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One model used in the public health setting is the health belief model (HBM), which holds that “a person’s belief in a personal threat of an illness…together with a person’s belief in the effectiveness of the recommended [treatment] will predict the likelihood the person will adopt the behavior” (LaMorte, 2019). While it cannot account for the influence of environmental or economic factors which influence health decisions, the HBM helps healthcare professionals understand how individuals (or communities) perceive and respond to threats to their health (Houlden, et al., 2021). By understanding this process, healthcare professionals may then use the model to develop strategies to motivate individuals or communities to engage in healthy behaviors, thereby improving health outcomes (Houlden, et al., 2021). The model essentially hinges upon appealing to sociocultural beliefs to adjust an individual’s/community’s perceived threat of illness to match the actual threat, and to reveal the connection between that risk and the individual’s/community’s ability to change behaviors to mitigate that risk.
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