Health Belief Model - Research Paper Example

? Research paper about health belief mode Personal beliefs and perceptions determine health behaviour The mention of fast foodgenerates varied perceptions on different people. The truth is that, there are about 350,000 fast food restaurants across the United States (Schlosser, 2001). Health statistics depicts that fast food is becomes popular in almost every social setting, especially busy groups like the students. Fast food includes Pizzas, chicken, burger and taco among others. Nutritionists assert that fast food is often high in calories, cholesterol and fat (Lynn, 2009). One needs to regulate consumption of these food components for health reasons. Consumption of more calories than recommended by health experts means that the body will store up the excess calories. This will result in weight gain and other associated complications like obesity. Further health statistics shows that fast food brings about high level of blood cholesterol. High blood cholesterol may result in the hardening of blood veins, causing some cardiovascular diseases and even stroke. Despite these statistics, it is evident that fast food is becoming part of most people’s lifestyle (Schlosser, 2001). This warrants the need to study the factors that drives students to eat fast food. It is common to use the Health Belief Model in explaining situations pertaining health (Edlin & Golanty 2009). The theoretical concept advocated for by the Health Belief Model is that individual’s health behaviour depends on the individual’s personal beliefs and perceptions. This model uses four main perceptions in explaining the various variables in the study subject ( Karen & Rimer 2008).The first one is the perceived seriousness. In health issues, an individual’s health behaviour depends on that person’s perceived effect of a disease in his or her life. The other one is the perceived susceptibility. The perceived risk of being a victim of a certain health condition contributes in modifying someone’s health conduct. The third perception determinant is the perceived benefit. The perceived usefulness of health behaviour determines if one is going to adopt it or not. The last one is the perceived barriers of the process of modifying health behaviour. An individual may not be able adopt a new behaviour, based on his/her beliefs on the old health behaviour. In the context of the perceived seriousness, the model will explain how these students perceive the seriousness of consuming fast food on their health (Edlin & Golanty 2009). For example, a student may belief that he/she can deal with the issue of weight gain caused by the high calories in the fast food by doing regular exercises. This will mean that the student does not perceive fast food as a danger to his/her health. On the perceived risk, since most students are of young age, they may excuse their consumption of fast food on the fact that their bodies burn more calories and fat then adults. Therefore, they may perceive the risk posed by fast food to be minimal on their health (Breakiron, 1989). On the perceived benefits, a student may find nothing useful in changing health behaviour. For example, a student may find that substituting fast food with fruits and vegetables might be time consuming. In this case, the student will be reluctant to change his/her health practise because he/she sees no benefit in changing the behaviour. On the perceived barriers, a student may be having a liking for chicken. Overcoming the graving for the chicken might be hard for this student. In the end, the student will opt to continue with his/her trend for fast food (Porche, 2004). Objective The main objective of this research is to substantiate the level of influence on an individual’s health practice based on the individual’s beliefs and perceptions. The way an individual interprets information concerning a health issue seems to determine his/her behavioural response concerning that health issue. Moreover, personal belief seems to modify someone’s practices concerning health issues. This study will carry out a research on the perceptions and beliefs on fast food by the student population. In the end, the research will substantiate the main reasons why students like fast food, despite the health risks associated with this type of food. Therefore, this research aims at establishing a clear understanding of the factors influencing health behaviour ( Karen & Rimer 2008). Methodology This research entails the collection of data from six subjects. The researchers used stratified sampling technique. These participants of the research are representative of population of the university students, who consume a lot of fast food on regular basis. The stratified sampling technique is appropriate because it will ensure the representation of specific stratified groups (Gemmel, 2009). This sample is from a population of university students. The six participants comprises of three women and three men. The participants were between the ages of 21-27 years. This is a quantitative research meant to establish the most likely cause of certain behaviour (Vogt, 2010). During the data collection period, the researchers assemble the six participants in a small hall. The data collectors explained the purpose of the questionnaires to the participants before distributing the papers to them. The participants were asked to be as honesty as possible in their responses to the questions contained in the papers. They participants could ask for assistance in case of any difficult in answering the questions (Gemmel, 2009). Based on the behavioural model adopted in the research, the questionnaire had four categories, with each category corresponding to each of the four parts of the Health Belief Model. Subheadings indicated the parts of the model. The questionnaire consisted of statements corresponding to each part of the model. The statements had scores numbered 1-5, with 1 signifying strongly positive to the statement, 2 signifies positive, 3 means neutral to the statement, 4 means negative while 5 indicates strongly negative to the statement (Patten, 2001). The participant is supposed to tick one of the five numbers 1-5. Some of the statements available in the questionnaire are as follows; 1 Seriousness of health complication 1) Fast food poses serious complications to one’s health. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 2 Risk of developing health complication 1) One is at risk of health problems by consuming much fast food. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 3 Benefits of standard health behaviour 1) Less consumption of fast food is beneficial to one’s health. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 4 Barriers of health behaviour change 1) It is hard to change a health habit (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Results After the research, the data and information collected were analysed and presented using simple mathematical processes (Vogt, 2010). The results were on a scale of 1-5. From every questionnaire, the mean of the results was calculated. A mean of Less than three in every part of the questionnaire signifies that the participant is positive on the statements, while a mean of more than three signifies negativity in respect to the health statements. Five out of the six participants scored a mean greater than 3.5 in the first three parts of the questionnaire. The other participant scored a mean of 3.1. On the last part of the questionnaire, all the participants had a mean of less than 2.5. Scatter diagram for one of the participant who scored a mean of 3.5 in the responses. Discussion The findings shows that out of the six statements in the first part of the questionnaire, All participants scored a mean of more than 3, with five of them scoring a mean of over 3.5. This means that the participants were mostly negative about these statements. Negative responses means the participants did not agree with the statements. This indicates that the students see no seriousness on their health concerning the consumption of fast food. The perceived seriousness part of the model says that an individual’s health behaviour depends on the individual’s perceived seriousness concerning the matter. Therefore, these participants consume fast food because they do not consider the effects as serious (Porche, 2004). On the risk part, the participants were still negative to most of the statements in the questionnaire as depicted by the calculated mean, which were greater than three in all the six participants. This means that the students belief that they are not at risk of any health complication by using fast food. This conforms to the models perceived risk part, which says that health behaviour depends on the perceived risk concerning a disease. These participants consume fast food because they perceive no risk of developing health complications (Watson, 2008). On the third part of the questionnaire concerning the benefits, the participants were similarly negative towards most of the statements on the questionnaire, based on the mean. This indicates that they find no benefit in adopting the recommended health behaviour. This agrees with the third part of the model on the perceived benefits. The students found no usefulness of sticking to the recommended health behaviour of not consuming fast food, hence this account for their reason of consuming fast food (Breakiron, 1989). The last part presented a cumulated mean of 2.1. This means that the participants were positive on the statements contained in the paper. They agree that it is hard to change some health behaviours. On the forth part of the health belief model, it agrees that an individual’s behaviour is attributed to the perceived barriers in trying to change the behaviour (Watson, 2008). This means that the students are consuming fast food because they acknowledge the barriers on their way of changing their health behaviour. The students give up on their effort to change their practices because they feel that they are not strong enough to overcome the barriers, or that the barriers are high enough for them to go over. This is an example of a quantitative research. Therefore, the research comes with the limitations of a quantitative research, which include the task intensive, and the costly nature of the research in terms of acquiring a representative sample. In addition, this research method results in a lot of ambiguity, hence will always require another research to validate the findings. However, this research gives reliable findings because it provides room for comparison between other research findings, hence narrowing down the conclusions (Gemmel, 2009). This research will serve to inform most health agencies on the factors that determine people’s health behaviour. It will help the government in their campaigns concerning the numerous sensitisations concerning the health dangers of consuming fast food. Conclusion The research has concluded that the population’s health behaviour is determined by their beliefs and perceptions concerning a health issue. Future research should be concentrated on one areas of the health belief model, for example the perceived seriousness part. The researchers may seek to determine which of the four parts of this model contributes largely to determining behaviour (Edlin & Golanty 2009). This task has informed me of the research process, especially on the administration of questioners and the analysis of results. I have also learned about the determining factors on the health behaviour of individuals. References Karen , G. & Rimer, B.K. (2008). Health behavior and health education: theory, research, and practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Edlin,G.& Golanty, E. (2009). Health and Wellness. California: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Schlosser, E. (2001). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal Sydney: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Watson, S. (2008). Fast Food. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Lynn, L. (2009). Fast Food. Berlin: Murdoch Books. Breakiron, S.W. (1989). The health belief model: perceptions influencing the adoption of preventive exercise behaviour. USA: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vogt, P. W. (2010). Quantitative research methods for professionals. New York: Pearson/Allyn. Gemmel, W. C. (2009). Sampling techniques. California: Wiley. Patten, M. L. (2001). Questionnaire research: a practical guide. Dublin: Pyrczak Publishing. Porche, J. D. (2004). Public & community health nursing practice: a population-based approach. USA: SAGE. Read More