Theories of Health Belief

The Health Belief Model focuses on individual and situational factors that explain health related behaviours:

- Percieved Threat, Seriousness, and percieved susceptibility

- Cost benefit Analysis (weighing up pro's and con's)

-Demographic Factors (other factors are knon to be affected such as age, gender, ethnicity etc)

Becker assessed the Health Belief Model as an explanation of the extent to which mothers of children with asthma complied with the medical regimen prescribed by their docter.

It took place in Baltimore, United States over a 4 month period. It was a centre for children with severe asthma. Interviews with the 111 mothers of the asthmatic children, averaging 40 minutes per interview, so in depth. Also covert blood testing was taken from the children.

It was found that mothers that saw their child's condition as more severe and more susceptible, were more likely to comply with the prescribed medical treatment, than those who didnt.

Those with high internal locus of control believe that events result primarily from their own actions whereas those who have a high external locus of control believe that a force outside themselves, (god, fate, society etc) determines the events that affect their lives.

In Wineman's study, 100 participants responded to a questionnaire being at least 20% overweight when they joined a a charity called Overeaters Anonymous. Now these 100 people had gone to one of the workshops of this charity. The study was a self report study, which used Rotters social inventory ( a scale that tested locus of control), and the body cathexis scale (scale concerning personal body perception)

it was found that there was no relationship between locus of control, and either body image or weight loss. Wineman suggested this could be because the Rotter Scale may not be the most suitable measure of locus of control with regards to eating habits. She also said self report responses on weight loss are unreliable because they may have been affected by social desirability.

Approach: Cognitive
Method: Self Report/Correlation
Participants: 164 nursing students from Poland.
Procedure: BMI was calculated for each participant and two self report measures were used - generalised self efficacy scale, and questionnaire of health belief.
Results: It was found that most participants had high, or average self efficacy with only 8% with low self efficacy. There was no correlation found between self efficacy and smoking. But higher alcohol consumption was found correlating with high self efficacy.