Integrating the Health Belief or Health Promotion Model

Discuss how you would integrate either the Health Belief Model or Health Promotion Model in meeting the health care needs of a family. Be specific.

ANSWER

Integrating the Health Belief Model

Healthcare providers and scientists use the health belief model to predict health behaviours. This model is used to create health prevention interventions. The health belief model is a behavioural health theory that involves a combination of knowledge, opinion, and actions people or individuals take regarding their health. Health belief models are used in places wee prevention has failed. The elements of HBM include; perceived susceptibility. This is how a person views a certain disease and whether they think it will harm them. There are people who do not view STDs as a risk to them and thus do not take the necessary prevention measures. The next element is the perceived threat (Huang et al., 2020). This depends on how a person views the disease and the negative effect it will have on them. For example, during the pandemic, older people received the vaccine without arguing as they could see the adverse effects of the disease (Walrave et al., 2020). Younger people were more reluctant as they did not view the virus as harmful to them.

The third element is perceived barriers vs. the benefits. This is where a person weighs the cost of the needed behaviour against the benefits (Wong et al., 2020). Some people decided not to take the vaccines when they were being sold because they thought the cost was not worth it. The barriers in healthcare could include the cost of transportation to the hospital, lack of insurance and the time spent in the doctor’s office. Some people might also decide that their health condition is not worth the cost.

I can apply the health belief model in a family I am treating to understand their health thoughts and wellness. The first step is trying to understand the beliefs of the family using certain questions. For example, they were all diagnosed with flu. The family did not bother to get a flu shot. The first question would be what images the disease evoke in the family before diagnosis. If their answer is something like they did not view it as a serious problem, I would know that I need to talk to them about taking their flu shot seriously. The fact that the family does not view flu as a serious illness reflects on their lack of concern with the flu shot. The next question would be the cause of their illness and what they thought would be the cause. I would then use their answers to educate them further on the causes of flu, the flu season, and the importance of getting the flu shot before the flu season.

The next question to the family would be what they thought would help them get through the flu season. The answer they give will help in creating an intervention on their belief in preventative medicine. I would also question their insurance plan and whether or not they have an elaborate plan to help cater for regular check-ups. I would advise the family on affordable insurance plans that would help the family have regular check-ups. I would also try to understand their perceived barriers and benefits of preventative health by understanding why they do not consider preventative medicine and help them understand the importance of vaccines and regular check-ups. I would also advise on factors such as telemedicine and telehealth in case they think that the cost of going to the hospital is too high.

References

Huang, X., Dai, S., & Xu, H. (2020). Predicting tourists’ health risk preventative behaviour and travelling satisfaction in Tibet: Combining the theory of planned behaviour and health belief model. Tourism Management Perspectives, 33, 100589.

Walrave, M., Waeterloos, C., & Ponnet, K. (2020). Adoption of a contact tracing app for containing COVID-19: A health belief model approach. JMIR public health and surveillance, 6(3), e20572.

Wong, L. P., Alias, H., Wong, P. F., Lee, H. Y., & AbuBakar, S. (2020). The use of the health belief model to assess predictors of intent to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and willingness to pay. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 16(9), 2204-2214.