COVID-19 and Health Belief Model: Why Some People are not Social-Distancing
Those who are in the public health sector we tend to look at EVERYTHING with a public health lens, I have yet to learn how to turn this lens on and off. Here’s what public health says about the response to social-distancing,
COVID-19 is a modern pandemic that has challenged public health officials internationally. The general public is resistant to the idea of social-distancing and continued socializing continues the spread of the disease. While some government officials are at a loss, the Health Belief Model is a useful framework to understand public health crises driven by people’s behaviors.
The Health Belief Model
The Health Belief Model (HBM) was developed in the 1950s by the U.S. Public Health Service. Social scientists were trying to understand why people did not adopt disease prevention strategies with significant outbreaks, like social-distancing and washing hands. There are six major tenets of the HBM that explain why people do not adopt these health measures.
Perceived susceptibility: Perceived susceptibility refers to a person’s subjective perception of the risk of acquiring an illness or disease.
Perceived severity: This refers to a person’s feelings on how serious the illness or disease is.
Perceived benefits: In this case, the benefits refer to how effective the person believes the health recommendations are in reducing the threat of the disease.
Perceived barriers: These barriers refer to the obstacles a person believes may prohibit them from adopting the health recommendations.
Cue to action: Cue to action is the trigger a person needs to accept a recommended health action.
Self-efficacy: This refers to whether a person believes they are successfully adhering to the health recommendation.
HBM and COVID-19
Many people are choosing not to follow the health recommendations for COVID-19. Applying the six constructs of HBM can help outline public behavior during pandemics.
Perceived Susceptibility: Many people, like Generation Z and Baby Boomers, believe that they are at low risk of developing COVID. A significant myth related to COVID that affected the public was the thought that Black people were excluded from contacting the virus.
Perceived Severity: Some people believe that COVID is a severe disease, while others believe that the symptoms will be mild and that individuals are more likely to die from other viruses such as Marburg, Ebola, HIV, Influenza, or Rotavirus.
Perceived Benefits: Individuals do not believe there are direct benefits to adhering to governmental recommendations and believe that they will contract COVID regardless of health recommendations.
Perceived Barriers: People mainly feel that these health recommendations are inconvenient and do not like how they interrupt their normal routine. Others worry even more about the financial and long-term consequences of self-quarantine.
Cue to action: Some people know someone with COVID who had very poor outcomes. Others have not encountered a cue to action as of yet.
Self-efficacy: Even when some people are not strict about their self-quarantine, they believe that they are still doing enough.
What can be done?
The message provided about social distancing should come from diverse group leaders of the community or family members.
Provide stats and statistics to those populations where there are little to no efforts of social distancing being practiced.
The information provided should be written at a 4th-grade reading level and in relatable terms.
Health Note: To best prevent the spread of COVID-19, follow the instructions of local and national agencies.
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