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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

The Health Belief Model

The Health Belief Model is a theoretical model that can be used to guide health promotion and disease prevention programs. It is used to explain and predict individual changes in health behaviors. It is one of the most widely used models for understanding health behaviors.

Key elements of the Health Belief Model focus on individual beliefs about health conditions, which predict individual health-related behaviors. The model defines the key factors that influence health behaviors as an individual's perceived threat to sickness or disease (perceived susceptibility), belief of consequence (perceived severity), potential positive benefits of action (perceived benefits), potential barriers to action (perceived barriers), exposure to factors that prompt action (cues to action), and confidence in ability to succeed (self-efficacy).

Considerations for Implementation

The Health Belief Model can be used to design short- and long-term interventions. The five key action-related components that determine the ability of the Health Belief Model to identify key decision-making points that influence health behaviors are:

  • Gathering information, by conducting a health needs assessment and other approaches, to determine who is at risk and the population(s) of focus.
  • Conveying the consequences of risk behaviors clearly to understand perceived severity.
  • Communicating the steps involved in taking the recommended action and highlighting the benefits to action.
  • Helping to identify and reduce barriers to action.
  • Demonstrating actions through skill development activities and providing support to enhance self-efficacy and the likelihood of successful behavior changes.

These actions represent key elements of the Health Belief Model and can be used to design or adapt health promotion or disease prevention programs. The Health Belief Model is appropriate to be used alone or in combination with other theories or models. To ensure success with this model, it is important to identify “cues to action” that are meaningful and appropriate for the intended population.