Evaluating the performance of unhealthy junk food consumption based on health belief model in elementary school girls

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Azam Fathi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background and objective: Nowadays, due to changes in eating patterns, the worthless junk foods are replaced useful food among children. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of unhealthy junk food consumption based on health belief model in elementary school girls Methods: Cross-sectional study Descriptive-analytic type of multi-stage sampling (208 samples was carried out in 2016. The survey instrument was a questionnaire valid and reliable based on the Health Belief Model (70 items. Data was analyzed by SPSS software according to statistical tests of significance level of 0.05. Results: Results showed that students of sensitivity (49% and relatively high efficacy (53/8%, perceived benefits (73/1% and better social protection (68/3% had. The results showed that among all the health belief model structures with yield (junk food intake significantly correlated. Also significant differences in parental education and sensitivity, perceived severity, self-efficacy, social support and yield (p<0/05. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that students from relatively favorable sensitivity and self-efficacy, perceived benefits and social protection in the field of unhealthy snacks were good. Also a significant relationship between structural and non-use study results showed unhealthy snacks but because of the importance of unhealthy snacks and unhealthy snack consumption among school children and the complications of the health belief model in predicting nutritional behaviors suggest that this model used as a framework for school feeding programs. Paper Type: Research Article.

Linking Illness in Parents to Health Anxiety in Offspring: Do Beliefs about Health Play a Role?

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Alberts, Nicole M; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather D; Sherry, Simon B; Stewart, Sherry H

2016-01-01

The cognitive behavioural (CB) model of health anxiety proposes parental illness leads to elevated health anxiety in offspring by promoting the acquisition of specific health beliefs (e.g. overestimation of the likelihood of illness). Our study tested this central tenet of the CB model. Participants were 444 emerging adults (18-25-years-old) who completed online measures and were categorized into those with healthy parents (n = 328) or seriously ill parents (n = 116). Small (d = .21), but significant, elevations in health anxiety, and small to medium (d = .40) elevations in beliefs about the likelihood of illness were found among those with ill vs. healthy parents. Mediation analyses indicated the relationship between parental illness and health anxiety was mediated by beliefs regarding the likelihood of future illness. Our study incrementally advances knowledge by testing and supporting a central proposition of the CB model. The findings add further specificity to the CB model by highlighting the importance of a specific health belief as a central contributor to health anxiety among offspring with a history of serious parental illness.

Changing beliefs about leisure noise: using health promotion models to investigate young people's engagement with, and attitudes towards, hearing health.

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Gilliver, Megan; Beach, Elizabeth Francis; Williams, Warwick

2015-04-01

To investigate factors influencing young people's motivation to reduce their leisure noise exposure, and protect their hearing health. Questionnaires were conducted online to investigate young people's hearing health attitudes and behaviour. Items were developed using an integrated health promotion approach. The stage of change model was used to group participants in relation to their engagement with noise reduction behaviour. The health belief model was used to compare each group's perceptions of susceptibility and severity of hearing loss, as well as the benefits and barriers to noise reduction. Results are presented for 1196 young Australians aged between 18 and 35 years. Participants' engagement with noise reduction behaviour was used to assign them to stage of change groupings: Maintenance (11%), Action (28%), Contemplation (14%), or Pre-contemplation (43%). Each group's responses to health belief model items highlighted key differences across the different stages of engagement. Future hearing health promotion may benefit from tailoring intervention activities to best suit the stage of change of individuals. Different information may be useful at each stage to best support and motivate young people to look after their hearing health.

Refugees in Conflict: Creating a Bridge Between Traditional and Conventional Health Belief Models.

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Ben-Arye, Eran; Bonucci, Massimo; Daher, Michel; Kebudi, Rejin; Saad, Bashar; Breitkreuz, Thomas; Rassouli, Maryam; Rossi, Elio; Gafer, Nahla; Nimri, Omar; Hablas, Mohamed; Kienle, Gunver Sophia; Samuels, Noah; Silbermann, Michael

2018-06-01

The recent wave of migration from Middle Eastern countries to Europe presents significant challenges to the European health profession. These include the inevitable communication gap created by differences in health care beliefs between European oncologists, health care practitioners, and refugee patients. This article presents the conclusions of a workshop attended by a group of clinicians and researchers affiliated with the Middle East Cancer Consortium, as well as four European-based health-related organizations. Workshop participants included leading clinicians and medical educators from the field of integrative medicine and supportive cancer care from Italy, Germany, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Sudan. The workshop illustrated the need for creating a dialogue between European health care professionals and the refugee population in order to overcome the communication barriers to create healing process. The affinity for complementary and traditional medicine (CTM) among many refugee populations was also addressed, directing participants to the mediating role that integrative medicine serves between CTM and conventional medicine health belief models. This is especially relevant to the use of herbal medicine among oncology patients, for whom an open and nonjudgmental (yet evidence-based) dialogue is of utmost importance. The workshop concluded with a recommendation for the creation of a comprehensive health care model, to include bio-psycho-social and cultural-spiritual elements, addressing both acute and chronic medical conditions. These models need to be codesigned by European and Middle Eastern clinicians and researchers, internalizing a culturally sensitive approach and ethical commitment to the refugee population, as well as indigenous groups originating from Middle Eastern and north African countries. European oncologists face a communication gap with refugee patients who have recently immigrated from Middle Eastern and

The Effect of Education Based on the Health Belief Model on Osteoporosis Prevention Behaviors in Female High School Students

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Mousaviasl

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background Osteoporosis is one of the most common metabolic bone diseases and is the silent epidemic of this era. Objectives This study evaluates the effect of education that is based on the health belief model on promoting osteoporosis prevention behaviors among female high school students. Methods In this two-group interventional study, 172 students age 11 to 14 years (experimental group = 86 subjects; control group = 86 subjects were randomly selected from Khorramshahr high schools using multistage sampling. Data were collected before the intervention and two months after its completion using a researcher-made questionnaire with four parts: demographic questions, knowledge questions, questions related to the health belief model constructs, and questions regarding preventive behaviors. Data was analyzed using SPSS 22 software and by applying the Mann-Whitney test, the analysis of covariance procedure, and the Wilcoxon statistical test. Results After the intervention, significant statistical differences were seen between the experimental and control groups in mean scores of knowledge, health belief model constructs, and preventive behaviors. Conclusions The education based on health belief model plays an important role in increasing knowledge and improving osteoporosis prevention behaviors in students.

Helmet Ownership and Use among Skateboarders: Utilisation of the Health Belief Model

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Peachey, Andrew A.; Sutton, Debra L.; Cathorall, Michelle L.

2016-01-01

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of skateboarders who owned and who wore a helmet and which constructs from the Health Belief Model predicted helmet ownership and helmet use among undergraduate skateboarders. Methods: From March 2013 through March 2014, 83 skateboarders completed a helmet attitude and use…

Renal Transplant Recipients: The Factors Related to Immunosuppressive Medication Adherence Based on the Health Belief Model.

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Kung, Pen-Chen; Yeh, Mei Chang; Lai, Ming-Kuen; Liu, Hsueh-Erh

2017-10-01

Kidney transplant failures are caused primarily by lack of adherence to immunosuppressive medication regimens by patients after transplantation. A number of studies have indicated that health-related beliefs are an effective predictor of health-related behavior. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of the personal characteristics and health-related beliefs of patients on adherence to treatment with immunosuppressive medication based on the Health Belief Model. This cross-sectional study distributed questionnaires to patients who had been recruited via purposive sampling at one medical center in Taipei. All of the potential participants had undergone kidney transplantation at least 6 months previously. The self-developed questionnaire collected data in three areas: personal characteristics, health-related beliefs regarding transplant rejection, and adherence to the immunosuppressive medication regimen. One hundred twenty-two valid questionnaires were received. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression. Participants who had received dialysis treatment or had experienced rejection perceived susceptibility to rejection more strongly than those who had not. Participants who had undergone transplantation in Taiwan, had experienced more drug-related symptoms, or had contracted severe to extremely severe infections in the past showed lower rates of adherence to treatment with immunosuppressive medication. Adherence to medication regimens correlated negatively with length of time since transplantation. Length of time since transplantation, drug-related symptoms, perceived susceptibility to rejection, and perceived benefits of treatment were identified as major predictors of adherence to immunosuppressive medication regimens. The results partially conformed to the concepts of the Health Belief Model. Perceived susceptibility to rejection and

The "Health Belief Model" Applied to Two Preventive Health Behaviors Among Women from a Rural Pennsylvania County. AE & RS 115.

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Hazen, Mary E.

In order to test the usefulnes of the Health Belief Model (a model designed to measure health practices, attitudes, and knowledge), a survey of Potter County, Pennsylvania was conducted, and 283 responses from adult females without chronic illnesses were analyzed. The dependent variables employed were regulating diet and getting regular exercise.…

Assessment of Health Belief Model (HBM impact on knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy of women in need of genetic counseling

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Mitra Moodi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Regarding the ever-increasing of genetic diseases, counseling for the prevention of these diseases has got overwhelming necessity. Thus, promoting individuals’ awareness of. genetic counseling is required. The current study aimed at determining  the effect of an educational program based on Health Belief Model on knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy of urbanized women in need of genetic counseling. Materials and Methods: In this randomized field trial study, 80 married women in need of genetic counseling were divided into two equal case and control groups. Data collection means were a researcher-designed questionnaire consisting of demographic data and health belief model queries, which were completed by interview. Educational intervention was done during three 90 minute sessions with one week interval between each one. Finally, the obtained data was fed into SPSS (version 16 applying the statistical tests of Chi-square, repeated ANOVA, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney and Friedman for analysis; and P0.05, but the difference became significant immediately and three months after intervention (P<0.001. There was a significant difference between the knowledge, threat, perceived benefits, barriers and self-efficacy in the two groups three week intervals before and  immediately after intervention, before and after the three months, immediately and after three months in the experimental group (P<0.001, but the difference was not significant in the control group. Conclusion: The results showed that educational interventions based on HBM increases women's knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy regarding the role of genetic counseling in the prevention of congenital malformations.

Islamic Cultures: Health Care Beliefs and Practices.

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Kemp, Charles

1996-01-01

Presents an overview of Islamic health care beliefs and practices, noting health-related social and spiritual issues, fundamental beliefs and themes in Islam, health care beliefs and practices common among Muslims, and health-affecting social roles among Muslims. Cultural, religious, and social barriers to health care and ways to reduce them are…

The importance of health belief models in determining self-care behaviour in diabetes.

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Harvey, J N; Lawson, V L

2009-01-01

Patients' self-care behaviours have a major role in diabetes management. Diabetes education provides the required knowledge, but despite this, self-care is often suboptimal. The degree to which patients follow advice as regards the various self-care behaviours is determined by their health beliefs (Illness Representations or Personal Models) of diabetes. Psychometric studies have tried to categorize and measure the beliefs about illness that influence patients to adhere to treatment recommendations in diabetes. Various models have been proposed to explain the relationship between beliefs and behaviour. Leventhal's Self-Regulatory Model, which takes account of the emotional as well as the objective rational response to illness, currently seems to offer the best system for identifying the determinants of patient self-care behaviour. A review of interventions indicates those based on psychological theory offer professionals the best chance of maximizing their patients' contribution to diabetes self-management and achieving improved outcomes, both glycaemic and psychosocial. Studies designed specifically to modify illness representations are now being undertaken. This brief review aims to summarize developments in this area of psychological theory over the last 20 years and the implications for promoting better self-care behaviour in diabetes.

Developing a new model for cross-cultural research: synthesizing the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Reasoned Action.

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Poss, J E

2001-06-01

This article discusses the development of a new model representing the synthesis of two models that are often used to study health behaviors: the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Reasoned Action. The new model was developed as the theoretic framework for an investigation of the factors affecting participation by Mexican migrant workers in tuberculosis screening. Development of the synthesized model evolved from the concern that models used to investigate health-seeking behaviors of mainstream Anglo groups in the United States might not be appropriate for studying migrant workers or persons from other cultural backgrounds.

Influencing factors in the health promoting behaviors of Urinary system based on health belief model in pregnant women in Bushehr 2013-14

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Farzaneh Noroozi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Urinary tract infection is the second most common complication of pregnancy that will follow with maternal and fetal complications. The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting the urinary system health promoting behaviors in pregnant women based on the health belief model. Materials and methods: The present study is a descriptive - analytic study was performed on 250 pregnant women referred to health centers of Bushehr. The tools for collecting information was a multi sectional questionnaire consisting of demographic information, measurement of urinary system health behavior, knowledge and health belief model constructs, which its validity and reliability were ensured previously. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 20 by using correlation coefficient and linear regression tests. Results: The mean age of subjects 27/4±4/4 years.The relationship between demographic variables and health behavior wasn’t found. The most people (179 equivalents to 71/6% had medium level of knowledge about urinary tract infection, and only 44 women (17.6% had appropriate awareness. Mean score of preventive behaviors was significant difference between different levels of knowledge (p =0/026, self efficacy (p=0/000 and perceived barriers (p=0/002. In multivariate ANOVA, only the self efficacy had strong positive relationship with the preventing behaviors of urinary tract infection (p=0/000. Conclusion: Based on these results, the necessity of education based on health belief model with an emphasis on increasing the efficacy is necessary.

Effect of Education by Text Messaging Based on Health Belief Model on Food Handling Behaviors in Health Volunteers\\' Yazd City

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MA Morowatisharifabad

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The text message can be presented as a way to change patterns of behavior-based prevention programs, such as the theory of planned behavior and health belief model to be used., And as an alternative approach to the individual and group training programs should be considered. The present study examined the effectiveness of this new method in promoting food handling behavior of a team of health volunteers on health belief model was based. Methods: This study was an evaluation of an intervention in which 16 health centers, 200 health volunteers who were actively involved Yazd city who were randomly divided into two groups. After the initial test, chi-square test, t test were analyzed. The intervention group received an educational package on the SMS regarding  food handling behavior on health Belief Model was designed for codification; wantonly within a month and a half a day and after 8 weeks of the last SMS sent from any intervention and control groups was performed in a secondary assessment. Tool for data gathering questionnaire consisting of structures of health belief model including demographic variables, respectively. Data were using 18spss and employing applied, statistical tests of non-parametric Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square and correlation coefficient the analysis was. Results: The overall food handling behavior, after training significantly increased in the intervention group (p =0/01, while the control group was not significant (p=0/21. Cooling behavior after training in the experimental group and the control group was significantly increased (p =0/00. Cooking behavior, after training in the intervention group (p =0/11 and control group( p =0/17 was not significantly increased. Individual health behavior, after training in the intervention group (p =0/13 and control group (p =0/07 was not significantly increased. Separation behavior after training has not significantly increased in the

Cross-cultural differences in dementia: the Sociocultural Health Belief Model.

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Sayegh, Philip; Knight, Bob G

2013-04-01

Many minority ethnic (ME) older adults face several culturally associated and systemic barriers to timely dementia diagnoses that may result in delays to dementia care-seeking. We aimed to develop and propose a model illustrating variables that influence dementia care-seeking among ME older adults. We conducted a literature review on the effects of these barriers on diagnostic delays and impairment levels at initial evaluation. We also strived to provide a basis for the Sociocultural Health Belief Model (SHBM) to guide future research and service planning pertaining to culture and dementia care-seeking. There was consistent evidence that ME older adults with dementia tended to have greater diagnostic delays and higher levels of cognitive impairment and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia at initial evaluation than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. We also found several barriers to dementia care-seeking among ME groups. These barriers included lower levels of acculturation and accurate knowledge about dementia, more culturally associated beliefs about dementia, such as the perception of memory loss as normal aging and stigma associated with dementia, and health system barriers. The SHBM provides an empirically based conceptual framework for examining cross-cultural differences in dementia care-seeking among diverse groups. We provide recommendations for future research, such as the need for research with more diverse ethnic subgroups and the examination of group-specific cultural values. We conclude with a discussion of the clinical and service implications of our review, including potential interventions aimed at facilitating timely dementia diagnoses among ME older adults.

Understanding Weight Management Perceptions in First-Year College Students Using the Health Belief Model

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Das, Bhibha M.; Evans, Ellen M.

2014-01-01

Objective: To examine weight management barriers, using the Health Belief Model, in first-year college students. Participants: First-year college students (n = 45), with data collected in April, May, and November 2013. Methods: Nominal group technique sessions (n = 8) were conducted. Results: First-year students recognize benefits to weight…

Association of health professional leadership behaviors on health promotion practice beliefs.

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Stone, Jacqueline D; Belcher, Harolyn M E; Attoh, Prince; D'Abundo, Michelle; Gong, Tao

2017-04-01

Leadership is a process by which an individual influences a group or individual to achieve a common goal, in this case health promotion for individuals with disabilities. (1) To examine the association between the transformational leadership behaviors of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) network professionals and their practice beliefs about health promotion activities, specifically cardiovascular fitness and healthy weight, for people with disabilities. (2) To determine if discipline and/or years of practice moderate the association between transformational leadership behaviors and practice beliefs regarding health promotion. There is a positive association between transformational leadership behaviors and health professionals practice beliefs regarding health promotion activities for persons with disabilities. A quantitative cross-sectional web-based survey design was used to determine the association between leadership behaviors and practices beliefs regarding health promotion for people with disabilities. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and an adapted version of the Role of Health Promotion in Physical Therapy Survey were used to measure leadership and practice beliefs, respectively. Multiple regression analysis was applied to determine the association of leadership behaviors with health promotion practice beliefs variables. Transformational leadership behaviors of the AUCD network professionals were positively associated with health promotion practice beliefs about cardiovascular fitness for people with disabilities. Years post licensure and discipline did not moderate the association between transformational leadership and practice beliefs regarding health promotion. Transformational leadership may facilitate health professionals' health promotion practices for people with disabilities. Further research and training in leadership is needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking among Adolescents in Marivan city- Iran: Based on Health Belief Model

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Naseh Ghaderi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background Cigarette smoking is a common problem among teenagers. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Cigarette Smoking among Teen Boys in Marivan city, based on Health Belief Model. Materials and Methods A cluster randomized sample of 470 male students with16.2±2.5   from 6 secondary schools of Marivan city- Iran, completed a self-report and questionnaire consisting of Health Belief Model constructs Data was analyzed by Chi-square and independent t-test, using SPSS-16. Results The rate of smoking the cigarette among students was 21/470 (4.7%. The experience of smoking in the last 30 days and throughout life reported 6.4% and 34.7% respectively. Significant differences between smokers and nonsmokers were found for perceived benefits (P

Testicular Self-Examination: A Test of the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour

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McClenahan, Carol; Shevlin, Mark; Adamson, Gary; Bennett, Cara; O'Neill, Brenda

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to test the utility and efficiency of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM) in predicting testicular self-examination (TSE) behaviour. A questionnaire was administered to an opportunistic sample of 195 undergraduates aged 18-39 years. Structural equation modelling indicated that, on the…

Treatment Related Thoughts Based on Health Belief Model and Medication Nonadherence in Patients who Prescribed Anxiolytics and Antidepressants

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Meltem Meric

2010-10-01

Full Text Available AIM: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between treatment adherence and treatment related thoughts based on health belief model in patients who currently take medication due to depression and anxiety disorder. METHOD: The present study was performed at the Psychiatry Department of a teaching hospital. The sample of the study consisted from 112 individuals who take medications due to depression and anxiety disorder. Personal information form and an inquiry form including treatment related thoughts based on health belief model were used to collect data. Chi- Square and Percentages were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of the patients, 58.9% were diagnosed as depression and 41.1% anxiety disorder. 60.7% stated that they had a non-adherence experience in the past. Of these non-adherent patients, 29.5% stopped to take the medication with the idea “I can do it without medication” and 14.3% stopped the medication because of the side effects. Gender, age, marital status and education level were not related to the non-adherence. Only two treatment related thoughts based on health belief concepts were significantly related to the non adherence experience. These thoughts were “If I do not take the medications properly the problems may be permanent” and “If I do not take the medications properly my illness may get worse”. Most of the patients marked “agree” options of the items under the perceived severity, self-efficacy, benefits, susceptibility and health motivation subheads. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the thoughts and perceptions based on health belief concepts helps to identify and express the thoughts related to treatment adherence. These concepts can be used to describe and classify the thoughts about the treatments of patients. However, prospective and qualitative studies may be useful to clarify the influence of the health beliefs on treatment adherence. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2010; 9

Evaluating a Health Belief Model-Based Educational Program for School Injury Prevention among Hard-of-Hearing/Deaf High School Students

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Fatemeh Vejdani-Aram

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background and Objectives: While all students are vulnerable to injuries, such vulnerability may even be higher in the deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Therefore, this study evaluated a health belief model-based educational program to prevent school injuries among deaf and hard-of-hearing high school students. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on all deaf and hard-of-hearing students who attended two special schools in Hamadan (Iran during 2014. They were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n = 23 or the control group (n = 27. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire containing items on demographic characteristics, constructs of the health belief model, and knowledge and preventive behaviors. In both groups, the questionnaires were filled out through interviews before and two months after the intervention. The intervention included distributing booklets and holding five educational sessions. Data were analyzed with paired t, independent t, chi square, and Fisher’s exact tests in SPSS16. Results: After the educational intervention, the mean scores of knowledge (P=0.002, preventive behaviors (P=0.001, and constructs of the health belief model, i.e. perceived severity (P=0.001, perceived benefits (P=0.001, self-efficacy (P=0.001, and cues to action (P=0.001, were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. Conclusion: According to our findings, an educational intervention based on the health belief model can promote behaviors to prevent school injuries among deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Effect of an Educational Program Based on the Health Belief Model to Reduce Cell Phone Usage During Driving in Taxi drivers

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Babak Moeini

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Cell phone usage during driving has become a threat to traffic safety. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of an educational program based on the health belief model to reduce cell phone usage during driving in taxi drivers of Tuyserkan. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 110 taxi drivers younger than 35 years were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups in Tuyserkan, Iran. Data was collected using a questionnaire including the health belief model constructs, knowledge, behaviors of using cell phone and demographic variables. The questionnaires were self-reported. Intervention was three sessions applied in the experimental group. Both groups were followed for two months after the intervention. Finally, data analysis was performed using SPSS- 19 by Chi-square, Independent T-test, Paired T-test and McNemar. Results: The mean scores for the constructs of health belief model (perceived susceptibility, severity, barriers, perceived benefits, self-efficacy and cues to action, knowledge and desired behaviors about the use of cell phone during driving showed no significant differences between the two groups before the intervention. After the educational intervention, significant differences were observed in experimental group compared to control group. After educational intervention, cell phone usage reduced by 35.14% in the experimental group. Conclusion: An educational intervention based on the health belief model could reduce cell phone usage during driving in taxi drivers.

