risk of developing a health
problem.
 The HBM predicts that individuals who
perceive that they are susceptible to a
particular health problem will engage in
behaviors to reduce their risk of developing
the health problem.
 Individuals with low perceived susceptibility
may deny that they are at risk for contacting
a particular illness
EXAMPLE:
 citizens who are having the perception of
being affected by novel corona virus if social
distancing is not maintained strictly, they are
adopting that health behaviour of social
distancing,
 whereas some people with low perceived
susceptibility are not maintaining that kind
of health behaviour.
PERCEIVED SEVERITY
 Perceived severity refers to the subjective
assessment of the severity or the seriousness
of a health problem and its potential
consequences.
 The HBM proposes that individuals who
perceive a given health problem as serious
are more likely to engage in behaviors to
prevent the health problem from occurring
(or reduce its severity).
EXAMPLE:
 For instance, an individual may perceive that
novel corona is not medically serious, but if
he or she perceives that novel corona disease
is having much more serious consequences
world wide, that engages people in behaviors
to prevent this current health problem.
 PERCEIVED BENEFITS:
 Health-related behaviors are also influenced
by the perceived benefits of taking action.
Perceived benefits refer to an individual's
assessment of the value or efficacy of
engaging in a health-promoting behavior to
decrease risk of disease.  If an individual
believes that a particular action will reduce
susceptibility to a health problem or
decrease its seriousness, then he or she is
likely to engage in that behavior 
EXAMPLE:
 For example, individuals who believe that
wearing sunscreen prevents skin cancer are
more likely to wear sunscreen than
individuals who believe that wearing
sunscreen will not prevent the occurrence of
skin cancer.
 PERCIEVED BARRIERS:
 This refers to 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 lead to a
cost/benefit analysis.
 The person weighs the effectiveness of the
actions against the perceptions that it may
be expensive, dangerous (e.g., side effects),
unpleasant (e.g., painful), time-consuming,
or inconvenient.
CUE TO ACTION:
This is 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.)
External (e.g., advice from others, illness of
family member, newspaper article, etc.)
promoting engagement in health-related
behaviors.
SELF EFFICACY:
 This refers to the level of a person's
confidence in his or her ability to
successfully perform a behaviour.
 This construct was added to the model most
recently in mid-1980.
 Self-efficacy is a construct in many
behavioural theories as it directly relates to
whether a person performs the desired
behaviour.