What is a health belief model?
Health belief model: a psychological theory that explains why people take or not take preventive health care actions, such as disease check-up, diet health and exercise. Taken together, we can see whether a person will take specific preventive and health care actions.
The health belief model is used by doctors, nurses, policy makers, public health educators and others who try to encourage more people to protect their health.
The empirical test of health belief model is very important. Although it is widely used, it has defects. Some people criticize this model for paying too much attention to individuals and ignoring social and group factors.
However, it is still a useful model worth considering when designing public health campaigns or persuading people to take preventive health actions.