Effects of Application of Social Marketing Theory and the Health Belief Model in Promoting Cervical Cancer Screening among Targeted Women in Sisaket Province, Thailand.

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Wichachai, Suparp; Songserm, Nopparat; Akakul, Theerawut; Kuasiri, Chanapong

2016-01-01

Cervical cancer is a major public health problem in Thailand, being ranked second only to breast cancer. Thai women have been reported to have a low rate of cervical cancer screening (27.7% of the 80% goal of WHO). We therefore aimed to apply the social marketing theory and health belief model in promoting cervical cancer screening in Kanthararom District, Sisaket Province. A total of 92 from 974 targeted women aged 3060 years were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group underwent application of social marketing theory and a health belief model program promoting cervical cancer screening while the control group received normal services. Two research tools were used: (1) application of social marketing theory and health belief model program and (2) questionnaire used to evaluate perceptions of cervical cancer. Descriptive and inferential statistics including paired sample ttest and independent ttest were used to analyze the data. After the program had been used, the mean score of perception of cervical cancer of experimental group was at a higher level (x=4.09; S.D. =0.30), than in the control group (x=3.82; S.D. =0.20) with statistical significance (psocial marketing and the health belief model be used to promote cervical cancer screening in targeted women and it can be promoted as a guideline for other health services, especially in health promotion and disease prevention.

Validation of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale for adults.

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Donizzetti, Anna Rosa; Petrillo, Giovanna

2017-01-01

We present the validation study of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale adult version, aimed to measure illusory beliefs about health. The scale was administered to 643 participants (54.3% females), having an average age of 29.7 years (standard deviation = 18.31). The results of the analyses confirmed the dimensions of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale as developed in the previous adolescent study (Beliefs: Religious, Superstitious, in Extraordinary Events, Parapsychological, and Pseudo-scientific of a biomedical nature), as well as the convergent and discriminant validity through the correlation with other constructs (locus of control and self-efficacy). The results also showed significant differences between subgroups by gender and age. The Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale shows satisfactory psychometric properties and thus may be used effectively to identify the varied range of illusory beliefs related to health, even within the context of lifelong educational programs aimed at health promotion.

Validation of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale for adults

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Anna Rosa Donizzetti

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We present the validation study of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale adult version, aimed to measure illusory beliefs about health. The scale was administered to 643 participants (54.3% females, having an average age of 29.7 years (standard deviation = 18.31. The results of the analyses confirmed the dimensions of the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale as developed in the previous adolescent study (Beliefs: Religious, Superstitious, in Extraordinary Events, Parapsychological, and Pseudo-scientific of a biomedical nature, as well as the convergent and discriminant validity through the correlation with other constructs (locus of control and self-efficacy. The results also showed significant differences between subgroups by gender and age. The Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale shows satisfactory psychometric properties and thus may be used effectively to identify the varied range of illusory beliefs related to health, even within the context of lifelong educational programs aimed at health promotion.

Multiculturalism, Medicine, and Health Part III: Health Beliefs

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Masi, Ralph

1988-01-01

Supernatural beliefs relate to a Power or powers considered beyond nature. Persons who wish to draw upon the power of supernatural forces often attempt to do so through prayers, ceremonies, or special acknowledgement. While some physicians feel uncomfortable at times with beliefs that differ from their own, the chaplaincy system, in place in most hospitals, is evidence that health-care systems can comfortably accommodate supernatural beliefs. We must make an effort to understand and accommoda...

Health Belief Model Scale for Human Papilloma Virus and its Vaccination: Adaptation and Psychometric Testing.

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Guvenc, Gulten; Seven, Memnun; Akyuz, Aygul

2016-06-01

To adapt and psychometrically test the Health Belief Model Scale for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and Its Vaccination (HBMS-HPVV) for use in a Turkish population and to assess the Human Papilloma Virus Knowledge score (HPV-KS) among female college students. Instrument adaptation and psychometric testing study. The sample consisted of 302 nursing students at a nursing school in Turkey between April and May 2013. Questionnaire-based data were collected from the participants. Information regarding HBMS-HPVV and HPV knowledge and descriptive characteristic of participants was collected using translated HBMS-HPVV and HPV-KS. Test-retest reliability was evaluated and Cronbach α was used to assess internal consistency reliability, and exploratory factor analysis was used to assess construct validity of the HBMS-HPVV. The scale consists of 4 subscales that measure 4 constructs of the Health Belief Model covering the perceived susceptibility and severity of HPV and the benefits and barriers. The final 14-item scale had satisfactory validity and internal consistency. Cronbach α values for the 4 subscales ranged from 0.71 to 0.78. Total HPV-KS ranged from 0 to 8 (scale range, 0-10; 3.80 ± 2.12). The HBMS-HPVV is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring young Turkish women's beliefs and attitudes about HPV and its vaccination. Copyright © 2015 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reliability and validity of Champion's Health Belief Model Scale for breast cancer screening among Malaysian women.

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Parsa, P; Kandiah, M; Mohd Nasir, M T; Hejar, A R; Nor Afiah, M Z

2008-11-01

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Malaysian women, and the use of breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE) and mammography remain low in Malaysia. Therefore, there is a need to develop a valid and reliable tool to measure the beliefs that influence breast cancer screening practices. The Champion's Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS) is a valid and reliable tool to measure beliefs about breast cancer and screening methods in the Western culture. The purpose of this study was to translate the use of CHBMS into the Malaysian context and validate the scale among Malaysian women. A random sample of 425 women teachers was taken from 24 secondary schools in Selangor state, Malaysia. The CHBMS was translated into the Malay language, validated by an expert's panel, back translated, and pretested. Analyses included descriptive statistics of all the study variables, reliability estimates, and construct validity using factor analysis. The mean age of the respondents was 37.2 (standard deviation 7.1) years. Factor analysis yielded ten factors for BSE with eigenvalue greater than 1 (four factors more than the original): confidence 1 (ability to differentiate normal and abnormal changes in the breasts), barriers to BSE, susceptibility for breast cancer, benefits of BSE, health motivation 1 (general health), seriousness 1 (fear of breast cancer), confidence 2 (ability to detect size of lumps), seriousness 2 (fear of long-term effects of breast cancer), health motivation 2 (preventive health practice), and confidence 3 (ability to perform BSE correctly). For CBE and mammography scales, seven factors each were identified. Factors for CBE scale include susceptibility, health motivation 1, benefits of CBE, seriousness 1, barriers of CBE, seriousness 2 and health motivation 2. For mammography the scale includes benefits of mammography, susceptibility, health motivation 1, seriousness 1, barriers to mammography seriousness 2 and health

Perceptions and Beliefs on Aging and Their Impact on Elderly General Health: An Appraisal of Self-Regulation Model

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Ebrahim Masoudnia

2016-07-01

Conclusion: The perception toward aging is one of the important determinants and key predictors of elderly general health. Also, the self-regulation model proves to be an appropriate framework to explain the role of beliefs, perceptions, and understanding of the experiences of aging on the physical and mental health status of the elderly.

The effect of safety education based on Health Belief Model (HBM on the workers practice of Borujen industrial town in using the personal protection respiratory equipments

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A. Hasanzadeh

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Background and aims   Every year 50-158 million occupational diseases and job accidents occur in the world. Studies on the job injuries show that about 150000 injuries occur annually in  Iran. Unhealthy behaviors are important problems in public health. Education is one of the best ways to change unhealthy behaviors. Interventions based on model and theories have many  capacities for behavior change. Health Belief Model is one of the health education models that are  useful for behavior change. This research has been performed in order to assess the effect of health  education program based on health belief model (HBM to prevent occupational respiratory   diseases in workers.   Methods   Aquasi-experimental design was used for this interventional study, in which 88 of workers of Borujen industrial town participated, who were randomly assigned to experimental and control group. Data collecting tool were a self-administered questionnaire including 53 questions based on health belief model that was completed by the workers, in addition to the performance check list which was conducted by researcher via insensible controlling the workers' safety behaviour. Validity and reliability of the tools were examined prior to the study. Educational  intervention was conducted in the first stage following by the second data collection one month  later. The data of both experimental and control group were compared statistically before and  after the intervention.   Results   The results showed that the mean of the grade of all parts of health belief model  (HBM and performance mark of the workers about safety and use of personal respiratory  preventive equipment in experimental group after educational intervention compared to prior the  study and also compared to control group were significantly increased.   Conclusion   The results of this survey showed that by enhancement of health belief model (HBM components including

Comparison between the Health Belief Model and Subjective Expected Utility Theory: predicting incontinence prevention behaviour in post-partum women.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolman, M; Chase, J

1996-08-01

A small-scale study was undertaken to test the relative predictive power of the Health Belief Model and Subjective Expected Utility Theory for the uptake of a behaviour (pelvic floor exercises) to reduce post-partum urinary incontinence in primigravida females. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data relevant to both models from a sample antenatal and postnatal primigravida women. Questions examined the perceived probability of becoming incontinent, the perceived (dis)utility of incontinence, the perceived probability of pelvic floor exercises preventing future urinary incontinence, the costs and benefits of performing pelvic floor exercises and sources of information and knowledge about incontinence. Multiple regression analysis focused on whether or not respondents intended to perform pelvic floor exercises and the factors influencing their decisions. Aggregated data were analysed to compare the Health Belief Model and Subjective Expected Utility Theory directly.

'An exploration of the health beliefs of Chinese nurses' and nurse academics' health beliefs: A Q-methodology study'.

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Cai, Dan; Stone, Teresa E; Petrini, Marcia A; McMillan, Margaret

2016-03-01

Q-methodology was used to investigate the health beliefs of Chinese clinical nurses and nurse academics. Twenty-eight participants from one hospital and nursing school in China were involved. The four stages of this study included: (i) concourse development from literature review, Internet searches, and key informant interviews; (ii) A pilot study to develop the Q-sample from the concourse; (iii) participants sorted the Q-sample statements along a continuum of preference (Q-sorting); and (iv) PQ data analysis using principal component analysis and varimax rotation. Five viewpoints were revealed: (i) factor 1--health management and the importance of evidence; (ii) factor 2--challenging local cultural belief, and Eastern and Western influences; (iii) factor 3--commonsense; (iv) factor 4--health and clinical practice; and (v) factor 5--health and nursing education. This study presents a need for nurses and nurse academics to think critically, examine their long-held health beliefs, and promote the use of evidence-based practice. © 2016 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

The Effect of Education about Preventive Behaviors of Urinary Infection Based on Health Belief Model by Attending and Non- Attending Educational Programs in Pregnant Women

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F. Noroozi

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Urinary tract infection is the second most common complication of pregnancy, maternal and fetal complications and serious consequences will follow. So, the purpose of this study is comparison of education effect between attend and non-attend methods on promotion prevailing behavior from urinary tract infection in pregnant women based on the health belief model. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 140 pregnant women coming to Bushehr medical center, in two group (70 people each were studied. In attend group, two education meetings, including 1.5 hour were hold based on the health belief model with an interval of a week. Non-attend education group, just received a booklet arranged based on health belief model. The information about awareness, structures model and function were collected before, one week and three months later via questionnaire. The urinary test results were collected before and three months after the intervention. After getting information, data were analyzed by software SPSS version 20 via perfect tests. Results: Before educational intervention, knowledge, preventive behaviors of urinary infection and all structures model were same in both groups. After the intervention, average of perceived susceptibility, severity, benefit and self-efficacy increased and average of perceived barrier decreased significantly in attend education group (P≤0/001, and in non-attend education group, awareness score and perceived susceptibility, benefit and self-efficacy increased and average of perceived barrier decreased significantly. Average of perceived susceptibility, barrier, self-efficacy, awareness, and mean of preventive behaviors of urinary infection between two groups were different significantly (P≤0/001. Conclusion: Regarding to changes in health belief model constructs, knowledge and function in two groups after education, using booklets based on health belief model for pregnant women can be useful due to their

English- and Spanish-speaking Latina mothers' beliefs about food, health, and mothering.

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Gomel, Jessica N; Zamora, Angela

2007-10-01

Parent beliefs regarding food, health, and child feeding behaviors among Latinos have not been well-documented. A series of eight focus groups were conducted with English-speaking and Spanish-speaking low-income Latina mothers of preschoolers to investigate their beliefs regarding how food and food preparation are related to their children's health and to their own roles as mothers. Systematic content analysis using NUDIST 6 revealed seven themes discussed by the focus groups. Integration of these themes revealed three major areas of consideration: (1) a lack of connection between the domains of eating, overweight, and health outcomes; (2) the role of parent modeling of eating behaviors; and (3) the use of feeding strategies that may not be conducive to the development of healthy eating behaviors. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are important distinctions among Latinos based on language preference, and that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to modeling Latino mothers' feeding beliefs may not be appropriate.

oral health related behaviour, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The findings of this study have shown that the participants had conducive oral health behavior, sufficient knowledge, positive attitude and held positive beliefs regarding dental treatments. ORAL HEALTH RELATED BEHAVIOUR, KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES. AND BELIEFS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN.

Effects of zinc and "health belief model" education on upper respiratory infections in hajj travelers: a randomized clinical trial

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Mahmoudian S.A

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Background: The common cold is the most prevalent sickness and an important cause of absence from job. Furthermore, it often disturbs travel, including the practice of hajj, causing the use of many inappropriate drugs by these travelers. The health belief model is a psychological model that attempts to explain and predict health behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of zinc and health belief model based educational intervention on the behavior of hajj travelers with regard to viral upper respiratory tract infections (URTI.Methods: This double-blinded randomized controlled trial was performed among hajj travelers in 2005. Preventive measures were randomly allocated to four groups: 1- education + zinc sulfate. 2- education + placebo. 3- zinc sulfate only 4- placebo only. Data regarding incidence and duration of URTIs, background disorders, vaccination and health behaviors for cold were gathered by questionnaire by physicians and finally analyzed by SPSS 11.5 software using chi-square, t-test and independent samples t-test.Results: A total of 646 travelers were studied. The incidence of common cold in groups receiving zinc were significantly less than that for those receiving the placebo. (P=0.05. However, incidence was statistically the same for those who received education versus those who did not. Use of handkerchief was the most prevalent behavior and use of mask was the least prevalent behavior. Mean duration of symptoms was less in those receiving zinc and education (3.7 days comparing to those who received placebo and education (5.6 days.  Conclusions: This study showed that zinc consumption can decrease the incidence and duration of the common cold. Health belief model based education could promote some preventive behaviors although most people do not take advantage of them. We recommend the use of zinc by those attending hajj.

Health beliefs and stages of changes to improve behaviors among obese and overweight women undergoing preconception care

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Zahra Malverdy

2016-01-01

Conclusions: Results showed that a health belief model could be a predictor of weight adjustment behaviors including nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Therefore, educational interventions based on a health belief model could be effective for improvement of these behaviors in obese and overweight women under preconception care.

The Effect of Puberty Health Education based on Health Belief Model on Health Behaviors and Preventive among Teen Boys in Marivan, North West of Iran

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Rohollah Valizade

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Background Maturity and its related sexual and mental changes are one of the most important events in the life of every individual. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of puberty health education based on Health Belief Model on health behaviors and preventive among students boy first secondary school in Marivan city in 2015. Materials and Methods This research is an experimental intervention study that was conducted in 2015. The study participants were 64 male students of second year of first secondary school boys who were selected randomly with cluster sampling from two schools among 12 schools in first grade of high school in the Marivan city. Totally 32 students were selected randomly in the intervention group in the one of the schools and 32 students in the control group in the other school. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researchers based on the health belief model. The validity and reliability of questionnaire was confirmed. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 17, Chi square, descriptive statistics and independent t-tests. Results Results showed significance differences after educational intervention in the mean scores of awareness, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, cues to action and performance in the intervention group (p

Psychosocial factors of migration: adaptation and application of the health belief model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groenewold, W.G.F.; de Bruijn, B.J.; Bilsborrow, R.

2012-01-01

Psychosocial factors influencing behaviour play a central role in health research but seem under-explored in migration research. This is unfortunate because these factors, which include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, intentions and personality traits, provide essential and potentially effective

THE EFFECT OF FAMILY THERAPY WITH SPIRITUAL APPROACH TOWARD FAMILY’S HEALTH BELIEF MODEL IN TAKING CARE OF PATIENT WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

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Ah. Yusuf

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Schizophrenia is the problem with kognitive, mal-adaptive thought and behavior. Family who have a member with mental disorder can experience serious conflict, become an objective and subjective burden, blame each other, get involved in hostility among family members. Various negative effect faced by family can caused by wrong family’s health belief model about Schizophrenia, hence the failure on choosing the treatment and taking care of patient at home. Someone with severe stress will seek comfort and strength from God. But so far, the most effective spiritual models to improve the health belief model of the family in caring for patients with schizophrenia has not been found. Method: Design used in this study was experimental (pre post test control group design. The population was every family of patient with mental disorder in Menur Mental Hospital along the year of 2010, chosen by alocation simple random. Samples were 13 persons in each treatment and control group. The intervention was given in 60–120 minute in 8 times meeting with average interval about 1 week. Data analysis was done using paired t-test and independent t-test. Results: There were significant changes in total of family’s health belief model (p=0,004, there was significantly change in aspects of (1 perceptions about bene fi ts (p=0,009, (2 perception about barriers (p=0,035 and perception about self efficacy (p=0,002. There were no significant changing in perception about susceptibility and severity (p=0,052. Discussion: Family believes that all events experienced by the patient and the family is God's will, hoping the patient can be more independent, and believe mental disorders can be changed for the better. The conclusion of this study is that family therapy with a spiritual approach can improve the health belief model of the family in caring for patients with mental disorders.

An investigation on the effect of Health Belief Model-based education on refusal skills in high risk situations among female students.

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Boroumandfar, Khadijeh; Shabani, Fatemeh; Ghaffari, Mohtasham

2012-03-01

Various studies show an association between lack of social skills in adolescents and the future incidence of behavioral disorders. If girls, as future mothers, lack adequate health, awareness, self confidence and social skills, they may act as a source of many social problems. Therefore, the present study has tried to educate this group on one of the most essential social skills, refusal skill in high risk situation. This is a field quasi experimental study conducted on 145 female students in middle schools in Arak, Iran in 2010-2011. The schools were randomly selected. The subjects were selected through systematic random sampling from the schools' log book. The data were collected by questionnaires containing personal and familial characteristics, three health belief model structures, and behavioral intention in high risk situations. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistical tests (frequency distribution, mean, SD) and inferential tests of repetitive variance analysis and T-test through SPSS. In the present study, repetitive variance analysis showed that education by use of a health belief model had a positive effect on refusal skills in high risk situations as well as perceived barriers (p = 0.007), self-efficacy (p = 0.015), behavioral intention (p = 0.048) after educational intervention in the study group, but not on perceived benefits (p = 0.180). The results showed that education significantly increased refusal skills in high risk situations in the study group through the health belief model. With regard to the results, it is essential to equip the students with preventive behaviors to guarantee their physical, emotional and social health.

Breast Health Belief Systems Study

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Williams, Mary

1999-01-01

.... The hypothesis underlying this research is that a breast health promotion approach that is based in specific belief systems among three disparate African American rural populations of low socioeconomic status (SES...

Predicting Self-Management Behaviors in Familial Hypercholesterolemia Using an Integrated Theoretical Model: the Impact of Beliefs About Illnesses and Beliefs About Behaviors.

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Hagger, Martin S; Hardcastle, Sarah J; Hingley, Catherine; Strickland, Ella; Pang, Jing; Watts, Gerald F

2016-06-01

Patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) are at markedly increased risk of coronary artery disease. Regular participation in three self-management behaviors, physical activity, healthy eating, and adherence to medication, can significantly reduce this risk in FH patients. We aimed to predict intentions to engage in these self-management behaviors in FH patients using a multi-theory, integrated model that makes the distinction between beliefs about illness and beliefs about self-management behaviors. Using a cross-sectional, correlational design, patients (N = 110) diagnosed with FH from a clinic in Perth, Western Australia, self-completed a questionnaire that measured constructs from three health behavior theories: the common sense model of illness representations (serious consequences, timeline, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence, emotional representations); theory of planned behavior (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control); and social cognitive theory (self-efficacy). Structural equation models for each self-management behavior revealed consistent and statistically significant effects of attitudes on intentions across the three behaviors. Subjective norms predicted intentions for health eating only and self-efficacy predicted intentions for physical activity only. There were no effects for the perceived behavioral control and common sense model constructs in any model. Attitudes feature prominently in determining intentions to engage in self-management behaviors in FH patients. The prominence of these attitudinal beliefs about self-management behaviors, as opposed to illness beliefs, suggest that addressing these beliefs may be a priority in the management of FH.

A Systematic Review of Osteoporosis Health Beliefs in Adult Men and Women

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Katherine M. McLeod

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Osteoporosis is major public health concern affecting millions of older adults worldwide. A systematic review was carried out to identify the most common osteoporosis health beliefs in adult men and women from descriptive and intervention studies. The Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS and Osteoporosis Self-efficacy Scale (OSES evaluate osteoporosis health beliefs, including perceived susceptibility and seriousness, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy of calcium and exercise, and health motivation, and their relationship to preventive health behaviours. A comprehensive search of studies that included OHBS and OSES subscale scores as outcomes was performed. Fifty full-text articles for citations were reviewed based on inclusion criteria. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria. Greater perceived seriousness, benefits, self-efficacy, health motivation, and fewer barriers were the most common health-belief subscales in men and women. Few studies were interventions (n=6 and addressed osteoporosis health beliefs in men (n=8. Taking health beliefs into consideration when planning and conducting education interventions may be useful in both research and practice for osteoporosis prevention and management; however, more research in this area is needed.

[Mental health beliefs between culture and subjective illness experience].

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Ritter, Kristina; Chaudhry, Haroon R; Aigner, Martin; Zitterl, Werner; Stompe, Thomas

2010-01-01

Subjective health beliefs are representations about pathogenesis, course and treatment options of psychic as well as somatic illnesses. They are important for a psychotherapeutic interaction as well as for a stable drug adherence. However, it remains unclear whether these representations are primarily affected by the cultural background or by an individual's specific illness experiences, a question of increasing importance in our era of globalized migration. The study sample consisted of 203 Austrians (125 with schizophrenia, 78 with obsessivecompulsive disorder) and 190 Pakistanis (120 with schizophrenia, 70 with obsessive-compulsive disorder). All patients completed the "Causal Explanations of Mental Disorders" (CEMD), a 41-item self-rating questionnaire. Pakistani patients reported magic-religious oriented mental health beliefs more frequently. In contrast, Austrians' beliefs are more often in line with the bio-psychosocial explanations of Western medicine. Concerning mental health beliefs the cultural background seems to be more important than the subjective experience with a distinctive mental disorder. Although the subjective experience is of importance for the shape of illnessspecific cognitions, mental health beliefs are primarily caused by the patients' socio-cultural origin. It is a challenge for psychiatry to improve the co-operation with culture-anthropology and other social sciences.

