Health Belief Model

Health Belief Model

Introduction

In the recent past, women who are at risk of ovarian cancer have been required to make a choice for or against the removal of their healthy ovaries in a bid to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. Although this is an extremely risky venture, there is limited guidance on how women can be supported to make such risky decisions. According to Sharma (2016), research that is founded on theoretical frameworks is necessary for informing clinical practice. In a bid to enhance the women’s decision making, Herrmann, Hall, and Proietto (2018), undertook a research titled, “Using the Health Belief Model to explore why women decide for or against the removal of their ovaries to reduce their risk of developing cancer” to help women make an informed decision about their participation in oophorectomy. The study was based on the four constructs of the health belief model – perceived barriers, perceived benefits, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity. Harrmann, Hall and Proietto (2018) explain that most women considered potential benefits and barriers to undertake surgery although their decisions were mostly based on experiential factors instead of statistical risk assessment. The women’s decision to undertake an oophorectomy is a personal decision that can be enhanced with the help of a HBM theory that was founded on constructs including perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits.

Reason for the Application of a Health Belief Model

The application of a health belief model was facilitated by the fact that women showed the lack of an effective decision support. Most of the women were in need of guidance from an expert, which facilitated the involvement of a general practitioner in decision making. Health belief model was adopted to assist them to make effective decisions based on the four main constructs of the HBM (Wang, Chen, Xie, & Zhang, 2019; Sharma, 2016). Other than increasing the participant’s decision making, the application of the HBM by Harrmann, Hall and Proietto (2018) in oophorectomy was also facilitated by the fact that the HBM theoretical model can help to promote disease prevention programs and guide health promotion. HBM was used to enable the women understand individual changes in their behaviors with regard to their susceptibility to cancer.

The researcher’s application of the HBM helped them to identify essential decision-making points that could influence the participant’s decisions on their health behaviors. The model enabled the researchers to gather essential information to conduct a health assessment among other efforts to determine the women at risk of ovarian cancer. The clinicians conveyed the consequences of the health issues that were perceived with the risky action of surgery – most of which were ambiguous to the participants – in a clear manner to enable the women understand the perceived severity and perceived benefits. The model adopted enabled the clinicians to communicate the steps that were involved in the recommended actions while highlighting the perceived benefits. According to Sheman (2016) the application of this model enabled the clinicians to identify and reduce barriers to the practice. As Harrmann, Hall and Proietto (2018) explains, the application of the HBM theory was an effective mechanism to develop actions through the provision of support and development activities that enhanced their self-efficacy and the likelihood of positive behavior change.

Application of Health Belief Model in the Article

There was need to support women in on whether undergoing a surgical removal of their ovaries was a viable decision. Most studies other than the HBM failed to adopt a theoretical framework to provide guidance on decision making about the oophorectomy procedure. HBM was a theoretical framework with the ability of advancing the women’s understanding of the risk reducing strategies through the organization and integration of existent knowledge on preventive health practices. Data analysis and collection in the study were informed by the HBM theory and the collected data was analyzed through the use of qualitative content analysis. Questions that explored the theory’s main constructs – perceived susceptibility to cancer, perceived severity of the scenario, perceived benefits of the procedure, and perceived barriers – were provided to the research participants through surveys.

Perceived Susceptibility

The study tested the patient’s susceptibility to ovarian cancer by questioning about their susceptibility. The patients were questioned on how they felt about the availability of screen methods, their likelihood of contracting cancer, and their worry about developing the disease.

Perceived Severity

The study evaluated the perceived severity of the scenario by questioning the patients about their worry on the consequences of ovarian cancer including the fear of dying and unexpected outcomes to their family. The participants were questioned on whether they had any personal experiences with the disease.

Perceived Benefits

Patients were questioned on their perceived benefits about the oophorectomy procedure and whether it was believed to prevent cancer. The study tested the extent that the practice would decrease the anticipated risks and their worries about developing the disease. The study also tested whether or not the participants trusted the provided information about the risk and associated benefits and how the information provided factored in their decisions with regard to the surgical procedure.

Perceived Barriers

The patients were questioned on their feelings about the operation’s potential complications including the risk of infections and bleeding. Long term effects as a result of the oophorectomy activity were tested such as the onset of menopause and its impact on the women’s sexuality. Effects including their ability to sire children, the denial of the femininity, and its effects on their femininity was also tested.

Cue to Action

The study tested the patient’s support in dealing with the surgery consequences and other factors that could have enabled them to make the desired decisions. The patients were also tested on the time they spent wondering about their risks and benefits as well as the time it took them to make viable decisions. The study used the HBM construct to understand the time it took the patient to make the decision and what happened following their decisions.

The results were evident that the women’s final decision about having an oophorectomy was facilitated by the HBM after the healthcare providers advised them based on the various constructs. Most of the women observed that they made their final decision after considering the provider’s opinions (Darvishpour, Vajari, & Noroozi, 2018). The adoption of the HBM provided a structured approach that helped to guide data analysis and research while describing their decision on oophorectomy.

Criticism of Application of the Health Belief Model

Although the health belief model enabled Herrmann, Hall, and Proietto (2018) to assist women to explore the effectiveness of the model using the main constructs, this theory is prone to failure that can influence the success of the study. According to the study (Herrmann, Hall, & Proietto, 2018) it is evident that the HBM theory ignored various other emotions including the environmental and social influences of the participants -such as culture – which could have affected their decisions. The fact that the questionnaires tested perceived benefits and barriers of the behavior in question shows that the theory ignored evidence from the participant’s behavioral economics, in that people are prone to making decisions on the basis of short-cuts and mental rules. The study also failed to take into consideration individual differences including their personality type which often affect one’s attention to motivational value and attention to health information. In addition, although risk perceptions often correlate with an individual’s behavior, interventions that aim at increasing the perceived risk of oophorectomy may not be effective at changing the women’s behavior.

References

Darvishpour, A., Vajari, S. M., & Noroozi, S. (2018). Can health belief model predict breast cancer screening behaviors? Open access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences, 6(5), 949. https://doi.org/ 10.3889/oamjms.2018.183

Herrmann, A., Hall, A., & Proietto, A. (2018). Using the Health Belief Model to explore why women decide for or against the removal of their ovaries to reduce their risk of developing cancer. BMC Women’s Health, 18(1), 1-14.

Livi, S., Zeri, F., & Baroni, R. (2017). Health beliefs affect the correct replacement of daily disposable contact lenses: Predicting compliance with the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 40(1), 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2016.09.003

Sharma, M. (2016). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. https://www.medsab.ac.ir/uploads/1_(4)_46099.pdf

Wang, X., Chen, D., Xie, T., & Zhang, W. (2019). Predicting women’s intentions to screen for breast cancer based on the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research, 45(12), 2440-2451.