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

2.
Model
• Model is a theoretical way of understanding concept or
idea.
•Health Beliefs:
• These are person’s Ideas, convictions, attitudes about
health and illness.

3.
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

4.
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

5.
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)

6.
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

7.
Components of the HBM
•Cues to Action
• Body or environmental events that trigger the HBM

8.
Additional Components?
• Self-Efficacy
• confidence to continue the healthy behavior and overcome
temptations

9.
Where Do We Intervene?
• Educate about threat (vulnerability, susceptibility)
• Fear appraisals
• Educate about coping (response efficacy, self-efficacy)
• Health education

10.
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

11.
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.

12.
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

13.
Questions?

14.
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.

15.
Thank You