Determinants of physical activity in primary school students using the health belief model

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Ar-yuwat S

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Sireewat Ar-yuwat,1,2 Mary Jo Clark,2 Anita Hunter,3 Kathy S James2 1Boromarajonani College of Nursing Nakhon Lampang (BCNLP, Lampang, Thailand; 2Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 3Department of Nursing, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA, USA Background: Thailand is a middle-income country in which two-thirds of children demonstrate an insufficient level of physical activity. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for obesity and many other health-related consequences in children. Thus, it is important to understand how primary school children perceive things in their daily life as determinants of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of cues, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers on the level of physical activity among primary school students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Phitsanulok Province, Thailand, in 2011. Multistage sampling selected a total of 123 primary school students. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children and the Cues, Perceived Benefits, and Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire were used to assess the student levels of physical activity, as well as the perceived benefits, barriers, and cues to action. The association between these factors and the level of physical activity was determined by correlation statistics and confirmed by robust regression. Multivariate analysis of variance compared health belief model determinants: perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action on physical activity between male and female students. Self-administered questionnaires were validated and tested in a pilot study. Results: The level of activity among primary school children was significantly influenced by perceived barriers, such as fear of strangers when playing outdoors, bad weather, and too much homework. However, activity was not influenced by cues to action or perceived

A study of health beliefs and practices of the Yoruba.

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Adepoju, Joseph A

2012-01-01

The issue of how immigrant populations combine traditional and Western health beliefs and practices has not been given due attention. Hence, this qualitative research study of Yoruba immigrants, an ethnic group from south-western Nigeria, living in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, sheds some light on the question of how best to provide culturally appropriate health care to Yoruba immigrant groups with differences in health beliefs and practices. The study found that there are three types of Yoruba immigrant groups: (1) those who use only Western medicine (though mostly for pragmatic reason); (2) those who combine traditional Yoruba and Western beliefs; and (3) those who combine Western medicine and Christian beliefs.

Estimating the effect of lay knowledge and prior contact with pulmonary TB patients, on health-belief model in a high-risk pulmonary TB transmission population.

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Zein, Rizqy Amelia; Suhariadi, Fendy; Hendriani, Wiwin

2017-01-01

The research aimed to investigate the effect of lay knowledge of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and prior contact with pulmonary TB patients on a health-belief model (HBM) as well as to identify the social determinants that affect lay knowledge. Survey research design was conducted, where participants were required to fill in a questionnaire, which measured HBM and lay knowledge of pulmonary TB. Research participants were 500 residents of Semampir, Asemrowo, Bubutan, Pabean Cantian, and Simokerto districts, where the risk of pulmonary TB transmission is higher than other districts in Surabaya. Being a female, older in age, and having prior contact with pulmonary TB patients significantly increase the likelihood of having a higher level of lay knowledge. Lay knowledge is a substantial determinant to estimate belief in the effectiveness of health behavior and personal health threat. Prior contact with pulmonary TB patients is able to explain the belief in the effectiveness of a health behavior, yet fails to estimate participants' belief in the personal health threat. Health authorities should prioritize males and young people as their main target groups in a pulmonary TB awareness campaign. The campaign should be able to reconstruct people's misconception about pulmonary TB, thereby bringing around the health-risk perception so that it is not solely focused on improving lay knowledge.

Health professionals' beliefs about domestic abuse and the issue of disclosure: a critical incident technique study.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Julie; Bradbury-Jones, Caroline; Kroll, Thilo; Duncan, Fiona

2013-09-01

Domestic abuse is increasingly recognised as a serious, worldwide public health concern. There is a significant body of literature regarding domestic abuse, but little is known about health professionals' beliefs about domestic abuse disclosure. In addition, the intersection between health professionals' beliefs and abused women's views remains uninvestigated. We report on a two-phase, qualitative study using Critical Incident Technique (CIT) that aimed to explore community health professionals' beliefs about domestic abuse and the issue of disclosure. We investigated this from the perspectives of both health professionals and abused women. The study took place in Scotland during 2011. The study was informed theoretically by the Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation of Health and Illness (CSM). This model is typically used in disease-orientated research. In our innovative use, however, CSM was used to study the social phenomenon, domestic abuse. The study involved semi-structured, individual CIT interviews with health professionals and focus groups with women who had experienced domestic abuse. Twenty-nine health professionals (Midwives, Health Visitors and General Practitioners) participated in the first phase of the study. In the second phase, three focus groups were conducted with a total of 14 women. Data were analysed using a combination of an inductive classification and framework analysis. Findings highlight the points of convergence and divergence between abused women's and health professionals' beliefs about abuse. Although there was some agreement, they do not always share the same views. For example, women want to be asked about abuse, but many health professionals do not feel confident or comfortable discussing the issue. Overall, the study shows the dynamic interaction between women's and health professionals' beliefs about domestic abuse and readiness to discuss and respond to it. Understanding these complex dynamics assists in the employment of

Belief in the paranormal and modern health worries

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Utinans A.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available It has been found, that despite the improvement of the objective health indicators, people's subjective perception of health is that health indicators are getting worse (Barsky A.J., 1988, which is one of the reasons why a new term “modern health worries” is coming into use in medical literature (Petrie K.J., Wessely S., 2002. People are worried and scared of the effect of new high tech innovations (effect of cell phone radiation, environmental pollution, ozone layer depletion, etc., changes in manufacturing of food products (genetically modified food, food concentrates etc.. Nowadays, many people, being worried about their health, turn to new eating habits (veganism, defend themselves against various innovations in the health system (vaccination, etc. It could be defined as fear of consequences of scientific progress. The reason of fear is not only the misunderstanding of scientific innovations. Quite often, it is a belief in pseudoscientific theories (for example, “conspiracy” or belief in the paranormal phenomena (karma violations, disruption of the cosmic plan. In a part of cases protesters against vaccines and genetically modified food belong to new religious movements which are based on belief in the paranormal and magical thinking. Magical thinking predisposes to the negative attitude towards scientific assumptions and innovations, like a genetically modified food (Saher, 2006. Aim of study. To study the correlation between pseudoscientific assumptions, belief in the paranormal and modern health worries. This condition of modern health worries is becoming important for health care system. It causes the increase in the number of symptoms (Koteles et al., 2011, which, in its turn, increases the doctors' visit rate on one hand (Rief W et al., 2012, but, on the other hand, increases evasion to attend traditional medical care activities. Part of supporters of pseudoscientific beliefs experiences anxiety as to the bad food toxins

Health Beliefs and Experiences of a Health Promotion Intervention Among Psychiatric Patients With Substance Use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juel, Anette; Hjorth, Peter; Munk-Jørgensen, Povl

2018-01-01

We aimed to explore beliefs about physical health from the perspective of patients with concurrent mental illness and substance use and to explore how a health promotion intervention influenced their personal agency for changing health-related behaviour. Our findings were that patients' beliefs...... into their health and appeared to prevent patients from minimizing physical health problems....

Determinants and beliefs of health information mavens among a lower-socioeconomic position and minority population

Science.gov (United States)

Emmons, Karen M.; Puleo, Elaine; Viswanath, K.

2011-01-01

People of lower-socioeconomic position (SEP) and most racial/ethnic minorities face significant communication challenges which may negatively impact their health. Previous research has shown that these groups rely heavily on interpersonal sources to share and receive health information; however, little is known about these lay sources. The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of a market maven to the public health sector with the aims of identifying determinants of high health information mavenism among low-SEP and racial/ethnic minority groups and to assess the information they may be sharing based on their own health beliefs. Data for this study were drawn from the baseline survey (n=325) of a US randomized control intervention study aimed at eliciting an understanding of Internet-related challenges among lower-SEP and minority individuals. Regression models were estimated to distinguish significant determinants of health information mavenism among the sample. Similarly, bivariate and logistic multivariable models were estimated to determine the association between health information mavenism and accurate health beliefs relating to diet, physical activity and smoking. The data illustrate that having a larger social network, being female and being older were important factors associated with higher mavenism scores. Additionally being a moderate consumer of general media as well as fewer years in the US and lower language acculturation were significant predictors of higher mavenism scores. Mavens were more likely than non-mavens to maintain accurate beliefs regarding diet; however, there was no distinction between physical activity and smoking beliefs between mavens and non-mavens. These results offer a unique understanding of health information mavenism which could better leverage word-of-mouth health communication efforts among lower-SEP and minority groups in order to reduce communication inequalities. Moreover, the data indicate that health information

Determinants and beliefs of health information mavens among a lower-socioeconomic position and minority population.

Science.gov (United States)

Kontos, Emily Z; Emmons, Karen M; Puleo, Elaine; Viswanath, K

2011-07-01

People of lower-socioeconomic position (SEP) and most racial/ethnic minorities face significant communication challenges which may negatively impact their health. Previous research has shown that these groups rely heavily on interpersonal sources to share and receive health information; however, little is known about these lay sources. The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of a market maven to the public health sector with the aims of identifying determinants of high health information mavenism among low-SEP and racial/ethnic minority groups and to assess the information they may be sharing based on their own health beliefs. Data for this study were drawn from the baseline survey (n = 325) of a US randomized control intervention study aimed at eliciting an understanding of Internet-related challenges among lower-SEP and minority individuals. Regression models were estimated to distinguish significant determinants of health information mavenism among the sample. Similarly, bivariate and logistic multivariable models were estimated to determine the association between health information mavenism and accurate health beliefs relating to diet, physical activity and smoking. The data illustrate that having a larger social network, being female and being older were important factors associated with higher mavenism scores. Additionally being a moderate consumer of general media as well as fewer years in the US and lower language acculturation were significant predictors of higher mavenism scores. Mavens were more likely than non-mavens to maintain accurate beliefs regarding diet; however, there was no distinction between physical activity and smoking beliefs between mavens and non-mavens. These results offer a unique understanding of health information mavenism which could better leverage word-of-mouth health communication efforts among lower-SEP and minority groups in order to reduce communication inequalities. Moreover, the data indicate that health

Determinants of Preventive Behaviors of Urinary Tract Infections in Pregnant Women Based on the Constructs of Health Belief Model in Yazd

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SS MazloomyMahmoodabad

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Urinary tract infection is considered as one of the most common complications of pregnancy, which can be avoided via adopting preventive behaviors. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate determinants of preventive behaviors of urinary tract infection in pregnant women based on the constructs of Health Belief Model in Yazd. Methods: This descriptive cross- sectional study was conducted on 160 pregnant women referred to health centers of Yazd, suffering from urinary tract infection, who were selected via purposive sampling method. In order to glean the study data, a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model construct was applid and then the study data were analyzed using SPSS Software (ver.18 via frequency tables and t-test. Results: Among the pregnant women, 63.1% (101 patients demonstrated average score of knowledge and 36.9% (59 patients had good knowledge. Regarding the constructs of Health Belief Model, 73.1% (117 had good score of perceived barriers, 95% (152 demonstraded good perceived benefits, 95% (152 reported good perceived susceptibility, and 81.3% (130 scored a good level of perceived severity. Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between the total score of knowledge and attitude (p=0.02, though the correlation between the behavior and knowledge (p=0.08 as well as attitude and behavior (p=0.09 were not proved to be significant. Conclusions: According to the results, further structural intervention needs to focus on perceived barriers in order to prevent the urinary tract infections. Furthermore, behaviors related to eating and hygiene habits should be considered further and the importance of family, wife and the media involvement seem to be essential in designing the training programs.

Physical therapists familiarity and beliefs about health services utilization and health seeking behaviour.

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Clewley, Derek; Rhon, Dan; Flynn, Tim; Koppenhaver, Shane; Cook, Chad

2018-02-21

Physical therapists' familiarity, perceptions, and beliefs about health services utilization and health seeking behaviour have not been previously assessed. The purposes of this study were to identify physical therapists' characteristics related to familiarity of health services utilization and health seeking behaviour, and to assess what health seeking behaviour factors providers felt were related to health services utilization. We administered a survey based on the Andersen behavioural model of health services utilization to physical therapists using social media campaigns and email between March and June of 2017. In addition to descriptive statistics, we performed binomial logistic regression analysis. We asked respondents to rate familiarity with health services utilization and health seeking behaviour and collected additional characteristic variables. Physical therapists are more familiar with health services utilization than health seeking behaviour. Those who are familiar with either construct tend to be those who assess for health services utilization, use health services utilization for a prognosis, and believe that health seeking behaviour is measurable. Physical therapists rated need and enabling factors as having more influence on health services utilization than predisposing and health belief factors. Physical therapists are generally familiar with health services utilization and health seeking behaviour; however, there appears to be a disconnect between what is familiar, what is perceived to be important, and what can be assessed for both health services utilization and health seeking behaviour. Copyright © 2018 Associação Brasileira de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Fisioterapia. All rights reserved.

Subjective health complaints, functional ability, fear avoidance beliefs, and days on sickness benefits after work rehabilitation - a mediation model.

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Øyeflaten, Irene; Opsahl, Jon; Eriksen, Hege R; Braathen, Tore Norendal; Lie, Stein Atle; Brage, Søren; Ihlebæk, Camilla M; Breivik, Kyrre

2016-05-23

Long-term sick leave and withdrawal from working life is a concern in western countries. In Norway, comprehensive inpatient work rehabilitation may be offered to sick listed individuals at risk of long-term absence from work. Knowledge about prognostic factors for work outcomes after long-term sick leave and work rehabilitation is still limited. The aim of this study was to test a mediation model for various hypothesized biopsychosocial predictors of continued sick leave after inpatient work rehabilitation. One thousand one hundred fifty-five participants on long-term sick leave from eight different work rehabilitation clinics answered comprehensive questionnaires at arrival to the clinic, and were followed with official register data on sickness benefits for 3 years. Structural equation models were conducted, with days on sickness benefits after work rehabilitation as the outcome. Fear avoidance beliefs for work mediated the relation between both musculoskeletal complaints and education on days on sickness benefits after work rehabilitation. The relation between musculoskeletal complaints and fear avoidance beliefs for work was furthermore fully mediated by poor physical function. Previous sick leave had a strong independent effect on continued sick leave after work rehabilitation. Fear avoidance beliefs for work did not mediate the small effect of pseudoneurological complaints on continued sick leave. Poor coping/interaction ability was neither related to continued sick leave nor fear avoidance beliefs for work. The mediation model was partly supported by the data, and provides some possible new insight into how fear avoidance beliefs for work and functional ability may intervene with subjective health complaints and days on sickness benefits after work rehabilitation.

Direct-to-consumer advertising of predictive genetic tests: a health belief model based examination of consumer response.

Science.gov (United States)

Rollins, Brent L; Ramakrishnan, Shravanan; Perri, Matthew

2014-01-01

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of predictive genetic tests (PGTs) has added a new dimension to health advertising. This study used an online survey based on the health belief model framework to examine and more fully understand consumers' responses and behavioral intentions in response to a PGT DTC advertisement. Overall, consumers reported moderate intentions to talk with their doctor and seek more information about PGTs after advertisement exposure, though consumers did not seem ready to take the advertised test or engage in active information search. Those who perceived greater threat from the disease, however, had significantly greater behavioral intentions and information search behavior.

Impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement and risk perception of fish consumption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pieniak, Zuzanna; Verbeke, Wim; Scholderer, Joachim

2008-01-01

Purpose - To investigate the impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement, and risk perception on fish consumption in five European countries. Design/methodology/approach - Cross-sectional data were collected through the SEAFOODplus pan-European consumer survey (n=4,786) with samples represen......Purpose - To investigate the impact of consumers' health beliefs, involvement, and risk perception on fish consumption in five European countries. Design/methodology/approach - Cross-sectional data were collected through the SEAFOODplus pan-European consumer survey (n=4,786) with samples...... representative for age and region in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Poland. Structural equation modeling (LISREL) was used in order to simultaneously estimate the strength and direction of all relationships in our model.- Our model contributes to a better understanding of factors influencing fish...... consumption. Health involvement is found as an indirect whilst interest in healthy eating emerges as a direct driver of fish consumption behaviour. On the contrary, risk perception has a negative impact on fish consumption. Research limitations/implications - Further research using survey questionnaires could...

Using the Health Belief Model to Explain Mothers? and Fathers? Intention to Participate in Universal Parenting Programs

OpenAIRE

Salari, Raziye; Filus, Ania

2016-01-01

Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical framework, we studied factors related to parental intention to participate in parenting programs and examined the moderating effects of parent gender on these factors. Participants were a community sample of 290 mothers and 290 fathers of 5- to 10-year-old children. Parents completed a set of questionnaires assessing child emotional and behavioral difficulties and the HBM constructs concerning perceived program benefits and barriers, percei...

Application of Health Belief Model\\'s constructs for predicting regular consumption of folic acid supplements in pregnant women referred to Borazjan’s health centers in 2014-15

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Zohre kafaee

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Background: One of the most common disorders in pregnancy is Folic Acid deficiency and its complications. The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of regular use of folic acid supplements based on HBM in pregnant women referred to Borazjan’s health centers. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 228 pregnant women or women with planning of pregnancy referred to health centers of Borazjan with random sampling method evaluated. Data was collected with questionnaire in 4 parts included demographic characteristics, knowledge, health belief model constructs and questions about folic acid supplement use. Data was analyzed by SPSS software with using appropriate statistical tests. Results: The mean age of samples was 27.4±5.41. 144 patients (63.2% consumed Folic Acid pills regularly, and 84 patients (36.8% had irregular use. The awareness of folic acid in 22.8% of women was good, 59.6%  and 17.5% of samples had intermediate and poor awareness, respectively. The perceived barriers (P<0.001, perceived benefits (P=0.002 and self-efficacy (P<0.001 had relation with consumption of folic acid and among demographic variables, only education level (P=0.04 had relation with the consumption of pills. In logistic regression perceived barriers was only predictor. Age and educational level had indirect effect in regular consume pill. Conclusion: Perceived barriers was strongest predictors of folic acid use, therefore intervention based on health belief model, with emphasis on reducing barriers is necessary for improving the use of this medicine during pregnancy.

Machismo sustains health and illness beliefs of Mexican American men.

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Sobralske, Mary

2006-08-01

To inform nurse practitioners (NPs) about Mexican American men's health and illness beliefs and the ways in which these are influenced by their masculine identity and how they view themselves as men in their culture. The data sources used were based on a selected review of the literature about Mexican American men's health and illness beliefs and the concept of machismo. Several studies, including the author's study on Mexican American men's healthcare-seeking beliefs and behaviors and experience in providing primary health care to men across cultures, contributed new data. The meaning of manhood in the Mexican American culture is critical in understanding how men perceive health and illness and what they do when they are ill. Machismo enhances men's awareness of their health because they have to be healthy to be good fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, workers, and community members. Pain and disability are motivating factors in finding ways to regain their health. Men's health beliefs across cultures need further investigation by nurse researchers and NPs. How culture influences healthcare delivery to men should be better understood. If NPs are aware of men's views on masculinity, they are better prepared to understand and assist men in becoming more aware of their health status and to seek health care when appropriate.

Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis

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Choudhry FR

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Fahad Riaz Choudhry,1 Vasudevan Mani,2 Long Chiau Ming,3,4 Tahir Mehmood Khan5 1Psychology Department, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Sunway City, Selangor, Malaysia; 2College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 3Vector-borne Diseases Research Group (VERDI, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences CoRe, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam; 4Brain Degeneration and Therapeutics Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam, 5School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Sunway City, Selangor, Malaysia Background: Mental health literacy is the beliefs and knowledge about mental health issues and their remedies. Attitudes and beliefs of lay individuals about mental illness are shaped by personal knowledge about mental illness, knowing and interacting with someone living with mental illness, and cultural stereotypes. Mental health issues are increasing and are alarming in almost every part of the world, and hence compiling this review provides an opportunity to understand the different views regarding mental disorders and problems as well as to fill the gap in the published literature by focusing only on the belief system and perception of mental health problems among general population.Method: The methodology involved a systematic review and the meta-synthesis method, which includes synthesizing published qualitative studies on mental health perception and beliefs.Sample: Fifteen relevant published qualitative and mixed-method studies, regarding the concept of mental health, were identified for meta-synthesis.Analysis: All the themes of the selected studies were further analyzed to give a broader picture of mental health problems and their perceived causes and management. Only qualitative studies, not older than 2010, focusing on beliefs about, attitudes toward, and perceptions of mental health problems, causes, and treatments were included

Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders' intentions to engage in pest control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lipman, Stefan A.; Burt, Sara A

2017-01-01

Pests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief model, to

Cigarette smoking risk-reducing beliefs: Findings from the United States Health Information National Trends Survey.

