The health belief model-rural health promotion and disease prevention toolkit states to focus on the individuals health conditions, how the patient perceives their illness or disease, how the perceive the severity of their illness, barriers that affect the person or community, and confidence to succeed.
The Health promotion model makes four assumptions. One assumption individuals actively search to regulate their lifestyle behaviors, individuals actively participate in the environment and in turn change themselves and the environment, and the individual actively participates to change their behaviors. Health promotion models help patient’s have a healthier lifestyle. There are different factors that individuals and communities have for an unsafe lifestyle behaviors such as not being active, unhealthy daily eating, smoking, and stress. Simpson(2015) states some of the reasons people show these types of unhealthy behaviors is because low income, lack of access to safe places for exercise, healthy foods are not readily available to people, and culture and ethical differences.
Some of the barriers that may occur are that individuals do not want to make the lifestyle change, they do not have the resources, their attitude towards their illness/disease, they may be in denial, and they just aren’t ready to. Looking through this model, it reminded me of a diabetic patient that we gave education daily and the patient was not ready to make lifestyle changes. The patient then had a toe, and then another, and another, until it was a below the knee amputation due to being non-compliant. It was at that point the patient was ready to make the change to their lifestyle. It doesn’t have to get to that point if the correct resources and education is given to patients.
Reference:
Simpson, V. (2015, March). Models and theories to support health behavior … – purdue extension. Health and Human Services. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/HHS/HHS-792-W.pdf
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