The Health Belief Model (HBM) is a psychological model developed in the 1950’s to try to explain and predict a patient’s response to health issues (Edelman, 2013). This model was developed to explain why some people fail to adopt preventative health measures even when the treatment is free. This model suggests that a message will have the maximum effect and behavior change if targets perceived barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and threat (Jones et al., 2016).
The following components are edited for the text book Health Care Promotion Throughout the Life Span.
- Individual perceptions or readiness for change
- The value of health to the individual compared with other aspects of living
- Perceived susceptibility to a health problem, disease, or complications
- Perceived seriousness of the disease level threatening the achievement of certain goals or aims
- Risk factors to a disease attributed to heredity, race or culture, medical history, or other causes
- Perceived benefits of health action
- Perceived barriers to promotion action
Lifestyle changes can be the toughest to integrate into daily activities because they require the patient to consciously practice new behaviors. One way for the nurse to help make these changes permanent is to evaluate the readiness to change. The nurse should use questions to elicit responses that indicate the patient is ready to change behavior. Without a willing participant all other information may not lead to the desired changes.
The framework of the HBM allows the nurse to choose the appropriate intervention that is achievable and permanent. Each component guides the nurse by identifying barriers and identifying ways for the patient to adhere to the new behaviors