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Kaufman, Annette R; Coa, Kisha I; Nguyen, Anh B

2017-09-01

Cigarette smoking risk-reducing beliefs are ideas that certain health promoting behaviors (e.g., exercise) may mitigate the risks associated with smoking. The objective of this study was to describe smoking risk-reducing beliefs and the belief that quitting can reduce the harmful effects of smoking among the U.S. adult population and the associations between these beliefs, current smoking status, and sociodemographics. Data were from the Health Information National Trends Survey 4 (HINTS 4) Cycles 3 and 4 (2013-2014; N=6862). Descriptive analyses were conducted to examine bivariate associations among the quit smoking belief, smoking risk-reducing beliefs, and covariates. Weighted ordinal logistic regression models examined the adjusted associations between smoking status and sociodemographics, with quit smoking belief and risk-reducing beliefs. Eighty-two percent of the population reported that quitting cigarette smoking can help reduce the harmful effects of smoking a lot: former smokers and individuals with higher educational attainment were more likely to endorse this belief than never smokers and those with lower educational attainment. Many people endorsed smoking risk-reducing beliefs about exercise (79.3%), fruits and vegetables (71.8%), vitamins (67.2%), and sleep (68.5%). Former smokers were less likely to subscribe to these beliefs than never smokers. Vulnerable populations who may be most at risk of smoking attributable morbidity and mortality were more likely to endorse risk-reducing beliefs. Future studies are needed to better understand how risk-reducing beliefs are formed and if modifying these beliefs may help to reduce cigarette smoking in the U.S. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Association of Health Literacy with Illness and Medication Beliefs among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minal S Kale

Full Text Available Low health literacy is associated with low adherence to self-management in many chronic diseases. Additionally, health beliefs are thought to be determinants of self-management behaviors. In this study we sought to determine the association, if any, of health literacy and health beliefs among elderly individuals with COPD.We enrolled a cohort of patients with COPD from two academic urban settings in New York, NY and Chicago, IL. Health literacy was measured using the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Using the framework of the Self-Regulation Model, illness and medication beliefs were measured with the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ and Beliefs about Medications Questionnaire (BMQ. Unadjusted analyses, with corresponding Cohen's d effect sizes, and multiple logistic regression were used to assess the relationships between HL and illness and medication beliefs.We enrolled 235 participants, 29% of whom had low health literacy. Patients with low health literacy were more likely to belong to a racial minority group (p<0.001, not be married (p = 0.006, and to have lower income (p<0.001 or education (p<0.001. In unadjusted analyses, patients with low health literacy were less likely to believe they will always have COPD (p = 0.003, Cohen's d = 0.42, and were more likely to be concerned about their illness ((p = 0.04, Cohen's d = 0.17. In analyses adjusted for sociodemographic factors and other health beliefs, patients with low health literacy were less likely to believe that they will always have COPD (odds ratio [OR]: 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.65-0.94. In addition, the association of low health literacy with expressed concern about medications remained significant (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.05-1.37 though the association of low health literacy with belief in the necessity of medications was no longer significant (OR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.82-1.04.In this cohort of urban individuals with COPD, low health literacy was

Vietnamese Oral Health Beliefs and Practices: Impact on the Utilization of Western Preventive Oral Health Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Kim Yen T; Smallidge, Dianne L; Boyd, Linda D; Rainchuso, Lori

2017-02-01

Purpose: Infrequent use of the Western health care by the Vietnamese may be explained by deeply-rooted traditional oral health beliefs and practices unique to the Asian culture. This study investigated Vietnamese oral health beliefs and practices and their relationship to the utilization of Western preventive oral health care services among Vietnamese-Americans. Methods: An exploratory, cross-sectional survey design with a convenience sample of 140 par-ticipants (n = 140) was used for this study. Participants were recruited on site of a Vietnamese-owned business, with questionnaires consisting of 28 questions that were distributed in hard copy by the principal investigator (PI) on multiple occasions and at various times of the day. Results: Spearman Rank Correlations tests showed participants who agreed with the statement, "Regular dental visits will help prevent dental problems," were more likely to utilize medical health services (pissues. No statistical significance was found between age, gender, pri-mary language, years spent in the United States, education level, religion and the Vietnamese survey participants' individual oral beliefs and practices. Conclusion: The results suggest that Vietnamese Americans holding the belief that dental visits help prevent oral health problems, were more likely to utilize Western health care services. The study also supports existing literature that Vietnamese oral health beliefs and practices impact the use of Western health care services. Copyright © 2017 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Nurses' perceptions of health beliefs and impact on teaching and practice: a Q-sort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, R; Stone, T E; Petrini, M A; Turale, S

2018-03-01

To understand Chinese nurses' perceptions of health beliefs, their content, origin and the influence of sociocultural factors, as a basis of their evidence-based practice. This study contributes to a larger study to establish the health beliefs of Japanese, Australian, Chinese, South Korean and Thai nurses. Registered nurses teach patients and students about maintaining or attaining health are subject to the same range of influences and their health beliefs may be antithetical to current health evidence. Q-method design using q-sort and interview was used to explore the perspectives on a range of health beliefs of 60 nurses in four cities in China. Three factors arose from the perceptions of the participants about health and accounted for 50.2% of the total variance: (1) social impact, (2) 'the importance of evidence', and (3) beliefs rooted in culture. Influence on nurses' health beliefs was explored in terms of the internalized and frequently unconscious beliefs, values and norms tying them to their communities, reflecting the need for nurses to be aware of their health beliefs and behaviours. Education for nurses in practice needs to acknowledge that individual practitioners' beliefs strongly influence health teaching for patients and families. In order to implement evidenced-based practice and teach in line with current evidence nurses need to critically examine and reflect on the impact of culture, society and the media on their own health beliefs. Education policy needs to consider that culture and societal pressures affect nurses' health beliefs and practice. Critical thinking, reflective and evidence-based practice need to be emphasized in clinical training and nurse education. China also needs to develop policies to allow nurses to be able to assess the reliability of health information on the Internet and to make quality health research more available. © 2017 International Council of Nurses.

Health Beliefs Concerning Breast Self-examination of Nurses in Turkey

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Sevinc Tastan, RN, PhD

2011-09-01

Conclusion: It is important to be aware of the health beliefs of nurses regarding BSE so that their own health can be protected and improved. Beneficial attitudes and behaviors of nurses regarding BSE will enable them to provide more effective services to women regarding breast cancer. Understanding the nurses’ health beliefs, attitude and behavior that are influential to make BSE will guide nursing practices towards early diagnosis of breast cancer at the societal level.

Health beliefs and their sources in Korean and Japanese nurses: A Q-methodology pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Teresa E; Kang, Sook Jung; Cha, Chiyoung; Turale, Sue; Murakami, Kyoko; Shimizu, Akihiko

2016-01-01

Many health beliefs do not have supporting scientific evidence, and are influenced by culture, gender, religion, social circumstance and popular media. Nurses may also hold non-evidenced-based beliefs that affect their own health behaviours and their practices. Using Q-methodology, pilot Q-cards representing a concourse of health beliefs for Japanese and South Korean nurses and explain the content and sources of health beliefs. Qualitative. Two university campuses, one each in Japan and Korea. A convenience sample of 30 was obtained, 14 clinical nurses and 16 academic nurses. Literature reviews and expert informants were used to develop two sets of 65 Q-cards which listed culturally appropriate health beliefs in both Japan and Korea. These beliefs were examined in four structured groups and five individual interviews in Japan, and five groups and two individual interviews in Korea. Our unique study revealed six categories regarding sources of health beliefs that provide rich insights about how participants accessed, processed and transmitted health information. They were more certain about knowledge from their specialty area such as that from medical or nursing resources, but derived and distributed many general health beliefs from personal experience, family and mass media. They did not always pass on accurate information to students or those in their care, and often beliefs were not based on scientific evidence. Findings highlight the dangers of clinical and academic nurses relying on health belief advice of others and passing this on to patients, students or others, without mindfully examining the basis of their beliefs through scientific evidence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Parental beliefs and child-rearing attitudes and mental health problems among schoolchildren].

Science.gov (United States)

Vitolo, Ymara Lúcia Camargo; Fleitlich-Bilyk, Bacy; Goodman, Robert; Bordin, Isabel Altenfelder Santos

2005-10-01

To verify the prevalence and identify the risk factors related to mental health problems among schoolchildren and its possible association with the beliefs and educational attitudes of parents/caretakers. Cross-sectional study with a stratified probabilistic sample (n=454) of first to third-graders from public and private schools in Southeastern Brazil. Standardized instruments were administered to parents/caretakers by trained interviewers, including screening questionnaires for mental health problems among children and parents/caretakers; a questionnaire on beliefs and attitudes; and a questionnaire for socio-economic status. Chi-square tests and logistic regression models were used for statistical analysis. We found 35.2% prevalence of clinical/borderline cases among students. Parents/caretakers that believed in corporal punishment as a child-rearing method used physical aggression towards their children more frequently (64.8%). Logistic regression models showed that the act of hitting the child with a belt was associated to conduct problems and to overall mental health problems among schoolchildren in the presence of other risk factors: child gender (male), parents/caretakers with mental health problems, and adverse socioeconomic conditions. The high prevalence of mental health problems among schoolchildren and its association with child-rearing methods and mental health problems among parents/caretakers indicate the need for psycho-educational interventions aimed to reduce physical abuse and mental health problems in childhood.

[Beliefs about chili pepper consumption and health in Mexico City].

Science.gov (United States)

López-Carrillo, L; Fernández-Ortega M, C; Costa-Dias, R; Franco-Marina, J; Alejandre-Badillo, T

1995-01-01

Eating chili peppers is a cultural tradition in Mexico. Controversial characteristics have been empirically associated to chili pepper consumption and human health. In this paper, the beliefs about the health impacts of chili pepper consumption in two independent groups of Mexico City residents are described. The results confirm, on the one hand, that there is a wide variety of health benefits and damages associated with chili pepper consumption, but on the other hand, that the levels of chili pepper consumption are not related to beliefs about its human health impact.

Willingness to use functional breads. Applying the Health Belief Model across four European countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Vassallo, Marco; Saba, Anna; Arvola, Anne; Dean, Moira; Messina, Federico; Winkelmann, Markus; Claupein, Erika; Lähteenmäki, Liisa; Shepherd, Richard

2009-04-01

The present study focused on the role of the Health Belief Model (HBM) in predicting willingness to use functional breads, across four European countries: UK (N=552), Italy (N=504), Germany (N=525) and Finland (N=513). The behavioural evaluation components of the HBM (the perceived benefits and barriers conceptualized respectively as perceived healthiness and pleasantness) and the health motivation component were good predictors of willingness to use functional breads whereas threat perception components (perceived susceptibility and perceived anticipated severity) failed as predictors. This result was common in all four countries and across products. The role of 'cue to action' was marginal. On the whole the HBM fit was similar across the countries and products in terms of significant predictors (the perceived benefits, barriers and health motivation) with the exception of self-efficacy which was significant only in Finland. Young consumers seemed more interested in the functional bread with a health claim promoting health rather than in reducing risk of disease, whereas the opposite was true for older people. However, functional staple foods, such as bread in this European study, are still perceived as common foods rather than as a means of avoiding diseases. Consumers seek these foods for their healthiness (the perceived benefits) as they expect them to be healthier than regular foods and for the pleasantness (the perceived barriers) as they do not expect any change in the sensory characteristics due to the addition of the functional ingredients. The importance of health motivation in willingness to use products with health claims implies that there is an opening for developing better models for explaining health-promoting food choices that take into account both food and health-related factors without making a reference to disease-related outcome.

Testing a biopsychosocial model of the basic birth beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Preis, Heidi; Chen, Rony; Eisner, Michal; Pardo, Joseph; Peled, Yoav; Wiznitzer, Arnon; Benyamini, Yael

2018-03-01

Women perceive what birth is even before they are pregnant for the first time. Part of this conceptualization is the basic belief about birth as a medical and natural process. These two separate beliefs are pivotal in the decision-making process about labor and birth. Adapting Engel's biopsychosocial framework, we explored the importance of a wide range of factors which may contribute to these beliefs among first-time mothers. This observational study included 413 primiparae ≥24 weeks' gestation, recruited in medical centers and in natural birth communities in Israel. The women completed a questionnaire which included the Birth Beliefs Scale and a variety of biopsychosocial characteristics such as obstetric history, birth environment, optimism, health-related anxiety, and maternal expectations. Psychological dispositions were more related to the birth beliefs than the social or biomedical factors. Sociodemographic characteristics and birth environment were only marginally related to the birth beliefs. The basic belief that birth is a natural process was positively related to optimism and to conceiving spontaneously. Beliefs that birth is a medical process were related to pessimism, health-related anxiety, and to expectations that an infant's behavior reflects mothering. Expectations about motherhood as being naturally fulfilling were positively related to both beliefs. Psychological factors seem to be most influential in the conceptualization of the beliefs. It is important to recognize how women interpret the messages they receive about birth which, together with their obstetric experience, shape their beliefs. Future studies are recommended to understand the evolution of these beliefs, especially within diverse cultures. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Breaking the barrier: the Health Belief Model and patient perceptions regarding contraception.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Wendy; Ottney, Anne; Nguyen, Sammie

2011-05-01

The study was conducted to determine the discrepancy between unintended pregnancies and use of contraception is attributed to imperfect use, misconceptions and an inability to adjust therapy to lifestyle. A survey administered at a Federal clinic incorporated the Health Belief Model to determine patient's emphasis in pregnancy prevention. Analysis focused on comparing participant demographics to reasons for contraceptive selection. Ease of use ranked the most important for contraception as patient's education levels increased (p=.001). As household income increased, emphasis on potential side effects became less (p=.02). Patients with private insurance ranked ease of use most frequently (p=.01). Males emphasized effectiveness and menstrual suppression more than females (p=.04 and .008). A positive correlation between perceived benefit regarding ease of use as educational level increased and perceived barriers due to side effects as income level decreased immerged. Special counseling by practitioners to improve patient's self-efficacy, ultimately enhancing contraceptive adherence, are warranted. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Factors of Physical Activity Preventive Behavior of Osteoporosis Based on Health Belief Model among Teen Girls in Qom City, Iran

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Zeynab Karimi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Background Although osteoporosis is a disease of adulthood, it can start from childhood and adolescence. Lifestyle, especially physical activity, mobility, and proper nutrition during adolescence are among the important osteoporosis preventive factors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine related factors of physical activity preventive behavior of osteoporosis based on the Health Belief Model (HBM among teen girls in Qom city, Iran. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional descriptive analytical study was conducted on 265 tenth to twelfth grade girl students in Qom city. The participants were selected via multistage sampling method. A researcher-made questionnaire based on Health Belief Model used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS-20. Results The current study, knowledge and perceived self-efficacy had a significant and positive relationship with physical activity behavior (r=0.13, P0.05. Conclusion The results of the study showed that educational interventions and programs must focus on increasing knowledge and perceived self-efficacy to enhance physical activity behavior and reduce the perceived barriers associated with osteoporosis preventive physical activity.

Perceptions of measles, pneumonia, and meningitis vaccines among caregivers in Shanghai, China, and the health belief model: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Abram L; Boulton, Matthew L; Sun, Xiaodong; Mukherjee, Bhramar; Huang, Zhuoying; Harmsen, Irene A; Ren, Jia; Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J

2017-06-12

In China, the measles vaccine is offered for free whereas the pneumococcal vaccine is a for-fee vaccine. This difference has the potential to influence how caregivers evaluate whether a vaccine is important or necessary for their child, but it is unclear if models of health behavior, such as the Health Belief Model, reveal the same associations for different diseases. This study compares caregiver perceptions of different diseases (measles, pneumonia and meningitis); and characterizes associations between Health Belief Model constructs and both pneumococcal vaccine uptake and perceived vaccine necessity for pneumonia, measles, and meningitis. Caregivers of infants and young children between 8 months and 7 years of age from Shanghai (n = 619) completed a written survey on their perceptions of measles, pneumonia, and meningitis. We used logistic regression models to assess predictors of pneumococcal vaccine uptake and vaccine necessity. Only 25.2% of children had received a pneumococcal vaccine, although most caregivers believed that pneumonia (80.8%) and meningitis (92.4%), as well as measles (93.2%), vaccines were serious enough to warrant a vaccine. Perceived safety was strongly associated with both pneumococcal vaccine uptake and perceived vaccine necessity, and non-locals had 1.70 times higher odds of pneumonia vaccine necessity than non-locals (95% CI: 1.01, 2.88). Most factors had a similar relationship with vaccine necessity, regardless of disease, indicating a common mechanism for how Chinese caregivers decided which vaccines are necessary. Because more caregivers believed meningitis needed a vaccine than pneumonia, health care workers should emphasize pneumococcal vaccination's ability to protect against meningitis.

Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders’ intentions to engage in pest control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.A. Lipman (Stefan); Sara Burt (S.A.)

2017-01-01

textabstractPests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief

When fast logic meets slow belief: Evidence for a parallel-processing model of belief bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Trippas, Dries; Thompson, Valerie A; Handley, Simon J

2017-05-01

Two experiments pitted the default-interventionist account of belief bias against a parallel-processing model. According to the former, belief bias occurs because a fast, belief-based evaluation of the conclusion pre-empts a working-memory demanding logical analysis. In contrast, according to the latter both belief-based and logic-based responding occur in parallel. Participants were given deductive reasoning problems of variable complexity and instructed to decide whether the conclusion was valid on half the trials or to decide whether the conclusion was believable on the other half. When belief and logic conflict, the default-interventionist view predicts that it should take less time to respond on the basis of belief than logic, and that the believability of a conclusion should interfere with judgments of validity, but not the reverse. The parallel-processing view predicts that beliefs should interfere with logic judgments only if the processing required to evaluate the logical structure exceeds that required to evaluate the knowledge necessary to make a belief-based judgment, and vice versa otherwise. Consistent with this latter view, for the simplest reasoning problems (modus ponens), judgments of belief resulted in lower accuracy than judgments of validity, and believability interfered more with judgments of validity than the converse. For problems of moderate complexity (modus tollens and single-model syllogisms), the interference was symmetrical, in that validity interfered with belief judgments to the same degree that believability interfered with validity judgments. For the most complex (three-term multiple-model syllogisms), conclusion believability interfered more with judgments of validity than vice versa, in spite of the significant interference from conclusion validity on judgments of belief.

An integrated model of communication influence on beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Eveland, William P; Cooper, Kathryn E

2013-08-20

How do people develop and maintain their beliefs about science? Decades of social science research exist to help us answer this question. The Integrated Model of Communication Influence on Beliefs presented here combines multiple theories that have considered aspects of this process into a comprehensive model to explain how individuals arrive at their scientific beliefs. In this article, we (i) summarize what is known about how science is presented in various news and entertainment media forms; (ii) describe how individuals differ in their choices to be exposed to various forms and sources of communication; (iii) discuss the implications of how individuals mentally process information on the effects of communication; (iv) consider how communication effects can be altered depending on background characteristics and motivations of individuals; and (v) emphasize that the process of belief formation is not unidirectional but rather, feeds back on itself over time. We conclude by applying the Integrated Model of Communication Influence on Beliefs to the complex issue of beliefs about climate change.

Metacognitive beliefs as a predictor of health anxiety in a self-reporting Italian clinical sample

OpenAIRE

Melli, Gabriele; Bailey, Robin; Carraresi, Claudia; Poli, Andrea

2017-01-01

Research has supported the specific role that anxiety sensitivity, health-related dysfunctional beliefs, and metacognitive beliefs may play in the development and maintenance of health anxiety symptoms. However, the role of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety has only been explored in analogue samples. The aim of this study was to explore for the first time the association between metacognitive beliefs and health anxiety symptoms in a sample of participants who reported having received a ...

Breast cancer literacy and health beliefs related to breast cancer screening among American Indian women.

Science.gov (United States)

Roh, Soonhee; Burnette, Catherine E; Lee, Yeon-Shim; Jun, Jung Sim; Lee, Hee Yun; Lee, Kyoung Hag

2018-08-01

The purpose of this article is to examine the health beliefs and literacy about breast cancer and their relationship with breast cancer screening among American Indian (AI) women. Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) and hierarchical logistic regression with data from a sample of 286 AI female adults residing in the Northern Plains, we found that greater awareness of breast cancer screening was linked to breast cancer screening practices. However, perceived barriers, one of the HBM constructs, prevented such screening practices. This study suggested that culturally relevant HBM factors should be targeted when developing culturally sensitive breast cancer prevention efforts.

Beliefs about God and mental health among American adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Silton, Nava R; Flannelly, Kevin J; Galek, Kathleen; Ellison, Christopher G

2014-10-01

This study examines the association between beliefs about God and psychiatric symptoms in the context of Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults (N = 1,426). Three beliefs about God were tested separately in ordinary least squares regression models to predict five classes of psychiatric symptoms: general anxiety, social anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion. Belief in a punitive God was positively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, while belief in a benevolent God was negatively associated with four psychiatric symptoms, controlling for demographic characteristics, religiousness, and strength of belief in God. Belief in a deistic God and one's overall belief in God were not significantly related to any psychiatric symptoms.

Psychological outcomes and health beliefs in adolescent and young adult survivors of childhood cancer and controls.

Science.gov (United States)

Kazak, Anne E; Derosa, Branlyn Werba; Schwartz, Lisa A; Hobbie, Wendy; Carlson, Claire; Ittenbach, Richard F; Mao, Jun J; Ginsberg, Jill P

2010-04-20

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare adolescent and young adult (AYA) pediatric cancer survivors and peers without a history of serious illness on psychological distress, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), health beliefs; examine age at diagnosis and cancer treatment intensity on these outcomes; and examine relationships between number of health problems and the outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS AYA cancer survivors (n = 167) and controls (n = 170), recruited during visits to a cancer survivorship clinic and primary care, completed self-report questionnaires of distress, health problems, and health beliefs. For survivors, providers rated treatment intensity and health problems. Results There were no statistically significant differences between survivors and controls in psychological distress or HRQOL. Cancer survivors had less positive health beliefs. Survivors diagnosed as adolescents had significantly greater psychological distress and fewer positive health beliefs than those diagnosed earlier. Survivors with the highest level of treatment intensity had greater anxiety and fewer positive health beliefs than those with less intense treatments. Provider report of current health problems related to survivors' beliefs and mental HRQOL only, whereas patient report of health problems correlated significantly with most psychosocial outcomes and beliefs. CONCLUSION AYA cancer survivors did not differ from peers in psychological adjustment but did endorse less adaptive health beliefs. Survivors diagnosed during adolescence and who had more intensive cancer treatments evidenced poorer psychosocial outcomes. Beliefs about health may be identified and targeted for intervention to improve quality of life, particularly when patient perceptions of current health problems are considered.

Health beliefs, practice, and priorities for health care of Arab Muslims in the United States.

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Yosef, Abdel Raheem Odeh

2008-07-01

The Arab Muslim population is one of the dramatically increasing minorities in the United States. In addition to other factors, religion and cultural background influence individuals' beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes toward health and illness. The author describes health beliefs and practices of the Arab Muslim population in the United States. That population is at an increased risk for several diseases and faces many barriers to accessing the American health care system. Some barriers, such as modesty, gender preference in healthcare providers, and illness causation misconceptions, arise out of their cultural beliefs and practices. Other barriers are related to the complexity of the health care system and the lack of culturally competent services within it. Nurses need to be aware of these religious and cultural factors to provide culturally competent health promotion services for this population. Nurses also need to integrate Islamic teachings into their interventions to provide appropriate care and to motivate healthy behaviors.

Predicting physical activity in adolescents: the role of compensatory health beliefs within the Health Action Process Approach.

