Health Belief Model

HEALTH BELIEF MODEL
Name
Institution
Health belief model (HBM) is a theory that was developed to explain the factors that may motivate or demotivate an individual from taking medical care. The approach was established by psychologists who included Hochbaum, Rosenstock, and Godfrey (Rosenstock et al., 1988). The psychologists did this to understand why people did not go for tuberculosis screening despite the prevalence of the disease and availability of the programs.
The theory shows that people do not refuse to uptake treatment for the sake of it. They do so due to some underlying fundamental reasons that deserve to be checked by both the medical service providers and the individual (Rosenstock et al., 1988). For instance, some people will not go to the hospital after a condition since they do not know its severity. By blaming the victim, the theory aims at activating them to take action to salvage them when ill. It creates internal awareness on the individual on why it may be necessary to pa take health issues more seriously. The proponents of the theory wanted action to come from within since external effort had failed (Hayden, 2017). The earlier method of asking people to go for screening did not work. By focusing on the individual behavior, the individual will make the necessary choice concerning their health.
The theory serves best to explain behavior change as a form of proper medication. According to me, however, the government and the community have a great ro…