Black Studies the Health Belief

Black Studies

The Health Belief Model

Created in the 1950s, the Health Belief Model (HBM) is made up of several key components. They include Perceived Susceptibly, Perceived Severity, Perceived Benefits, Perceived Barriers, Cues to Action, Self-Efficacy, and some other variables, such as education level. Of course, each of the components interacts with the other, and they depend on the outlook and readiness of the person to indicate how effectively the behavioral change will work.

There are proponents and critics of the HBM. Proponents have conducted studies that indicate the HBM is at least as effective in providing results as many other behavioral modification models. Critics believe the model is not strong enough in offering perceived benefit, and does not encourage as much preventative behavior as may be necessary in some cases.

The HBM is used to address public health concerns in any number of ways. One important uses is to study the relationships between public behavior and intervention. It has been used to look at Mammography screening, specifically what women perceive as the benefits of the screening as opposed to barriers they might have to the screening. This study found that women who saw more benefit in having the screening, or felt they were susceptible to breast cancer in some way. Women who did not intend to have the screenings had fewer perceived benefits and more barriers to the screening. Thus, using the HBM to study mammogram screening could help health care professionals devise ways to break down the barriers some women have to the screenings, and ultimately get more women to get mammograms more often.

The core constructs of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) include stages of change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance), Decisional Balance, (pros and cons), Self-Efficacy, (confidence and temptation), and Processes of Change. The Processes of Change contain the most sub-sets, including consciousness raising, dramatic relief, self-reevaluation, Environmental reevaluation, self-liberation, helping relationships, counterconditioning, reinforcement management, stimulus control, and social liberation. While all of these do not exist in each behavioral change, but there are specific principles that must be applied for the behavioral change to be effective and long lasting.

One population-based application of TTM is quitting smoking, which is difficult for anyone who smokes, just as most cessation models are difficult. Creating an effective way to quite smoking for entire populations would save lives and millions of dollars in health care costs around the world. The model would need to reach a large number of smokers, it would need to develop reports and manuals to help the smokers during the five stages of intervention, and it would have to include follow-up for those who needed more help with the cessation process. It would also require assessment to the general good of the population, and assess which treatment methods were more successful (reactive or proactive). The results in the study discussed indicate that smokers who initiated their own treatment, rather than being recruited had the best results in quitting smoking.