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Berli, Corina; Loretini, Philipp; Radtke, Theda; Hornung, Rainer; Scholz, Urte

2014-01-01

Compensatory health beliefs (CHBs), defined as beliefs that healthy behaviours can compensate for unhealthy behaviours, may be one possible factor hindering people in adopting a healthier lifestyle. This study examined the contribution of CHBs to the prediction of adolescents' physical activity within the theoretical framework of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA). The study followed a prospective survey design with assessments at baseline (T1) and two weeks later (T2). Questionnaire data on physical activity, HAPA variables and CHBs were obtained twice from 430 adolescents of four different Swiss schools. Multilevel modelling was applied. CHBs added significantly to the prediction of intentions and change in intentions, in that higher CHBs were associated with lower intentions to be physically active at T2 and a reduction in intentions from T1 to T2. No effect of CHBs emerged for the prediction of self-reported levels of physical activity at T2 and change in physical activity from T1 to T2. Findings emphasise the relevance of examining CHBs in the context of an established health behaviour change model and suggest that CHBs are of particular importance in the process of intention formation.

Health Beliefs and Experiences of a Health Promotion Intervention Among Psychiatric Patients With Substance Use: An Interview Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juel Kynde, Anette

2018-01-01

We aimed to explore beliefs about physical health from the perspective of patients with concurrent mental illness and substance use and to explore how a health promotion intervention influenced their personal agency for changing health-related behaviour. Our findings were that patients' beliefs w...

Exploring Vaccine Hesitancy Through an Artist-Scientist Collaboration : Visualizing Vaccine-Critical Parents' Health Beliefs.

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Koski, Kaisu; Holst, Johan

2017-09-01

This project explores vaccine hesitancy through an artist-scientist collaboration. It aims to create better understanding of vaccine hesitant parents' health beliefs and how these influence their vaccine-critical decisions. The project interviews vaccine-hesitant parents in the Netherlands and Finland and develops experimental visual-narrative means to analyse the interview data. Vaccine-hesitant parents' health beliefs are, in this study, expressed through stories, and they are paralleled with so-called illness narratives. The study explores the following four main health beliefs originating from the parents' interviews: (1) perceived benefits of illness, (2) belief in the body's intelligence and self-healing capacity, (3) beliefs about the "inside-outside" flow of substances in the body, and (4) view of death as a natural part of life. These beliefs are interpreted through arts-based diagrammatic representations. These diagrams, merging multiple aspects of the parents' narratives, are subsequently used in a collaborative meaning-making dialogue between the artist and the scientist. The resulting dialogue contrasts the health beliefs behind vaccine hesitancy with scientific knowledge, as well as the authors' personal, and differing, attitudes toward these.

A structural model of health behavior modification among patients with cardiovascular disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Goong, Hwasoo; Ryu, Seungmi; Xu, Lijuan

2016-02-01

The purpose of the study was to test a structural equation model in which social support, health beliefs, and stage of change predict the health behaviors of patients with cardiovascular disease. A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Using convenience sampling, a survey about social support, health belief, stage of change, and health behavior was completed by 314 adults with cardiovascular disease from outpatient clinics in 2 university hospitals in Korea. Data were analyzed using a structural equation model with the Analysis of Moment program. The participants were aged 53.44±13.19 years (mean±SD), and about 64% of them were male. The proposed model fit the data from the study well, explaining 19% and 60% of the variances in the stage of change and health behavior, respectively. The findings indicate that the performance of health behavior modification among the patients with cardiovascular disease can be explained by social support, health belief, and stage of change based on a health-belief and stage-of-change model. Further studies are warranted to confirm the efficacy of health-promoting strategies in initiating and maintaining the performance of health behaviors by providing social support from family and medical staff and enhancing health belief. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An integrated model of communication influence on beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Eveland, William P.; Cooper, Kathryn E.

2013-01-01

How do people develop and maintain their beliefs about science? Decades of social science research exist to help us answer this question. The Integrated Model of Communication Influence on Beliefs presented here combines multiple theories that have considered aspects of this process into a comprehensive model to explain how individuals arrive at their scientific beliefs. In this article, we (i) summarize what is known about how science is presented in various news and entertainment media forms; (ii) describe how individuals differ in their choices to be exposed to various forms and sources of communication; (iii) discuss the implications of how individuals mentally process information on the effects of communication; (iv) consider how communication effects can be altered depending on background characteristics and motivations of individuals; and (v) emphasize that the process of belief formation is not unidirectional but rather, feeds back on itself over time. We conclude by applying the Integrated Model of Communication Influence on Beliefs to the complex issue of beliefs about climate change. PMID:23940328

Eating habits, food and health related attitudes and beliefs reported by French students.

Science.gov (United States)

Monneuse, M O; Bellisle, F; Koppert, G

1997-01-01

To assess eating habits and some food related behaviours, beliefs and knowledge in educated young French adults. A standardized questionnaire administered in university classes. University or 'Grandes Ecoles' of Paris and Dijon. 660 male and female French students. International survey; questionnaire composed of three major sections: (1) Health-related attitudes such as substances used, dieting, health practices; (2) Beliefs concerning behaviour and health, including eating habits; (3) Knowledge, namely relevance of factors to diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases. Gender, self-perception of body size, BMI and attempts to lose weight affected a number of behaviours. Average BMI corresponded to standard values. 'Healthy' behaviours were often reported such as: avoiding fat and cholesterol, efforts to eat fruit and fiber. The French students showed a low frequency of snacking and a high regularity in having breakfast, especially respondents with lower BMI (females eating factors in cardiovascular diseases was observed. The meal and snack pattern in French students is very close to the traditional model. More food- and health-related behaviours and attitudes are reported by women than men. Some of them could be due to a genuine motivation for prevention and health in females or else to a greater wish to be thin. 'Desire to lose weight' is often reported although BMI values are normally low in this young population. Beliefs in the importance of a behaviour for health are correlated with the reported performance of the behaviours.

Health Beliefs of University Students With Regard To Sportive Recreational Activities

OpenAIRE

Yalçın, Bilal; Arslan, Fethi

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is based on investigating the link between health beliefs and health decision-making using the application of Health Belief Scale on Sportive Recreational Activities. The data have been collected from 190 volunteer students which study Sports and Theology at University of Batman and Gumushane. The data have been examined using by Independent Samples t-test and One way Anova. Student perceptions regarding “Perceived Severity have been high. Regarding “Psychosocial Benefit...

Failure diagnosis using deep belief learning based health state classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tamilselvan, Prasanna; Wang, Pingfeng

2013-01-01

Effective health diagnosis provides multifarious benefits such as improved safety, improved reliability and reduced costs for operation and maintenance of complex engineered systems. This paper presents a novel multi-sensor health diagnosis method using deep belief network (DBN). DBN has recently become a popular approach in machine learning for its promised advantages such as fast inference and the ability to encode richer and higher order network structures. The DBN employs a hierarchical structure with multiple stacked restricted Boltzmann machines and works through a layer by layer successive learning process. The proposed multi-sensor health diagnosis methodology using DBN based state classification can be structured in three consecutive stages: first, defining health states and preprocessing sensory data for DBN training and testing; second, developing DBN based classification models for diagnosis of predefined health states; third, validating DBN classification models with testing sensory dataset. Health diagnosis using DBN based health state classification technique is compared with four existing diagnosis techniques. Benchmark classification problems and two engineering health diagnosis applications: aircraft engine health diagnosis and electric power transformer health diagnosis are employed to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach

Applying the Health Belief Model in Explaining the Stages of Exercise Change in Older Adults

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Sas-Nowosielski Krzysztof

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The benefits of physical activity (PA have been so well documented that there is no doubt about the significance of PA for personal and social health. Several theoretical models have been proposed with a view to understanding the phenomenon of PA and other health behaviours. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if and how the variables suggested in the Health Belief Model (HBM determine physical activity stages of change in older adults. Material and methods. A total of 172 students of Universities of the Third Age aged 54 to 75 (mean = 62.89 ± 4.83 years agreed to participate in the study, filling out an anonymous survey measuring their stage of exercise change and determinants of health behaviours proposed by the HBM, including: perceived benefits of physical activity, perceived barriers to physical activity, perceived severity of diseases associated with sedentary lifestyle, perceived susceptibility to these diseases, and self-efficacy. Results. The results only partially support the hypothesis that the HBM predicts intentions and behaviours related to the physical activity of older adults. Only two variables were moderately-to-strongly related to stages of exercise change, namely perceived barriers and self-efficacy. Conclusion. Interventions aimed at informing older adults about the benefits of physical activity and the threats associated with sedentary lifestyle can be expected to have rather a weak influence on their readiness for physical activity.

The Effect of Education on Preventive Behaviors of Failure to Thrive in Mothers with Children Aged One to Five Years: Applied Health Belief Model

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Mahtab Navabi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background: One of the common and important health problems is failure to thrive in childhood. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of education on preventive behaviors of failure to thrive in mothers with children based on health belief model. Materials and Methods: This study is an interventional one in which 100 mothers with children one to five years involved (samples divided into two case and control groups, each of 50 sampling was done by a simple random method. For collecting information, a researcher-made questionnaire based on the health belief model and performance check list were used. Then, case group was trained for one month. 3 months after training, data were gathered and analyzed by Spss20 software. In addition to descriptive statistics, tests such as Chi-square, paired t-test and independent T-test were used. Results: The mean age of case and control was 29.98±5.51 and 25.35±5.30 years old, respectively. The average age of children was 23.31 ± 13.14 and 27.55 ± 14.01months, respectively. Before the intervention, no significant difference was seen between groups. The average score in case group before intervention was as: knowledge(31.87±14.24, perceived susceptibility(64.23±5.86, perceived severity(64.41±9.34, perceived benefits(61.75±6.79, perceived barriers(67.91±8.14, self-efficacy(68.00±7.87, cues to action(44.53±6.82 and action(70.00±9.77. However, after the intervention, significant differences between groups in all variables were obserred. Conclusion: According to the results, education based on health belief model is recommended for promoting preventive behaviors of failure to thrive.

When fast logic meets slow belief: Evidence for a parallel-processing model of belief bias

OpenAIRE

Trippas, Dries; Thompson, Valerie A.; Handley, Simon J.

2016-01-01

Two experiments pitted the default-interventionist account of belief bias against a parallel-processing model. According to the former, belief bias occurs because a fast, belief-based evaluation of the conclusion pre-empts a working-memory demanding logical analysis. In contrast, according to the latter both belief-based and logic-based responding occur in parallel. Participants were given deductive reasoning problems of variable complexity and instructed to decide whether the conclusion was ...

Beliefs about health and illness in latin-american migrants with diabetes living in sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Hjelm, Katarina; Bard, Karin

2013-01-01

The study explored beliefs about health and illness in Latin American migrants diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) living in Sweden, and investigated the influence on health-related behavior including self-care and care-seeking behavior. Migrants are particularly affected in the diabetes pandemia. Beliefs about health and illness determine health-related behaviour and health but no studies have been found on Latin American migrants with DM. An explorative study design with focus-group interviews of nine persons aged 36-77 years from a diabetes clinic was used. Health was described from a pathogenetic or a salutogenetic perspective: 'freedom from disease or feeling of well-being', and being autonomous and able to work. Economic hardship due to expenses for medications and food for DM affected health. Individual factors such as diet, exercise and compliance with advice, and social factors with good social relations and avoidance of stress, often caused by having experienced severe events related to migrational experiences, were considered important for maintaining health and could cause DM. Disturbed relations to others (social factors), punishment by God or Fate (supernatural factors), intake of diuretics and imbalance between warmth and cold (natural factors) were also perceived as causes. A mix of biomedical and traditional explanations and active self-care behaviour with frequent use of herbs was found. It is important to assess the individual's beliefs, and health professionals, particularly nurses, should incorporate discussions of alternative treatments and other components of explanatory models and co-operate with social workers to consider influence of finances and migrational experiences on health.

Effect of Preconception Care Education by Health Volunteers on Knowledge and Attitudes of Women: Application of the Health Belief Model

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Nasrin Fazeli

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Preconception care identifies and modifies the risk factors for pregnancy and childbirth. The present study aimed to determine the effects a preconception care education program, which was based on the Health Belief Model (HBM and implemented by health volunteers, on knowledge and attitudes of women. A semi-experimental study was conducted using 22 health volunteers and 110 women aged 15-49 years selected from two comprehensive health centers of Mashhad, Iran, in 2016. The convenience sampling method was employed for selecting the volunteers and the regular random sampling method for choosing the women. For data collection, we applied a researcher-made tool with verified validity and reliability. HBM-based education was implemented by the volunteers during three sessions. Data analysis was performed in SPSS using Mann-Whitney test, Friedman, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient; repeated measures data analysis was carried out at the significance level of 0.05. The mean age of the women was 30.6±6.6 years in the intervention group and 31.6±6.5 years in the control group. The mean levels of knowledge and attitude increased significantly after the intervention (P

Spiritual, religious, and personal beliefs are important and distinctive to assessing quality of life in health: a comparison of theoretical models.

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O'Connell, Kathryn A; Skevington, Suzanne M

2010-11-01

The study investigates theoretical debates on the contribution of spiritual, religious, and personal beliefs (SRPB) to quality of life (QoL) in health, by examining contrasting models. The WHOQOL-SRPB assesses QoL relating to SRPB where 33 QoL facets are scored in 6 domains, of which SRPB is one. The measure was completed by a heterogeneous sample of 285 sick and well people representing a cross-section of religious, agnostic, and atheist beliefs in UK, and structured for gender (52% female) and age (mean 47 years). No evidence was found to support the model of spiritual QoL as a concept that overarches every other QoL domain. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that SRPB is an integral concept to overall QoL, with a very good fit (comparative fit index=.99). Spiritual QoL made a significant, relatively independent contribution, similar to the other five domains (β=0.68). Spiritual QoL is most closely associated with the psychological domain, particularly hope and optimism and inner peace; two of the nine SRPB facets. Spiritual QoL, but not most other aspects of QoL, is higher for religious people. The results explain theoretical confusion arising from previous research. Spiritual QoL makes a significant and distinctive contribution to QoL assessment in health and should be assessed routinely in health care populations.

The effectiveness of nutritional education on the knowledge of diabetic patients using the health belief model

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Gholamreza Sharifirad

2009-02-01

Full Text Available

• BACKGROUND: Patients have a major role in the control and treatment of type 2 diabetes. So, knowledge of different aspects of this disease especially diet therapy is very important for these patients. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the Health Belief Model (HBM on nutrition education in type 2 diabetic patients.
• METHOD: Eighty eight type 2 diabetic patients attending Iranian Diabetes Association seminars were randomly selected to participate in the study (44 in intervention group and 44 in control group. The intervention was consisted of two educational sessions each one for 80 minutes. Data were collected by a validated and reliable questionnaire (58 questions before intervention and one month after intervention.
• RESULTS: After intervention, knowledge scores increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (Mean differences in the intervention and test group: 22.68 ± 15.90 vs - 2.27 ± 17.30, P < 0.001. Perceived susceptibility increased significantly in the intervention group compared to the control group (27.5 ± 18.5 vs 3.9 ± 17.2, P < 0.001. The result was the same for perceived severity, perceived threatened and perceived benefits (P < 0.001. In contrast perceived barriers reduced in the intervention group compared to the control diet (-14.7 ± 13.3 vs 0.9 ± 13.9, P < 0.001. In the intervention group, behavior grades increased more than control group (34.61 ± 14.93 vs -0.23 ± 8.52, P < 0.001.
• CONCLUSION: The efficacy of the health belief model in nutritional education to the diabetic patients was confirmed in the present study.

Religion, health beliefs and the use of mental health services by the elderly.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Tze Pin; Nyunt, Ma Shwe Zin; Chiam, Peak Chiang; Kua, Ee Heok

2011-03-01

Few studies have investigated whether elderly people of particular religious affiliations were more or less likely to seek treatment for mental illness, and whether it was related to their health beliefs. In the National Mental Survey of Elderly Singaporeans in 2004, data were collected on reported religious affiliations, and 1-year prevalence of mental disorders (DSM-IV diagnoses of psychiatric disorders) from diagnostic interviews using the Geriatric Mental State schedule, self-report of treatment for mental health problems, and health beliefs about the curability of mental illness, embarrassment and stigma, ease in discussing mental problems, effectiveness and safety of treatment, and trust in professionals. Compared to those with no religious affiliation, elderly people of all religious affiliations showed higher prevalence of mental health problems, yet reported less frequent treatment by healthcare professionals. In multivariate analyses, the adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of association with seeking treatment were for Christianity, 0.12 (0.02-0.57); Islam, 0.12 (0.01-1.31); Buddhism/Taoism, 0.59 (0.18-1.88); and Hinduism, 0.21 (0.02-2.56) versus no affiliation. Various religious affiliations differ from each other and from non-religious affiliation on some negative health beliefs, but they did not adequately explain why religious affiliates were less likely to seek treatment. Further studies should evaluate the lower tendency of elderly people with religious affiliations to seek treatment for mental health problems.

Health beliefs affect the correct replacement of daily disposable contact lenses: Predicting compliance with the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Livi, Stefano; Zeri, Fabrizio; Baroni, Rossella

2017-02-01

To assess the compliance of Daily Disposable Contact Lenses (DDCLs) wearers with replacing lenses at a manufacturer-recommended replacement frequency. To evaluate the ability of two different Health Behavioural Theories (HBT), The Health Belief Model (HBM) and The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), in predicting compliance. A multi-centre survey was conducted using a questionnaire completed anonymously by contact lens wearers during the purchase of DDCLs. Three hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were returned. The survey comprised 58.5% females and 41.5% males (mean age 34±12years). Twenty-three percent of respondents were non-compliant with manufacturer-recommended replacement frequency (re-using DDCLs at least once). The main reason for re-using DDCLs was "to save money" (35%). Predictions of compliance behaviour (past behaviour or future intentions) on the basis of the two HBT was investigated through logistic regression analysis: both TPB factors (subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) were significant (pbehaviour and future intentions) and perceived benefit (only for past behaviour) as significant factors (pbehavioural control of daily replacement (behavioural control) are of paramount importance in improving compliance. With reference to the HBM, it is important to warn DDCLs wearers of the severity of a contact-lens-related eye infection, and to underline the possibility of its prevention. Copyright © 2016 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Factors influencing pursuit of hearing evaluation: Enhancing the health belief model with perceived burden from hearing loss on communication partners.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Kristine A; Modeste, Naomi; Lee, Jerry; Roberts, Rhonda; Saunders, Gabrielle H; Witsell, David L

2016-07-01

There is limited application of health behavior-based theoretical models in hearing healthcare, yet other fields utilizing these models have shown their value in affecting behavior change. The health belief model (HBM) has demonstrated appropriateness for hearing research. This study assessed factors that influence an individual with suspected hearing loss to pursue clinical evaluation, with a focus on perceived burden of hearing loss on communication partners, using the HBM as a framework. Cross-sectional design collecting demographics along with three validated hearing-loss related questionnaires. Patients from Duke University Medical Center Otolaryngology Clinic aged 55-75 years who indicated a communication partner had expressed concern about their hearing. A final sample of 413 completed questionnaire sets was achieved. The HBM model construct 'cues to action' was a significant (p loss on communication partners was a significant (p model fit when added to the HBM: 72.0% correct prediction when burden is added versus 66.6% when not (p models in hearing healthcare is warranted.

Belief in life after death and mental health: findings from a national survey.

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Flannelly, Kevin J; Koenig, Harold G; Ellison, Christopher G; Galek, Kathleen; Krause, Neal

2006-07-01

The present study examined the association between belief in life after death and six measures of psychiatric symptomology in a national sample of 1403 adult Americans. A statistically significant inverse relationship was found between belief in life after death and symptom severity on all six symptom clusters that were examined (i.e., anxiety, depression, obsession-compulsion, paranoia, phobia, and somatization) after controlling for demographic and other variables (e.g., stress and social support) that are known to influence mental health. No significant association was found between the frequency of attending religious services and any of the mental health measures. The results are discussed in terms of the potentially salubrious effects of religious belief systems on mental health. These findings suggest that it may be more valuable to focus on religious beliefs than on religious practices and behaviors in research on religion and mental health.

Measurement of the Constructs of Health Belief Model related to Self-care during Pregnancy in Women Referred to South Tehran Health Network

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Yalda Soleiman Ekhtiari

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background and Objective: Self-care activities during pregnancy can be effective in reducing adverse pregnancy outcomes. Health Belief Model (HBM is one of the most applicable models in educational need assessment for planning and implementation of educational interventions. The purpose of this study was to measurement of the constructs of HBM related to self-care during pregnancy in women referred to South Tehran health network.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study 270 pregnant women who referred to health centers of South Tehran Health Networks participated. Demographic, knowledge and attitude questionnaires based on constructs of HBM was used to measure the status of knowledge and attitude of women. Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS18.Results: Results showed that 92.2% of women had the knowledge scores in good level. The scores of perceived severity, perceived self-efficacy and cues to action were in good level in almost of women but almost of women obtained weak point in perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits and barriersConclusion: HBM can be used as an appropriate tool for assessment the status of pregnant women in the field of self-care behaviors during pregnancy and planning and implementation of educational interventions.

Maternal health practices, beliefs and traditions in southeast Madagascar.

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Morris, Jessica L; Short, Samm; Robson, Laura; Andriatsihosena, Mamy Soafaly

2014-09-01

Contextualising maternal health in countries with high maternal mortality is vital for designing and implementing effective health interventions. A research project was therefore conducted to explore practices, beliefs and traditions around pregnancy, delivery and postpartum in southeast Madagascar. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 256 pregnant women, mothers of young children, community members and stakeholders; transcripts were analysed to identify and explore predetermined and emerging themes. A questionnaire was also conducted with 373 women of reproductive age from randomly selected households. Data was analysed using STATA. Results confirmed high local rates of maternal mortality and morbidity and revealed a range of traditional health care practices and beliefs impacting on women's health seeking behaviours. The following socio-cultural barriers to health were identified: 1) lack of knowledge, 2) risky practices, 3) delays seeking biomedical care, and 4) family and community expectations. Recommendations include educational outreach and behaviour change communications targeted for women, their partners and family, increased engagement with traditional midwives and healers, and capacity building of formal health service providers.

Determination of social variables affected the health belief model in adopting preventive behaviors of osteoporosis

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MH BaghianiMoghadam

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Osteoporosis is one of the most common musculoskeletal problem and a metabolic bone disorder that normally is without sign and is shown with fragile bone in the absence of prevention and treatment. This study was aimed to determine social variables affected the health belief model in adopting preventive behaviors of osteoporosis. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 278 women referring to 6 health Centers of Yazd city with random sampling. Data collection was using a self-reported questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software including Kruskall Wallis, Dunn Tests, Mann Whitney, Spearman correlation coefficient and regression. Results: Among the osteoporosis preventive behaviors, the most frequency was related to non smoking actions or exposure to cigarette and the lowest frequency was related to regular physical activity during every weeks. According to spearman's correlation coefficient, it was occurred a direct significant correlation between knowledge, perceived benefits, practical guide, self efficacy and preventive behaviors of women. In addition, a reverse significant correlation was occurred between perceived barrier and women's behavior (P<0.001. Overall, variables of the model predicted 0.36 of preventive behavior's variables and finally self-efficacy was the strongest prediction of behavior (P=0.000. Conclusion: according to the results, the presentation of suitable educational program with emphasize on promotion of knowledge and upgrade of HBM's level in addition increasing barriers in the context of diseases such as osteoporosis by staff of health centers is suggested.

Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders’ intentions to engage in pest control

Science.gov (United States)

Lipman, Stefan A.

2017-01-01

Pests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief model, to investigate which psychological factors influence householders’ intentions to control pests. An online questionnaire was completed by 413 respondents between 11 September and 31 November 2015. A large majority of respondents reported pests in or around their home within the previous year. The prevalences were: flying insects 98%, crawling insects 85%, rodents 62%, birds 58%, and moles 20%. Regression analysis for the health belief model revealed that perceiving greater benefits and fewer barriers to pest control and expecting severe consequences of zoonotic infections predicted higher intention to control pests. Intentions towards pest control were not influenced by perceiving oneself as susceptible to catching a disease from pests or health motivation (striving towards a healthy lifestyle). Intentions to engage in pest control were lower for households reporting bird prevalence. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic pest control should focus on increasing the benefits that individuals associate with effective pest control, lowering barriers, and on underlining the severity of the diseases that pests may carry. PMID:29284047

Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders' intentions to engage in pest control.

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Lipman, Stefan A; Burt, Sara A

2017-01-01

Pests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief model, to investigate which psychological factors influence householders' intentions to control pests. An online questionnaire was completed by 413 respondents between 11 September and 31 November 2015. A large majority of respondents reported pests in or around their home within the previous year. The prevalences were: flying insects 98%, crawling insects 85%, rodents 62%, birds 58%, and moles 20%. Regression analysis for the health belief model revealed that perceiving greater benefits and fewer barriers to pest control and expecting severe consequences of zoonotic infections predicted higher intention to control pests. Intentions towards pest control were not influenced by perceiving oneself as susceptible to catching a disease from pests or health motivation (striving towards a healthy lifestyle). Intentions to engage in pest control were lower for households reporting bird prevalence. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic pest control should focus on increasing the benefits that individuals associate with effective pest control, lowering barriers, and on underlining the severity of the diseases that pests may carry.

Self-reported prevalence of pests in Dutch households and the use of the health belief model to explore householders' intentions to engage in pest control.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan A Lipman

Full Text Available Pests in the home are a health risk because they can be vectors for infectious disease, contribute to allergies and cause damage to buildings. The aims of this study were to record which categories of pests were reported in homes and to use a social cognition model, the health belief model, to investigate which psychological factors influence householders' intentions to control pests. An online questionnaire was completed by 413 respondents between 11 September and 31 November 2015. A large majority of respondents reported pests in or around their home within the previous year. The prevalences were: flying insects 98%, crawling insects 85%, rodents 62%, birds 58%, and moles 20%. Regression analysis for the health belief model revealed that perceiving greater benefits and fewer barriers to pest control and expecting severe consequences of zoonotic infections predicted higher intention to control pests. Intentions towards pest control were not influenced by perceiving oneself as susceptible to catching a disease from pests or health motivation (striving towards a healthy lifestyle. Intentions to engage in pest control were lower for households reporting bird prevalence. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic pest control should focus on increasing the benefits that individuals associate with effective pest control, lowering barriers, and on underlining the severity of the diseases that pests may carry.

The Effectiveness of Health Care Information Technologies: Evaluation of Trust, Security Beliefs, and Privacy as Determinants of Health Care Outcomes

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2018-01-01

Background The diffusion of health information technologies (HITs) within the health care sector continues to grow. However, there is no theory explaining how success of HITs influences patient care outcomes. With the increase in data breaches, HITs’ success now hinges on the effectiveness of data protection solutions. Still, empirical research has only addressed privacy concerns, with little regard for other factors of information assurance. Objective The objective of this study was to study the effectiveness of HITs using the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model (DMISSM). We examined the role of information assurance constructs (ie, the role of information security beliefs, privacy concerns, and trust in health information) as measures of HIT effectiveness. We also investigated the relationships between information assurance and three aspects of system success: attitude toward health information exchange (HIE), patient access to health records, and perceived patient care quality. Methods Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed the data from a sample of 3677 cancer patients from a public dataset. We used R software (R Project for Statistical Computing) and the Lavaan package to test the hypothesized relationships. Results Our extension of the DMISSM to health care was supported. We found that increased privacy concerns reduce the frequency of patient access to health records use, positive attitudes toward HIE, and perceptions of patient care quality. Also, belief in the effectiveness of information security increases the frequency of patient access to health records and positive attitude toward HIE. Trust in health information had a positive association with attitudes toward HIE and perceived patient care quality. Trust in health information had no direct effect on patient access to health records; however, it had an indirect relationship through privacy concerns. Conclusions Trust in health information and belief in the effectiveness of

The Effectiveness of Health Care Information Technologies: Evaluation of Trust, Security Beliefs, and Privacy as Determinants of Health Care Outcomes.

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Kisekka, Victoria; Giboney, Justin Scott

2018-04-11

The diffusion of health information technologies (HITs) within the health care sector continues to grow. However, there is no theory explaining how success of HITs influences patient care outcomes. With the increase in data breaches, HITs' success now hinges on the effectiveness of data protection solutions. Still, empirical research has only addressed privacy concerns, with little regard for other factors of information assurance. The objective of this study was to study the effectiveness of HITs using the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model (DMISSM). We examined the role of information assurance constructs (ie, the role of information security beliefs, privacy concerns, and trust in health information) as measures of HIT effectiveness. We also investigated the relationships between information assurance and three aspects of system success: attitude toward health information exchange (HIE), patient access to health records, and perceived patient care quality. Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed the data from a sample of 3677 cancer patients from a public dataset. We used R software (R Project for Statistical Computing) and the Lavaan package to test the hypothesized relationships. Our extension of the DMISSM to health care was supported. We found that increased privacy concerns reduce the frequency of patient access to health records use, positive attitudes toward HIE, and perceptions of patient care quality. Also, belief in the effectiveness of information security increases the frequency of patient access to health records and positive attitude toward HIE. Trust in health information had a positive association with attitudes toward HIE and perceived patient care quality. Trust in health information had no direct effect on patient access to health records; however, it had an indirect relationship through privacy concerns. Trust in health information and belief in the effectiveness of information security safeguards increases

Relationship between person's health beliefs and diabetes self-care management regimen.

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Albargawi, Moudi; Snethen, Julia; Al Gannass, Abdulaziz; Kelber, Sheryl

2017-12-01

To examine the relationship between the health beliefs of Saudi adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and their adherence to daily diabetes self-care management regimen. A secondary aim was to examine the health beliefs of adults with a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) and participants without a DFU. Descriptive correlational design with a convenience sample of 30 participants. Participants were recruited for this pilot study from an outpatient clinic at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. The participants completed self-reported questionnaires about their health beliefs, daily diabetes self-care management regimen, and demographic characteristics. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the interaction effects. Participants who reported having a high internal health locus of control (IHLoC) and a high level of self-efficacy (SE) adhered well to their foot care regimen (P = .038). The more the participants believed that God controls their health, and the higher their SE, the greater the participant's adherence to their medication regimen (P = .035). The stronger the participant's belief that following their diabetes treatment regimen will lead to good outcomes, the greater the participant's adherence to their dietary regimen for those with a low IHLoC (P = .015). Participants with a high SE and reported that their doctor is able to help them control their diabetes were more likely to follow their dietary regimen (P = .048). Participants with a DFU reported having additional health conditions besides T2DM (P = .018) and had less than a college education (P = .015). Although participants with a DFU reported that they were responsible for their diabetes (P = .21), they stated that God manages their diabetes (P = .29), and the disease can be controlled based on luck (P = .10). Participants' beliefs were found to influence their daily self-care management regimen. Further studies are needed using a larger sample. Copyright © 2017

Help-Seeking Intentions among Asian American and White American Students in Psychological Distress: Application of the Health Belief Model

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Kim, Jin E.; Zane, Nolan

2015-01-01

Objective Underutilization of needed mental health services continues to be the major mental health disparity affecting Asian Americans (Sue, Cheng, Saad, & Chu, 2012). The goal of the study was to apply a social psychological theoretical framework—the Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1966)—to understand potential reasons why Asian Americans underutilize mental health services relative to White Americans. Method Using a cross-sectional online questionnaire, this study examined how perceived severity of symptoms, perceived susceptibility to mental health problems, perceived benefits of treatment, and perceived barriers to treatment influenced intentions to seek help among a sample of 395 Asian American and 261 White American students experiencing elevated levels of psychological distress. Results Analyses using structural equation modeling indicated that Asian Americans in distress had relatively lower intentions to seek help compared to White Americans. Perceived benefits partially accounted for differences in help-seeking intentions. Although Asian Americans perceived greater barriers to help-seeking than White Americans, it did not significantly explain racial/ethnic differences in help-seeking intentions. Perceived severity and barriers were related to help-seeking intentions in both groups. Conclusions Outreach efforts that particularly emphasize the benefits of seeking mental health services may be a particularly promising approach to address underutilization. These findings have implications in help-seeking promotion and outreach. PMID:26098454

Evaluation of Three Osteoporosis Prevention Programs for Young Women: Application of the Health Belief Model

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Lein, Donald H.; Turner, Lori; Wilroy, Jereme

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of theory-based osteoporosis prevention programs on calcium and vitamin D intakes and osteoporosis health beliefs in young women. Methods: Women (N = 152) aged 19 to 25 years were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: a brochure group (n = 51), a computer-tailored program group…

Incorporating spiritual beliefs into a cognitive model of worry.

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Rosmarin, David H; Pirutinsky, Steven; Auerbach, Randy P; Björgvinsson, Thröstur; Bigda-Peyton, Joseph; Andersson, Gerhard; Pargament, Kenneth I; Krumrei, Elizabeth J

2011-07-01

Cognitive theory and research have traditionally highlighted the relevance of the core beliefs about oneself, the world, and the future to human emotions. For some individuals, however, core beliefs may also explicitly involve spiritual themes. In this article, we propose a cognitive model of worry, in which positive/negative beliefs about the Divine affect symptoms through the mechanism of intolerance of uncertainty. Using mediation analyses, we found support for our model across two studies, in particular, with regards to negative spiritual beliefs. These findings highlight the importance of assessing for spiritual alongside secular convictions when creating cognitive-behavioral case formulations in the treatment of religious individuals. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparison of health risk behavior, awareness, and health benefit beliefs of health science and non-health science students: An international study.

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Peltzer, Karl; Pengpid, Supa; Yung, Tony K C; Aounallah-Skhiri, Hajer; Rehman, Rehana

2016-06-01

This study determines the differences in health risk behavior, knowledge, and health benefit beliefs between health science and non-health science university students in 17 low and middle income countries. Anonymous questionnaire data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of 13,042 undergraduate university students (4,981 health science and 8,061 non-health science students) from 17 universities in 17 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Results indicate that overall, health science students had the same mean number of health risk behaviors as non-health science university students. Regarding addictive risk behavior, fewer health science students used tobacco, were binge drinkers, or gambled once a week or more. Health science students also had a greater awareness of health behavior risks (5.5) than non-health science students (4.6). Linear regression analysis found a strong association with poor or weak health benefit beliefs and the health risk behavior index. There was no association between risk awareness and health risk behavior among health science students and an inverse association among non-health science students. © 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Beliefs About Health and Illness in Latin-American Migrants with Diabetes Living in Sweden

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Hjelm, Katarina; Bard, Karin

2013-01-01

The study explored beliefs about health and illness in Latin American migrants diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) living in Sweden, and investigated the influence on health-related behavior including self-care and care-seeking behavior. Migrants are particularly affected in the diabetes pandemia. Beliefs about health and illness determine health-related behaviour and health but no studies have been found on Latin American migrants with DM. An explorative study design with focus-group inter...

Zimbabwean diabetics' beliefs about health and illness: an interview study

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Mufunda Esther

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Diabetes mellitus (DM is increasing globally, with the greatest increase in Africa and Asia. In Zimbabwe a threefold increase was shown in the 1990s. Health-related behaviour is important in maintaining health and is determined by individual beliefs about health and illness but has seen little study. The purpose of the study was to explore beliefs about health and illness that might affect self-care practice and health care seeking behaviour in persons diagnosed with DM, living in Zimbabwe. Methods Exploratory study. Consecutive sample from a diabetes clinic at a central hospital. Semi-structured interviews were held with 21 persons aged 19-65 years. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results Health was described as freedom from disease and well-being, and individual factors such as compliance with advice received and drugs were considered important to promote health. A mixture of causes of DM, predominantly individual factors such as heredity, overweight and wrong diet in combination with supernatural factors such as fate, punishment from God and witchcraft were mentioned. Most respondents did not recognize the symptoms of DM when falling ill but related the problems to other diseases, e.g. HIV, malaria etc. Limited knowledge about DM and the body was indicated. Poor economy was mentioned as harmful to health and a consequence of DM because the need to buy expensive drugs, food and attend check-ups. Self-care was used to a limited extent but if used, a combination of individual measures, household remedies or herbs and religious acts such as prayers and holy water were frequently used, and in some cases health care professionals were consulted. Conclusions Limited knowledge about DM, based on beliefs about health and illness including biomedical and traditional explanations related to the influence of supernatural forces, e.g. fate, God etc., were found, which affected patients' self-care and care

Predicting human papillomavirus vaccine uptake in young adult women: Comparing the Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behavior

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Gerend, Mary A.; Shepherd, Janet E.

2012-01-01

Background Although theories of health behavior have guided thousands of studies, relatively few studies have compared these theories against one another. Purpose The purpose of the current study was to compare two classic theories of health behavior—the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)—in their prediction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Methods After watching a gain-framed, loss-framed, or control video, women (N=739) ages 18–26 completed a survey assessing HBM and TPB constructs. HPV vaccine uptake was assessed ten months later. Results Although the message framing intervention had no effect on vaccine uptake, support was observed for both the TPB and HBM. Nevertheless, the TPB consistently outperformed the HBM. Key predictors of uptake included subjective norms, self-efficacy, and vaccine cost. Conclusions Despite the observed advantage of the TPB, findings revealed considerable overlap between the two theories and highlighted the importance of proximal versus distal predictors of health behavior. PMID:22547155

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT, irrational and rational beliefs, and the mental health of athletes

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Martin James Turner

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this article Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT is proposed as a potentially important framework for the understanding and promotion of mental health in athletes. Cognitive-behavioral approaches predominate in the provision of sport psychology, and often form the backbone of psychological skills training (PST for performance enhancement and maintenance. But far from being solely performance-focused, the cognitive-behavioral approach to sport psychology can restore, promote, and maintain mental health. This review article presents REBT (Ellis, 1957, the original cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT, as a valuable approach to addressing mental health issues in sport. REBT holds that it is not events that directly cause emotions and behaviors. Rather, it is one’s beliefs about the events that lead to emotional and behavioral reactivity. Further, REBT distinguishes between rational and irrational beliefs, and suggests that in response to failure, maltreatment, and misfortune, people can react with either healthy or unhealthy emotional and behavioral responses. The extant research indicates that irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy negative emotions, a range of pathological conditions, and a host of maladaptive behaviors that undermine mental health. Therefore, REBT proposes a process for the reduction of irrational beliefs and the promotion of rational beliefs. The use of REBT in sport is seldom reported in literature, but research is growing. This review article proposes three important areas of investigation that will aid the understanding of irrational beliefs and the application of REBT within sport. These areas are: (1 the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on the mental health of athletes, (2 the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on athletic performance, (3 the origins and development of irrational beliefs in athletes. Each area is discussed in turn, offering a critical and progressive review of the literature as well as

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Irrational and Rational Beliefs, and the Mental Health of Athletes.

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Turner, Martin J

2016-01-01

In this article Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is proposed as a potentially important framework for the understanding and promotion of mental health in athletes. Cognitive-behavioral approaches predominate in the provision of sport psychology, and often form the backbone of psychological skills training for performance enhancement and maintenance. But far from being solely performance-focused, the cognitive-behavioral approach to sport psychology can restore, promote, and maintain mental health. This review article presents REBT (Ellis, 1957), the original cognitive behavioral therapy, as a valuable approach to addressing mental health issues in sport. REBT holds that it is not events that directly cause emotions and behaviors. Rather, it is one's beliefs about the events that lead to emotional and behavioral reactivity. Further, REBT distinguishes between rational and irrational beliefs, and suggests that in response to failure, maltreatment, and misfortune, people can react with either healthy or unhealthy emotional and behavioral responses. The extant research indicates that irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy negative emotions, a range of pathological conditions, and a host of maladaptive behaviors that undermine mental health. Therefore, REBT proposes a process for the reduction of irrational beliefs and the promotion of rational beliefs. The use of REBT in sport is seldom reported in literature, but research is growing. This review article proposes three important areas of investigation that will aid the understanding of irrational beliefs and the application of REBT within sport. These areas are: (1) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on the mental health of athletes, (2) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on athletic performance, (3) the origins and development of irrational beliefs in athletes. Each area is discussed in turn, offering a critical and progressive review of the literature as well as highlighting research

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Irrational and Rational Beliefs, and the Mental Health of Athletes

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Martin J.

2016-01-01

In this article Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is proposed as a potentially important framework for the understanding and promotion of mental health in athletes. Cognitive-behavioral approaches predominate in the provision of sport psychology, and often form the backbone of psychological skills training for performance enhancement and maintenance. But far from being solely performance-focused, the cognitive-behavioral approach to sport psychology can restore, promote, and maintain mental health. This review article presents REBT (Ellis, 1957), the original cognitive behavioral therapy, as a valuable approach to addressing mental health issues in sport. REBT holds that it is not events that directly cause emotions and behaviors. Rather, it is one’s beliefs about the events that lead to emotional and behavioral reactivity. Further, REBT distinguishes between rational and irrational beliefs, and suggests that in response to failure, maltreatment, and misfortune, people can react with either healthy or unhealthy emotional and behavioral responses. The extant research indicates that irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy negative emotions, a range of pathological conditions, and a host of maladaptive behaviors that undermine mental health. Therefore, REBT proposes a process for the reduction of irrational beliefs and the promotion of rational beliefs. The use of REBT in sport is seldom reported in literature, but research is growing. This review article proposes three important areas of investigation that will aid the understanding of irrational beliefs and the application of REBT within sport. These areas are: (1) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on the mental health of athletes, (2) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on athletic performance, (3) the origins and development of irrational beliefs in athletes. Each area is discussed in turn, offering a critical and progressive review of the literature as well as highlighting research

Effects of education based on the health belief model on screening behavior in high risk women for breast cancer, Tehran, Iran.

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Hajian, Sepideh; Vakilian, Katayon; Najabadi, Khadijeh Mirzaii; Hosseini, Jalil; Mirzaei, Hamid Reza

2011-01-01

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Early diagnosis allows efficient treatment and increases survival, but the efficacy of breast self examination (BSE) is not sufficiently well established. The American Cancer Society aims to give women the opportunity to recognize the utility, limitations and adverse effects of breast cancer screening through education models based on psychological theories. With the Health Belief Model, people's health perceptions and attitudes influence their practices, for example with screening. The purpose of this randomized controlled clinical trial was to determine the effect of education based on this model on breast cancer screening in high risk Iranian women. Participants were women with a family history of breast cancer (mother, sister, and daughter). After explanation of the study objectives to participants, they were recruited on obtaining oral consent and each filled out the study questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model. Allocation was into two groups by computerized randomization, control and intervention, receiving education on breast cancer screening. Perceived susceptibility to and seriousness of breast cancer, perceived usefulness of and barriers to BSE, clinical breast examination, and mammography, and self-efficacy in the ability to perform these, were assessed, with comparison of scores for BSE practice before and after education and doing mammography and clinical examination by a physician in intervention and control group. The mean age was 37.8 ± 11.7 (range 19-60). The mean rank in the intervention group significantly differed before and after the education, but except for " perceived threat" and "perceived usefulness of breast self examination", we did not find any significant differences from the control group. After educational sessions, breast self examination and clinical examination practice rates were elevated. Health education based on well known psychological theories for breast cancer

Traditional oral health beliefs and practices of Bulang people in Yunnan, China.

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Zhang, Shinan; Lo, Edward C M; Chu, Chun-Hung

2018-02-01

The aim of the present study was to explore traditional oral health beliefs among the Bulang ethnic minority group in China. Eighteen village leaders, chiefs, elders, and seniors in Yunnan, China were assigned to three focus groups for discussion of traditional oral health beliefs. The discussions were led by a facilitator. Transcripts were made, and data were extracted. The focus group discussions on traditional oral health beliefs addressed three themes: (a) the perception of oral health; (b) the impact of healthy teeth (oral health), in that healthy teeth essentially have an impact on physical health, emotions, and social status; and (c) toothache management, which was regarded as tooth decay (dental caries). Blackening teeth was a pain relief method. Blackened teeth were reported to be part of ethnic identity, and considered esthetically pleasing. It also indicated the marital status of women. Some Bulang people believed that healthy dentition has no spacing, pain, or functioning problems. Well-aligned dentition was associated with higher social status. Toothaches were considered to be caused by tooth worms. Consulting a monk was another way to manage a toothache. Tooth blackening was considered traditional, and effective for caries prevention. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Improving prenatal care in pregnant women in Iranshahr, Iran: Applying Health Belief Model.

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Izadirad, Hossien; Niknami, Shamsoddin; Zareban, Iraj; Hidarnia, Alireza

2017-11-07

To determine the effect of an education-based intervention on receiving adequate prenatal care. This randomized, controlled trial was conducted on 90 primiparous pregnant women, referred in Iranshahr, Iran for prenatal care (intervention = 45, control group = 45). The data were collected from February to June 2016 using a questionnaire developed based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). The intervention group received three intervention sessions during the second trimester of pregnancy, and 3 months after intervention, both groups completed a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using independent sample t-tests, chi-squared tests, paired t-test, Pearson and multivariate regression. Unlike the control group, in the intervention group's mean scores for knowledge, variables from the HBM model and frequency of prenatal care significantly differed from pre- to post-intervention (pre-intervention mean = 12.62 ± 2.63, post-intervention mean = 17.71 ± 1.56, (p ˂ 0.05). Self-efficacy was positively correlated with knowledge (r = 0.304, p = 0.02) and adequate prenatal care (r = 0.583, p ˂ 0.001). The constructs of the HBM explained 75% of the variance in frequency of prenatal care in multivariable models. Developing an educational program based on the HBM was effective in the adoptation of prenatal care. Additionally, considering social, economic, and educational follow-up while implementing these programs is recommended.

