SOC 4839 Risk and Communication
Class Test-2
Name: Noshin Saiyara Islam
Roll No: 17191029
The application of the Health Belief Model (HBM) in explaining people’s behavior associated withCOVID-19
Concept
Application
Implication in behavior associated to COVID-19
Perceived
susceptibility
 Subjective assessment of risk of developing a health problem.
 Health problem will engage in behaviors to reduce their risk of
developing the health problem.
 Individuals with low perceived susceptibility may deny that they are
at risk for contracting a particular illness.
 Individuals who believe they are at low risk of developing an illness
are more likely to engage in unhealthy, or risky, behaviors.
 Individuals who perceive a high risk that they will be personally
affected by a particular health problem are more likely to engage in
behaviors to decrease their risk of developing the condition.
People do not perceive their health risks; that is
why they are not changing their behavior.
For example, most of the people in my country
think that they are not getting COVID-19 due to
not avoiding social gatherings or not taking any
preventive action.
Perceived
severity
 Subjective assessment of the severity of a health problem and its
potential consequences.
 Engage in behaviors to prevent the health problem from occurring
(or reduce its severity).
 Perceived seriousness encompasses beliefs about the disease itself
(e.g., whether it is life-threatening or may cause disability or pain)
 He or she perceives that there would be serious financial
consequences as a result of being absent from work for several days,
then he or she may perceive influenza to be a particularly serious
condition.
 Influenced by the perceived benefits of taking action.
 Refer to an individual's assessment of the value or efficacy of
engaging in a health-promoting behavior to decrease risk of disease.
Some people are not taking this pandemic
seriously.
Whether people are engaging in preventive action
or not, it depends on how serious he/she consider
the consequences of being.
Perceived
benefits
It describes that people are not changing their
behavior until they get something in return.
For example, some people are enjoying their time
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 For example, individuals who believe that wearing sunscreen
prevents skin cancer are more likely to wear sunscreen than
individuals who believe that wearing sunscreen will not prevent the
occurrence of skin cancer.
Perceived
barriers
 Refer to an individual's assessment of the obstacles to behavior
change.
 Even if an individual perceives a health condition as threatening and
believes that a particular action will effectively reduce the threat,
barriers may prevent engagement in the health-promoting behavior.
 Taking action includes the perceived inconvenience, expense, danger
(e.g., side effects of a medical procedure) and discomfort (e.g., pain,
emotional upset) involved in engaging in the behavior.
 In a study about the breast and cervical cancer screening among
Hispanic women, perceived barriers, like fear of cancer,
embarrassment, fatalistic views of cancer and language, was proved
to impede screening.
Cues to
action
 Cues to action can be internal or external.
 Physiological cues (e.g., pain, symptoms) are an example of internal
cues to action.
 External cues include events or information from close others, the
media, or health care providers promoting engagement in healthrelated behaviors.
 Examples of cues to action include a reminder postcard from a
dentist, the illness of a friend or family member, and product health
warning labels. The intensity of cues needed to prompt action varies
between individuals by perceived susceptibility, seriousness,
benefits, and barriers.
by going vacation or social gathering because they
do not have to go work, and kids do not have
school. They do not want to stay home because of
boredom, but they do not see the future threat,
which can lead to the death of their loved one.
If we can convince them that being bore is better
than losing someone, then people may engage
preventive care to protect them from COVID-19.
Some people feel difficulty in change their
behavior because of the lack of a supportive
environment.
Such as some people still need to go outside for a
job or some cannot afford cleaning or medical
product.
For example, some people depend on the daily
income they need to go outside every day. Some
people live in the street or belong to lower socioeconomic class they cannot afford cleaning or
medical supplies.
Cue to action is another important factor in
describing human behavior.
The Cue to action factor triggers from any
incidence that people perceive by him/her.
Such as someone who died to COVID-19 or any
video that was showing the consequences of
COVID-19. A cue to action changes human
behavior to actual action.
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Efficacy
expectations
 Self-efficacy refers to an individual's perception of his or her
competence to successfully perform a behavior.
 The model was originally developed in order to explain engagement
in one-time health-related behaviors such as being screened for
cancer or receiving an immunization.
 Eventually, the HBM was applied to more substantial, long-term
behavior change such as diet modification, exercise, and smoking.
 For example, Schmiege et al. found that when dealing with calcium
consumption and weight-bearing exercises, self-efficacy was more
powerful predictors than beliefs about future negative health
outcomes.
Self-efficiency factors state a person’s belief in
his/her ability to change the behavior.
It may seem a minor issue, but belief in self makes
an enormous impact on human behavior (Green &
Murphy, 2014).
Awareness campaigns and reinforcement about
taking preventive care may increase self-efficiency.
Other
variables
 Individual characteristics, including demographic, psychosocial, and
structural variables, can affect perceptions (i.e., perceived
seriousness, susceptibility, benefits, and barriers) of health-related
behaviors.
 Demographic variables include age, sex, race, ethnicity, and
education, among others.
 Psychosocial variables include personality, social class, and peer and
reference group pressure, among others.
 Structural variables include knowledge about a given disease and
prior contact with the disease, among other factors.
 The HBM suggests that modifying variables affect health-related
behaviors indirectly by affecting perceived seriousness, susceptibility,
benefits, and barriers.
Pandemic is a state where not only the individual
but also society affected by a particular medical
condition.
The pandemic situation is related to stigma and
prejudice associated with stress and panic. There
are two types of human behavior toward COVID 19, one who does not perceive the threat
accurately and others who are overreacting.
People who have perceived threat about COVID-19
started to be hoarding cleaning and medical
supplies. The other group of people who are not
taking it seriously or not perceive threats like
others is act careless such as roaming around free,
traveling, gathering, making crowds, and do not
take any preventive action.
Where all over the world respond toward COVID19 with panic and fearful nature; on the other
hand, some people are showing ignorance and
carelessness toward COVID-19.
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