Validity of Measures Assessing Oral Health Beliefs of American Indian Parents.

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Wilson, Anne R; Brega, Angela G; Thomas, Jacob F; Henderson, William G; Lind, Kimberly E; Braun, Patricia A; Batliner, Terrence S; Albino, Judith

2018-03-05

This aimed to validate measures of constructs included in an extended Health Belief Model (EHBM) addressing oral health beliefs among American Indian (AI) parents. Questionnaire data were collected as part of a randomized controlled trial (n = 1016) aimed at reducing childhood caries. Participants were AI parents with a preschool-age child enrolled in the Navajo Nation Head Start program. Questionnaire items addressed five EHBM constructs: perceived susceptibility, severity, barriers, benefits, and parental self-efficacy. Subscales representing each construct underwent reliability and validity testing. Internal consistency reliability of each subscale was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. Convergent validity was assessed using linear regression to evaluate the association of each EHBM subscale with oral health-related measures. Internal consistency reliability was high for self-efficacy (α = 0.83) and perceived benefits (α = 0.83) compared to remaining EHBM subscales (α Parents with more education (p parents (ps = 0.02) and those with more education (ps oral health behavior. Female parents (p Parental knowledge was associated with all EHBM measures (ps  0.05). Parents with increased self-efficacy had greater behavioral adherence (p parents who reported higher perceived barriers (p oral health outcomes were associated with higher levels of self-efficacy (p < 0.0001) and lower levels of perceived severity (p = 0.02) and barriers (p = 0.05). Results support the value of questionnaire items addressing the EHBM subscales, which functioned in a manner consistent with the EHBM theoretical framework in AI participants.

Born Fat: The Relations between Weight Changeability Beliefs and Health Behaviors and Physical Health

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Parent, Mike C.; Alquist, Jessica L.

2016-01-01

Although some popular press and nonscholarly sources have claimed that weight is largely unchangeable, the relationship between this belief and objective measures of health remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that people who believe weight is unchangeable will have poorer objective and subjective health, and fewer exercise behaviors and…

Beliefs, stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems in Uganda: implications for theory and practice.

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Quinn, Neil; Knifton, Lee

2014-09-01

There are major gaps in knowledge about beliefs, stigma and discrimination in Uganda, including the relationship between different cultural beliefs and stigmatising responses, how stigma and beliefs result in discrimination and the impact of social factors such as gender, poverty and ethnic conflict. This exploratory study aims to understand beliefs, stigma and discrimination associated with mental health in Uganda in more depth from the perspectives of different stakeholders. Focus groups and interviews were undertaken with mental health activists, policymakers, practitioners, non-governmental and human rights organisations, journalists and academics. Stigma was reported by individuals, families, communities and institutions, including health services. The study also found stigmatising beliefs linked to traditional, religious and medical explanatory frameworks, high levels of 'associated stigma', common mental health problems rarely medicalised and discrimination linked to poverty, gender and conflict. The findings suggest the need to address stigma in their cultural and social context, alongside other human rights initiatives. © The Author(s) 2013.

Oral health-related cultural beliefs for four racial/ethnic groups: Assessment of the literature.

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Butani, Yogita; Weintraub, Jane A; Barker, Judith C

2008-09-15

The purpose of this study was to assess information available in the dental literature on oral health-related cultural beliefs. In the US, as elsewhere, many racial/ethnic minority groups shoulder a disproportionate burden of oral disease. Cultural beliefs, values and practices are often implicated as causes of oral health disparities, yet little is known about the breadth or adequacy of literature about cultural issues that could support these assertions. Hence, this rigorous assessment was conducted of work published in English on cultural beliefs and values in relation to oral health status and dental practice. Four racial/ethnic groups in the US (African-American, Chinese, Filipino and Hispanic/Latino) were chosen as exemplar populations. The dental literature published in English for the period 1980-2006 noted in the electronic database PUBMED was searched, using keywords and MeSH headings in different combinations for each racial/ethnic group to identify eligible articles. To be eligible the title and abstract when available had to describe the oral health-related cultural knowledge or orientation of the populations studied. Overall, the majority of the literature on racial/ethnic groups was epidemiologic in nature, mainly demonstrating disparities in oral health rather than the oral beliefs or practices of these groups. A total of 60 relevant articles were found: 16 for African-American, 30 for Chinese, 2 for Filipino and 12 for Hispanic/Latino populations. Data on beliefs and practices from these studies has been abstracted, compiled and assessed. Few research-based studies were located. Articles lacked adequate identification of groups studied, used limited methods and had poor conceptual base. The scant information available from the published dental and medical literature provides at best a rudimentary framework of oral health related ideas and beliefs for specific populations.

Oral health-related cultural beliefs for four racial/ethnic groups: Assessment of the literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barker Judith C

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to assess information available in the dental literature on oral health-related cultural beliefs. In the US, as elsewhere, many racial/ethnic minority groups shoulder a disproportionate burden of oral disease. Cultural beliefs, values and practices are often implicated as causes of oral health disparities, yet little is known about the breadth or adequacy of literature about cultural issues that could support these assertions. Hence, this rigorous assessment was conducted of work published in English on cultural beliefs and values in relation to oral health status and dental practice. Four racial/ethnic groups in the US (African-American, Chinese, Filipino and Hispanic/Latino were chosen as exemplar populations. Methods The dental literature published in English for the period 1980–2006 noted in the electronic database PUBMED was searched, using keywords and MeSH headings in different combinations for each racial/ethnic group to identify eligible articles. To be eligible the title and abstract when available had to describe the oral health-related cultural knowledge or orientation of the populations studied. Results Overall, the majority of the literature on racial/ethnic groups was epidemiologic in nature, mainly demonstrating disparities in oral health rather than the oral beliefs or practices of these groups. A total of 60 relevant articles were found: 16 for African-American, 30 for Chinese, 2 for Filipino and 12 for Hispanic/Latino populations. Data on beliefs and practices from these studies has been abstracted, compiled and assessed. Few research-based studies were located. Articles lacked adequate identification of groups studied, used limited methods and had poor conceptual base. Conclusion The scant information available from the published dental and medical literature provides at best a rudimentary framework of oral health related ideas and beliefs for specific populations.

Cardiovascular disease in the Amish: an exploratory study of knowledge, beliefs, and health care practices.

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Gillum, Deborah R; Staffileno, Beth A; Schwartz, Karon S; Coke, Lola; Fogg, Louis; Reiling, Denise

2011-01-01

The Old Order Amish population is growing, yet little is known about their cardiovascular health care practices. This ethnographic study explored their cardiovascular knowledge, beliefs, and health care practices. This study showed that the Amish have distinct beliefs and practices which affect their cardiovascular health, and that culturally appropriate education is needed. Copyright © 2011 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Health communication, genetic determinism, and perceived control: the roles of beliefs about susceptibility and severity versus disease essentialism.

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Parrott, Roxanne; Kahl, Mary L; Ndiaye, Khadidiatou; Traeder, Tara

2012-08-01

This research examined the lay public's beliefs about genes and health that might be labeled deterministic. The goals of this research were to sort through the divergent and contested meanings of genetic determinism in an effort to suggest directions for public health genomic communication. A survey conducted in community-based settings of 717 participants included 267 who self-reported race as African American and 450 who self-reported race as Caucasian American. The survey results revealed that the structure of genetic determinism included 2 belief sets. One set aligned with perceived threat, encompassing susceptibility and severity beliefs linked to genes and health. The other set represents beliefs about biological essentialism linked to the role of genes for health. These concepts were found to be modestly positively related. Threat beliefs predicted perceived control over genes. Public health efforts to communicate about genes and health should consider effects of these messages for (a) perceived threat relating to susceptibility and severity and (b) perceptions of disease essentialism. Perceived threat may enhance motivation to act in health protective ways, whereas disease essentialist beliefs may contribute to a loss of motivation associated with control over health.

Deep Belief Nets for Topic Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maaløe, Lars; Arngren, Morten; Winther, Ole

2015-01-01

-formative. In this paper we describe large-scale content based collaborative filtering for digital publishing. To solve the digital publishing recommender problem we compare two approaches: latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and deep be-lief nets (DBN) that both find low-dimensional latent representations for documents....... Efficient retrieval can be carried out in the latent representation. We work both on public benchmarks and digital media content provided by Issuu, an on-line publishing platform. This article also comes with a newly developed deep belief nets toolbox for topic modeling tailored towards performance...

An Integrated Model of Decision-Making in Health Contexts: The Role of Science Education in Health Education

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Arnold, Julia C.

2018-01-01

Health education is to foster health literacy, informed decision-making and to promote health behaviour. To date, there are several models that seek to explain health behaviour (e.g. the Theory of Planned Behaviour or the Health Belief Model). These models include motivational factors (expectancies and values) that play a role in decision-making…

Intensive Care Nurses’ Belief Systems Regarding the Health Economics: A Focused Ethnography

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Heydari, Abbas; Vafaee-Najar, Ali; Bakhshi, Mahmoud

2016-01-01

Background: Health care beliefs can have an effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing practices. Nevertheless, how belief systems impact on the economic performance of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses is not known. This study aimed to explore the ICU nurses’ beliefs and their effect on nurse’s: practices and behavior patterns regarding the health economics. Methods: In this study, a focused ethnography method was used. Twenty-four informants from ICU nurses and other professional individuals were purposively selected and interviewed. As well, 400 hours of ethnographic observations were used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using the methods described by Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings: Eight beliefs were found that gave meaning to ICU nurse’s practices regarding the health economics. 1. The registration of medications and supplies disrupt the nursing care; 2. Monitoring and auditing improve consumption; 3. There is a fear of possible shortage in the future; 4. Supply and replacement of equipment is difficult; 5. Higher prices lead to more accurate consumption; 6. The quality of care precedes the costs; 7. Clinical Guidelines are abundant but useful; and 8. Patient economy has priority over hospital economy. Maintaining the quality of patient care with least attention to hospital costs was the main focus of the beliefs formed up in the ICU regarding the health economics. Conclusions: ICU nurses’ belief systems have significantly shaped in relation to providing a high-quality care. Although high quality of care can lead to a rise in the effectiveness of nursing care, cost control perspective should also be considered in planning for improve the quality of care. Therefore, it is necessary to involve the ICU nurses in decision-making about unit cost management. They must become familiar with the principles of heath care economics and productivity by applying an effective cost management program. It may be optimal to implement the

Intensive Care Nurses' Belief Systems Regarding the Health Economics: A Focused Ethnography.

Science.gov (United States)

Heydari, Abbas; Vafaee-Najar, Ali; Bakhshi, Mahmoud

2016-09-01

Health care beliefs can have an effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing practices. Nevertheless, how belief systems impact on the economic performance of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses is not known. This study aimed to explore the ICU nurses' beliefs and their effect on nurse's practices and behavior patterns regarding the health economics. In this study, a focused ethnography method was used. Twenty-four informants from ICU nurses and other professional individuals were purposively selected and interviewed. As well, 400 hours of ethnographic observations were used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using the methods described by Miles and Huberman (1994). Eight beliefs were found that gave meaning to ICU nurse's practices regarding the health economics. 1. The registration of medications and supplies disrupt the nursing care; 2.Monitoring and auditing improve consumption; 3.There is a fear of possible shortage in the future; 4.Supply and replacement of equipment is difficult; 5.Higher prices lead to more accurate consumption; 6.The quality of care precedes the costs; 7. Clinical Guidelines are abundant but useful; and 8.Patient economy has priority over hospital economy. Maintaining the quality of patient care with least attention to hospital costs was the main focus of the beliefs formed up in the ICU regarding the health economics. ICU nurses' belief systems have significantly shaped in relation to providing a high-quality care. Although high quality of care can lead to a rise in the effectiveness of nursing care, cost control perspective should also be considered in planning for improve the quality of care. Therefore, it is necessary to involve the ICU nurses in decision-making about unit cost management. They must become familiar with the principles of heath care economics and productivity by applying an effective cost management program. It may be optimal to implement the reforms in various aspects, such as the hospital

Developing religiously-tailored health messages for behavioral change: Introducing the reframe, reprioritize, and reform ("3R") model.

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Padela, Aasim I; Malik, Sana; Vu, Milkie; Quinn, Michael; Peek, Monica

2018-05-01

As community health interventions advance from being faith-placed to authentically faith-based, greater discussion is needed about the theory, practice, and ethics of delivering health messages embedded within a religious worldview. While there is much potential to leverage religion to promote health behaviors and improve health outcomes, there is also a risk of co-opting religious teachings for strictly biomedical ends. To describe the development, implementation, and ethical dimensions of a conceptual model for religiously-tailoring health messages. We used data from 6 focus groups and 19 interviews with women aged 40 and older sampled from diverse Muslim community organizations to map out how religious beliefs and values impact mammography-related behavioral, normative and control beliefs. These beliefs were further grouped into those that enhance mammography intention (facilitators) and those that impede intention (barriers). In concert with a multi-disciplinary advisory board, and by drawing upon leading theories of health behavior change, we developed the "3R" model for crafting religiously-tailored health messages. The 3R model addresses barrier beliefs, which are beliefs that negatively impact adopting a health behavior, by (i) reframing the belief within a relevant religious worldview, (ii) reprioritizing the belief by introducing another religious belief that has greater resonance with participants, and (iii) reforming the belief by uncovering logical flaws and/or theological misinterpretations. These approaches were used to create messages for a peer-led, mosque-based, educational intervention designed to improve mammography intention among Muslim women. There are benefits and potential ethical challenges to using religiously tailored messages to promote health behaviors. Our theoretically driven 3R model aids interventionists in crafting messages that address beliefs that hinder healthy behaviors. It is particularly useful in the context of faith

Cultural health beliefs in a rural family practice: a Malaysian perspective.

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Ariff, Kamil M; Beng, Khoo S

2006-02-01

Understanding the sociocultural dimension of a patient's health beliefs is critical to a successful clinical encounter. Malaysia with its multi-ethnic population of Malay, Chinese and Indian still uses many forms of traditional health care in spite of a remarkably modern rural health service. The objective of this paper is discuss traditional health care in the context of some of the cultural aspects of health beliefs, perceptions and practices in the different ethnic groups of the author's rural family practices. This helps to promote communication and cooperation between doctors and patients, improves clinical diagnosis and management, avoids cultural blind spots and unnecessary medical testing and leads to better adherence to treatment by patients. Includes traditional practices of 'hot and cold', notions of Yin-Yang and Ayurveda, cultural healing, alternative medicine, cultural perception of body structures and cultural practices in the context of women's health. Modern and traditional medical systems are potentially complementary rather than antagonistic. Ethnic and cultural considerations can be integrated further into the modern health delivery system to improve care and health outcomes.

The relevance of spirituality, religion and personal beliefs to health-related quality of life: themes from focus groups in Britain.

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O'Connell, Kathryn A; Skevington, Suzanne M

2005-09-01

Generic health-related quality of life (QoL) instruments have not routinely assessed spirituality, religion, and personal beliefs (SRPB) in their measurement. This research addresses the perceived importance of 18 facets (dimensions) of SRPB, for example, inner peace, to QoL that are not specific to a religion, but address the experience of having this belief, in relation to health. Adult focus groups were structured according to beliefs from UK surveys. Quotas targeted gender and health status. Nine focus groups (N = 55, age 51, 47% male) contained sick and well people who were religious, Christians, Buddhists, Quakers (50.1%), agnostic (27.4%), or atheist (21.8%) participants. Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed considerable variability in the importance attributed to some concepts, although spiritual strength, meaning in life and inner peace were relevant to all groups. Spiritual strength (4.42), the meaning of life (4.09), wholeness/integration (4.06), and inner peace (4.02) were most important. Divine love, freedom to practice beliefs, and attachment/detachment were less relevant, conceptually confusing or had religious bias; atheists rated them as unimportant and as less important (p religious people. SRPB is relevant to health-related QoL and consensually important facets should be included in generic health care assessments. Their inclusion permits a more holistic assessment and improves the case for a biopsychosociospiritual model of health.

Modeling the Evolution of Beliefs Using an Attentional Focus Mechanism.

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Dimitrije Marković

2015-10-01

Full Text Available For making decisions in everyday life we often have first to infer the set of environmental features that are relevant for the current task. Here we investigated the computational mechanisms underlying the evolution of beliefs about the relevance of environmental features in a dynamical and noisy environment. For this purpose we designed a probabilistic Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST with belief solicitation, in which subjects were presented with stimuli composed of multiple visual features. At each moment in time a particular feature was relevant for obtaining reward, and participants had to infer which feature was relevant and report their beliefs accordingly. To test the hypothesis that attentional focus modulates the belief update process, we derived and fitted several probabilistic and non-probabilistic behavioral models, which either incorporate a dynamical model of attentional focus, in the form of a hierarchical winner-take-all neuronal network, or a diffusive model, without attention-like features. We used Bayesian model selection to identify the most likely generative model of subjects' behavior and found that attention-like features in the behavioral model are essential for explaining subjects' responses. Furthermore, we demonstrate a method for integrating both connectionist and Bayesian models of decision making within a single framework that allowed us to infer hidden belief processes of human subjects.

Mental health literacy: a cross-cultural approach to knowledge and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder.

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Altweck, Laura; Marshall, Tara C; Ferenczi, Nelli; Lefringhausen, Katharina

2015-01-01

Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL)-the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders-tends to be higher in European and North American cultures, compared to Asian and African cultures. Nonetheless quantitative research examining the variables that explain this cultural difference remains limited. The purpose of our study was fourfold: (a) to validate measures of MHL cross-culturally, (b) to examine the MHL model quantitatively, (c) to investigate cultural differences in the MHL model, and (d) to examine collectivism as a predictor of MHL. We validated measures of MHL in European American and Indian samples. The results lend strong quantitative support to the MHL model. Recognition of symptoms of mental illness was a central variable: greater recognition predicted greater endorsement of social causes of mental illness and endorsement of professional help-seeking as well as lesser endorsement of lay help-seeking. The MHL model also showed an overwhelming cultural difference; namely, lay help-seeking beliefs played a central role in the Indian sample, and a negligible role in the European American sample. Further, collectivism was positively associated with causal beliefs of mental illness in the European American sample, and with lay help-seeking beliefs in the Indian sample. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in beliefs about mental illness, particularly in relation to help-seeking beliefs.

Mental health literacy: a cross-cultural approach to knowledge and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder

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Laura eAltweck

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL – the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders – tends to be higher in Asian and African cultures, compared to European and North American cultures. Nonetheless quantitative research examining the variables that explain this cultural difference remains limited. The purpose of our study was fourfold: a to validate measures of MHL cross-culturally, b to examine the MHL model quantitatively, c to investigate cultural differences in the MHL model, and d to examine collectivism as a predictor of MHL. We validated measures of MHL in European American and Indian samples. The results lend strong quantitative support to the MHL model. Recognition of symptoms of mental illness was a central variable: greater recognition predicted greater endorsement of social causes of mental illness and endorsement of professional help-seeking as well as lesser endorsement of lay help-seeking. The MHL model also showed an overwhelming cultural difference; namely, lay help-seeking beliefs played a central role in the Indian sample, and a negligible role in the European American sample. Further, collectivism was positively associated with causal beliefs of mental illness in the European American sample, and with lay help-seeking beliefs in the Indian sample. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in beliefs about mental illness, particularly in relation to help-seeking beliefs.

Mental health literacy: a cross-cultural approach to knowledge and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Altweck, Laura; Marshall, Tara C.; Ferenczi, Nelli; Lefringhausen, Katharina

2015-01-01

Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL)—the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders—tends to be higher in European and North American cultures, compared to Asian and African cultures. Nonetheless quantitative research examining the variables that explain this cultural difference remains limited. The purpose of our study was fourfold: (a) to validate measures of MHL cross-culturally, (b) to examine the MHL model quantitatively, (c) to investigate cultural differences in the MHL model, and (d) to examine collectivism as a predictor of MHL. We validated measures of MHL in European American and Indian samples. The results lend strong quantitative support to the MHL model. Recognition of symptoms of mental illness was a central variable: greater recognition predicted greater endorsement of social causes of mental illness and endorsement of professional help-seeking as well as lesser endorsement of lay help-seeking. The MHL model also showed an overwhelming cultural difference; namely, lay help-seeking beliefs played a central role in the Indian sample, and a negligible role in the European American sample. Further, collectivism was positively associated with causal beliefs of mental illness in the European American sample, and with lay help-seeking beliefs in the Indian sample. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in beliefs about mental illness, particularly in relation to help-seeking beliefs. PMID:26441699

Treatment beliefs, health behaviors and their association with treatment outcome in type 2 diabetes

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von Arx, Lill-Brith Wium; Gydesen, Helge; Skovlund, Søren

2016-01-01

Objective While the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is growing, it is increasingly well recognized that treatment outcomes in primary care practice are often suboptimal. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which treatment beliefs and health behaviors predict diabetes health outcome as measured by glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level, blood pressure, and lipid profile. Research design and methods This was a large-scale cross-sectional, registry-based study involving a well-defined type 2 diabetes population, in the county of Funen, Denmark. Registry data were combined with a 27-item self-reported survey administered to all insulin-treated people in the registry (n=3160). The survey was constructed to operationalize key concepts of diabetes management, diabetes treatment beliefs, and health behaviors. Results In total, 1033 respondents answered the survey. The majority of treatment beliefs and health behaviors examined were predictors of glycemic control and, to a large extent, lipid profile. Absence from, or a low frequency of, self-measured blood glucose, non-adherence to general medical advice and the prescribed treatment, a low primary care utilization, and perceived low treatment efficacy were factors positively associated with HbA1c levels, s-cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein. Conversely, infrequent self-measured blood glucose was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of having a blood pressure below 130/80 mm Hg. Perceived low treatment efficacy was the only health belief associated with poorer levels of health outcome other than HbA1c. Conclusions Health behaviors were stronger predictors for health outcomes than treatment beliefs. Self-reported adherence to either the treatment regimen or general medical advice most consistently predicted both glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors. PMID:27110367

Treatment beliefs, health behaviors and their association with treatment outcome in type 2 diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von Arx, Lill-Brith Wium; Gydesen, Helge; Skovlund, Søren

2016-01-01

Objective: While the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is growing, it is increasingly well recognized that treatment outcomes in primary care practice are often suboptimal. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which treatment beliefs and health behaviors predict diabetes health outcome......-reported survey administered to all insulin-treated people in the registry (n=3160). The survey was constructed to operationalize key concepts of diabetes management, diabetes treatment beliefs, and health behaviors. Results: In total, 1033 respondents answered the survey. The majority of treatment beliefs...... and health behaviors examined were predictors of glycemic control and, to a large extent, lipid profile. Absence from, or a low frequency of, self-measured blood glucose, non-adherence to general medical advice and the prescribed treatment, a low primary care utilization, and perceived low treatment efficacy...

Cognitive biases explain religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in life's purpose.

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Willard, Aiyana K; Norenzayan, Ara

2013-11-01

Cognitive theories of religion have postulated several cognitive biases that predispose human minds towards religious belief. However, to date, these hypotheses have not been tested simultaneously and in relation to each other, using an individual difference approach. We used a path model to assess the extent to which several interacting cognitive tendencies, namely mentalizing, mind body dualism, teleological thinking, and anthropomorphism, as well as cultural exposure to religion, predict belief in God, paranormal beliefs and belief in life's purpose. Our model, based on two independent samples (N=492 and N=920) found that the previously known relationship between mentalizing and belief is mediated by individual differences in dualism, and to a lesser extent by teleological thinking. Anthropomorphism was unrelated to religious belief, but was related to paranormal belief. Cultural exposure to religion (mostly Christianity) was negatively related to anthropomorphism, and was unrelated to any of the other cognitive tendencies. These patterns were robust for both men and women, and across at least two ethnic identifications. The data were most consistent with a path model suggesting that mentalizing comes first, which leads to dualism and teleology, which in turn lead to religious, paranormal, and life's-purpose beliefs. Alternative theoretical models were tested but did not find empirical support. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health Belief Model and Labelling Theory in the Analysis of Preventive Behaviors to Address Biopsychosocial Impacts of Sexual Violence Among Street Children in YOGYAKARTA

OpenAIRE

Intan Noor Khalifah; Argyo Demartoto; Harsono Salimo

2017-01-01

Background: Street children are at high risk of sexual violence. Necessary measures should be undertaken to address deleterious biopsychosocial impacts of sexual violence. This study aimed to analyze the preventive behaviors to address biopsychosocial impacts of sexual violence among street children in Yogyakarta using Health Belief Model and Labelling Theory.Subjects and Method: This study was qualitative descriptive with phenomenology approach. The key informants for this study included Hea...

Evaluation of breast self-examination program using Health Belief Model in female students

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Mitra Moodi

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Breast cancer has been considered as a major health problem in females, because of its high incidence in recent years. Due to the role of breast self-examination (BSE in early diagnosis and prevention of morbidity and mortality rate of breast cancer, promoting student knowledge, capabilities and attitude are required in this regard. This study was conducted to evaluation BSE education in female University students using Health Belief Model. Methods: In this semi-experimental study, 243 female students were selected using multi-stage randomized sampling in 2008. The data were collected by validated and reliable questionnaire (43 questions before intervention and one week after intervention. The intervention program was consisted of one educational session lasting 120 minutes by lecturing and showing a film based on HBM constructs. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS (version11.5 using statistical paired t-test and ANOVA at the significant level of α = 0.05. Results: 243 female students aged 20.6 ± 2.8 years old were studied. Implementing the educational program resulted in increased knowledge and HBM (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefit and barrier scores in the students (p ≤ 0.01. Significant increases were also observed in knowledge and perceived benefit after the educational program (p ≤ 0.05. ANOVA statistical test showed significant difference in perceived benefit score in students of different universities (p = 0.05. Conclusions: Due to the positive effects of education on increasing knowledge and attitude of university students about BSE, the efficacy of the HBM in BSE education for female students was confirmed.

Health Literacy among Medically Underserved: The Role of Demographic Factors, Social Influence, and Religious Beliefs.

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Christy, Shannon M; Gwede, Clement K; Sutton, Steven K; Chavarria, Enmanuel; Davis, Stacy N; Abdulla, Rania; Ravindra, Chitra; Schultz, Ida; Roetzheim, Richard; Meade, Cathy D

2017-11-01

The current study examined the sociodemographic and psychosocial variables that predicted being at risk for low health literacy among a population of racially and ethnically diverse patients accessing primary care services at community-based clinics. Participants (N = 416) were aged 50-75 years, currently not up-to-date with colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, at average CRC risk, and enrolled in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at promoting CRC screening. Participants completed a baseline interview that assessed health literacy as measured by Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Revised, sociodemographic factors, and psychosocial variables (e.g., health beliefs) prior to randomization and receipt of an intervention. Thirty-six percent of the participants were found to be at risk for low health literacy. Sociodemographic and psychosocial variables were assessed as predictors of being at risk for low health literacy using logistic regression. In the final model, predictors were male gender, being from a racial/ethnic minority group, being unable to work, having higher social influence scores, and having higher religious belief scores. These findings suggest several patient characteristics that may be associated with low health literacy, and highlight the importance of supporting all patients through simplified and clear communications and information to improve understanding of CRC screening information.

Turkish female academician self-esteem and health beliefs for breast cancer screening.

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Avci, Ilknur Aydin; Kumcagiz, Hatice; Altinel, Busra; Caloglu, Ayse

2014-01-01

This study aimed to analyse female academician health beliefs for breast cancer screening and levels of self-esteem. This cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2010 and March 2011, covering female academicians working in all faculties and vocational schools at Ondokuz Mayis University, except for the ones in the field of health (n=141). Data was collected using a questionnaire developed by researchers in the light of the related literature, the Champion's Health Belief Model Scale for Breast Cancer, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Descriptive statistics, the t-test, Mann-Whitney U and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data with the SPSS 13.0 statistical package. 53.8% of the participants were single, 58.6% did not have children, 80.7% had regular menstrual cycles, 28.3% was taking birth control pills, 17.9% were undergoing hormone therapy, 11% suffered breast problems, 8.3% had relatives with breast cancer, 78,6% knew about breast self-examination (BSE), 68.3% was performing BSE, 16.2% were performing BSE monthly, 17.9% had had mammograms, and 30.3% had undergone breast examinations conductedby physicians. The women who had breast physical examinations done by physicians had higher susceptibility, self-efficacy and health motivation, and fewer barriers to mammography than those who did not have breast physical examinations. There was a relationship between the female academician self-esteem and their perceived seriousness of breast cancer, perceived barriers to BSE and health motivation. Our Turksih female academicians had medium levels of self-esteem.

The Prevalence and Antecedents of Religious Beliefs About Health Control in the US Population: Variations by Race and Religious Background.

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Hayward, R David; Krause, Neal; Pargament, Kenneth

2017-12-01

The ways in which religious beliefs influence beliefs about health have important implications for motivation to engage in positive health behaviors and comply with medical treatment. This study examines the prevalence of two health-related religious beliefs: belief in healing miracles and deferral of responsibility for health outcomes to God. Data came from a representative nationwide US survey of religion and health (N = 3010). Full-factorial ANOVA indicated that there were significant differences in both dimensions of belief by race, by religious background, and by the interaction between the two. Black people believed religion played the largest role in health regardless of religious background. Among White and Hispanic groups, Evangelical Protestants placed more responsibility for their health on God in comparison with other religious groups. ANCOVA controlling for background factors socioeconomic status, health, and religious involvement partially explained these group differences.

Skin protective behavior amongst girl students; based on health belief model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Davati

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Skin cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in most of the countries and more than 90% of cancer cases are related to ultra violet rays of the sun. Therefore protective behaviors against sunlight are considered the most essential measures for skin cancer prevention. This study has been conducted to determine the frequency of protective behavior against sunlight among female students of Tehran city high schools. The Health Belief Model has been used for this cross-sectional study to analyze the factors related to protective behaviors. A multi-phase sampling method was used. 941 female student of Tehran city high schools were studied using a probed question form. The data were then analyzed using SPSS software. During the study of protective behaviors against the sunlight, 24.7% of participants mentioned that they always use sunscreen. The behavior of using sunscreen is related to perceived sensitivity, severity and benefit amongst the students (P<0.05. Also 3.8% of the students who participated in our study were always using gloves in summer to protect against sunlight. The behavior of using gloves in summer was also related to perceived sensitivity, severity and benefit (P<0.05. Physicians were the most effective influencing people with 84.9% influence on the appropriate decision making by these students. There is a low frequency of protective behavior against sunlight among the female students of Tehran city high schools. These findings show the necessity of training the students in this regard and promote the protective behaviors amongst them.

Effect of Planned Follow-up on Married Women's Health Beliefs and Behaviors Concerning Breast and Cervical Cancer Screenings.

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Kolutek, Rahsan; Avci, Ilknur Aydin; Sevig, Umit

2018-04-01

The objective of this study was to identify the effect of planned follow-up visits on married women's health beliefs and behaviors concerning breast and cervical cancer screenings. The study was conducted using the single-group pre-test/post-test and quasi-experimental study designs. The sample of the study included 153 women. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Health Belief Model (HBM) Scale for Breast Cancer Screening, the HBM Scale for Cervical Cancer Screening, and a Pap smear test. Data were collected using the aforementioned tools from September 2012 to March 2013. Four follow-up visits were conducted, nurses were educated, and telephone reminders were utilized. Friedman's test, McNemar's test, and descriptive statistics were used for data analyzing. The frequency of performing breast self-examination (BSE) at the last visit increased to 84.3 % compared to the pre-training. A statistically significant difference was observed between the pre- and post-training median values in four subscales except for the subscale of perceived seriousness of cervical cancer under "the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Pap Smear Test" (p < 0.001). The rate of performing BSE significantly increased after the training and follow-up visits. Also, the rate of having a Pap smear significantly increased after the follow-up visits.

The effect of graphics on environmental health risk beliefs, emotions, behavioral intentions, and recall.

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Severtson, Dolores J; Henriques, Jeffrey B

2009-11-01

Lay people have difficulty understanding the meaning of environmental health risk information. Visual images can use features that leverage visual perception capabilities and semiotic conventions to promote meaningful comprehension. Such evidence-based features were employed to develop two images of a color-coded visual scale to convey drinking water test results. The effect of these images and a typical alphanumeric (AN) lab report were explored in a repeated measures randomized trial among 261 undergraduates. Outcome measures included risk beliefs, emotions, personal safety threshold, mitigation intentions, the durability of beliefs and intentions over time, and test result recall. The plain image conveyed the strongest risk message overall, likely due to increased visual salience. The more detailed graded image conveyed a stronger message than the AN format only for females. Images only prompted meaningful risk reduction intentions among participants with optimistically biased safety threshold beliefs. Fuzzy trace theory supported some findings as follow. Images appeared to promote the consolidation of beliefs over time from an initial meaning of safety to an integrated meaning of safety and health risk; emotion potentially shaped this process. Although the AN report fostered more accurate recall, images were related to more appropriate beliefs and intentions at both time points. Findings hinted at the potential for images to prompt appropriate beliefs independent of accurate factual knowledge. Overall, results indicate that images facilitated meaningful comprehension of environmental health risk information and suggest foci for further research.

Medical Student Beliefs about Disclosure of Mental Health Issues: A Qualitative Study.

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Winter, Peter; Rix, Andrew; Grant, Andrew

In 2012 the United Kingdom's General Medical Council (GMC) commissioned research to develop guidance for medical schools on how best to support students with mental illness. One of the key findings from medical student focus groups in the study was students' strong belief that medical schools excluded students on mental health grounds. Students believed mental illness was a fitness to practice matter that led to eventual dismissal, although neither personal experience nor empirical evidence supported this belief. The objective of the present study was a deeper exploration of this belief and its underlying social mechanisms. This included any other beliefs that influenced medical students' reluctance to disclose a mental health problem, the factors that reinforced these beliefs, and the feared consequences of revealing a mental illness. The study involved a secondary analysis of qualitative data from seven focus groups involving 40 student participants across five UK medical schools in England, Scotland, and Wales. Student beliefs clustered around (1) the unacceptability of mental illness in medicine, (2) punitive medical school support systems, and (3) the view that becoming a doctor is the only successful career outcome. Reinforcing mechanisms included pressure from senior clinicians, a culture of "presenteeism," distrust of medical school staff, and expectations about conduct. Feared consequences centered on regulatory "fitness to practice" proceedings that would lead to expulsion, reputational damage, and failure to meet parents' expectations. The study's findings provide useful information for veterinary medical educators interested in creating a culture that encourages the disclosure of mental illness and contributes to the debate about mental illness within the veterinary profession.

Low control beliefs in relation to school dropout and poor health: findings from the SIODO case-control study.

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Bosma, Hans; Theunissen, Marie-José; Verdonk, Petra; Feron, Frans

2014-11-28

There is cumulating evidence that health is compromised through adverse socioeconomic conditions negatively affecting how people think, feel, and behave. Low control beliefs might be a key mechanism. The reversed possibility that low control beliefs might set people on a pathway towards adverse socioeconomic and health-related outcomes is much less examined. A case-control design was used, consisting of 330 cases who dropped out of school in the 2010-2011 school year and 330 controls who still attended school at the end of that year. The respondents, aged between 18 and 23, came from Eindhoven and surrounding areas in the south-east of The Netherlands. A questionnaire asked for current health status, recalled socioeconomic and social background, and recalled control beliefs (mastery and general self-efficacy). Logistic regression analyses were used. Recalls of low mastery and low self-efficacy were strongly related to both dropout and less than good health. Low socioeconomic background was also associated to odds of dropout, but did not confound or moderate the associations of low control beliefs with dropout and health. Odds ratios of dropout and less than good health indicated at least twice the odds of a poor outcome with recalls of low control beliefs. Independent of the socioeconomic background, low control beliefs are related to heightened odds of both poor health and school dropout. Individual differences in control beliefs might thus be as fundamental as socioeconomic conditions in generating life-course socioeconomic and health-related pathways. Although the findings should first be cross-validated in prospective studies, public health professionals working with youth might already start considering early interventions in youth with all too fatalistic and powerless mind-sets.

Health beliefs related to diarrhea in Haitian children: building transcultural nursing knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkpatrick, S M; Cobb, A K

1990-01-01

Regardless of where they live or under what circumstances, mothers throughout the world seem to have a compelling desire to provide the best possible health care for their children (Huston, 1979). Haitian mothers living in the Dominican Republic were no exception. The health beliefs and practices of these mothers related primarily to diarrhea among their children which demonstrated a concern and resourcefulness that is commendable. The results of this study clearly indicate the importance of transcultural nurses conducting culturally relevant research as a basis to develop sound health programs in developing countries. Diarrhea was identified as the single most important threat to a child's health in these communities. That mothers did not know about the correct ingredients and/or proportions for oral rehydration solutions (Western views) was of interest. Although the Dominican government makes some commercial packets of ORS, most of the women interviewed did not have ready access to this product. This finding reflected the need for transcultural nurses to offer to teach mothers how to make ORS using the sugar, salt, and water they had available. Since the mothers' perception that diarrhea was a dangerous threat to their children's health, was verified by childhood mortality statistics in the bateys, it would seem that ORS could make a significant impact on the health status of the children. Breastfeeding also was a major health belief factor associated with the treatment of diarrhea. Even though the majority of mothers believed breast feeding should be continued if a child had diarrhea, a number believed it should be discontinued. Nurses working with CHWs will need to emphasize the importance of breastfeeding and help them to develop creative ways of communicating this information to the mothers. The second most dangerous threat to the child identified by the mothers was respiratory ailments. This suggests a new area of concentration for future research and

Patient compliance in hypertension: role of illness perceptions and treatment beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, S; Walker, A; MacLeod, M J

2004-09-01

Despite many years of study, questions remain about why patients do or do not take medicines and what can be done to change their behaviour. Hypertension is poorly controlled in the UK and poor compliance is one possible reason for this. Recent questionnaires based on the self-regulatory model have been successfully used to assess illness perceptions and beliefs about medicines. This study was designed to describe hypertensive patients' beliefs about their illness and medication using the self-regulatory model and investigate whether these beliefs influence compliance with antihypertensive medication. We recruited 514 patients from our secondary care population. These patients were asked to complete a questionnaire that included the Beliefs about Medicines and Illness Perception Questionnaires. A case note review was also undertaken. Analysis shows that patients who believe in the necessity of medication are more likely to be compliant (odds ratio (OR)) 3.06 (95% CI 1.74-5.38), Pcompliance influence it indirectly. The self-regulatory model is useful in assessing patients health beliefs. Beliefs about specific medications and about hypertension are predictive of compliance. Information about health beliefs is important in achieving concordance and may be a target for intervention to improve compliance.

Modeling intelligent agent beliefs in a card game scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Gołuński, Marcel; Tomanek, Roman; WÄ siewicz, Piotr

In this paper we explore the problem of intelligent agent beliefs. We model agent beliefs using multimodal logics of belief, KD45(m) system implemented as a directed graph depicting Kripke semantics, precisely. We present a card game engine application which allows multiple agents to connect to a given game session and play the card game. As an example simplified version of popular Saboteur card game is used. Implementation was done in Java language using following libraries and applications: Apache Mina, LWJGL.

Association of Healthy Habits Beliefs and Mortality in Older Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Mexican Health and Aging Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez-Villa, Julio M; Marquez, David X; Sanchez-Garrido, Natalia; Perez-Zepeda, Mario U; Gonzalez-Lara, Mariana

2017-06-01

The aim of this article is to establish the association between beliefs about healthy habits and mortality in a group of Mexican older adults. This is an 11-year follow-up secondary analysis of the Mexican Health and Aging Study. There was a significant difference ( p healthy habits have the potential to improve health compared with those who did not. After adjustment for confounders, Cox regression models showed a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.17 (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.07, 0.38], p healthy habits. Although the mechanism is not completely clear, according to our results, believing that healthy habits can improve health was associated with lower rates of mortality. Further research should elucidate potential strategies for changing beliefs in older adults with the goal of improving their overall health.

Influence of Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Health Beliefs on Sexual Orientation Disparities in Papanicolaou Test Use

Science.gov (United States)

Corliss, Heather L.; Missmer, Stacey A.; Frazier, A. Lindsay; Rosario, Margaret; Kahn, Jessica A.; Austin, S. Bryn

2014-01-01

Objectives. Reproductive health screenings are a necessary part of quality health care. However, sexual minorities underutilize Papanicolaou (Pap) tests more than heterosexuals do, and the reasons are not known. Our objective was to examine if less hormonal contraceptive use or less positive health beliefs about Pap tests explain sexual orientation disparities in Pap test intention and utilization. Methods. We used multivariable regression with prospective data gathered from 3821 females aged 18 to 25 years in the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS). Results. Among lesbians, less hormonal contraceptive use explained 8.6% of the disparities in Pap test intention and 36.1% of the disparities in Pap test utilization. Less positive health beliefs associated with Pap testing explained 19.1% of the disparities in Pap test intention. Together, less hormonal contraceptive use and less positive health beliefs explained 29.3% of the disparities in Pap test intention and 42.2% of the disparities in Pap test utilization. Conclusions. Hormonal contraceptive use and health beliefs, to a lesser extent, help to explain sexual orientation disparities in intention and receipt of a Pap test, especially among lesbians. PMID:23763393

Imprecise Beliefs in a Principal Agent Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rigotti, L.

1998-01-01

This paper presents a principal-agent model where the agent has multiple, or imprecise, beliefs. We model this situation formally by assuming the agent's preferences are incomplete. One can interpret this multiplicity as an agent's limited knowledge of the surrounding environment. In this setting,

Health Beliefs Describing Patients Enrolling in Community Pharmacy Disease Management Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Luder, Heidi; Frede, Stacey; Kirby, James; King, Keith; Heaton, Pamela

2016-08-01

The purpose of this study was to survey new enrollees in a community pharmacy, employer-based diabetes and hypertension coaching program to describe the characteristics, health beliefs, and cues to action of newly enrolled participants. A 70-question, 5-point Likert-type survey was developed using constructs from the Health Belief Model (HBM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). New enrollees in the coaching programs completed the survey. Survey responses between controlled and uncontrolled patients and patient demographics were compared. Between November 2011 and November 2012, 154 patients completed the survey. Patients were fairly well controlled with a mean hemoglobin A1C of 7.3% and a mean blood pressure of 134/82 mm Hg. The strongest cue to action for enrollment was the financial incentives offered by the employer (mean: 3.33, median: 4). White patients were significantly more motivated by financial incentives. More patients indicated they had not enrolled previously in the program because they were unaware it was available (mean: 2.89, median 3.0) and these patients were more likely to have an uncontrolled condition (P ≤ 0.050). A top factor motivating patients to enroll in a disease management coaching program was the receipt of financial incentives. Significant differences in HBM, TPB, and TRA responses were seen for patients with different demographics. © The Author(s) 2015.

Influence of a screening navigation program on social inequalities in health beliefs about colorectal cancer screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Vallet, Fanny; Guillaume, Elodie; Dejardin, Olivier; Guittet, Lydia; Bouvier, Véronique; Mignon, Astrid; Berchi, Célia; Salinas, Agnès; Launoy, Guy; Christophe, Véronique

2016-08-01

The aim of the study was to test whether a screening navigation program leads to more favorable health beliefs and decreases social inequalities in them. The selected 261 noncompliant participants in a screening navigation versus a usual screening program arm had to respond to health belief measures inspired by the Protection Motivation Theory. Regression analyses showed that social inequalities in perceived efficacy of screening, favorable attitude, and perceived facility were reduced in the screening navigation compared to the usual screening program. These results highlight the importance of health beliefs to understand the mechanism of screening navigation programs in reducing social inequalities. © The Author(s) 2014.

The role of Compensatory Health Beliefs in eating behavior change: A mixed method study.

Science.gov (United States)

Amrein, Melanie A; Rackow, Pamela; Inauen, Jennifer; Radtke, Theda; Scholz, Urte

2017-09-01

Compensatory Health Beliefs (CHBs), defined as beliefs that an unhealthy behavior can be compensated for by engaging in another healthy behavior, are assumed to hinder health behavior change. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of CHBs for two distinct eating behaviors (increased fruit and vegetable consumption and eating fewer unhealthy snacks) with a mixed method approach. Participants (N = 232, mean age = 27.3 years, 76.3% women) were randomly assigned to a fruit and vegetable or an unhealthy snack condition. For the quantitative approach, path models were fitted to analyze the role of CHBs within a social-cognitive theory of health behavior change, the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA). With a content analysis, the qualitative approach investigated the occurrence of CHBs in smartphone chat groups when pursuing an eating goal. Both analyses were conducted for each eating behavior separately. Path models showed that CHBs added predictive value for intention, but not behavior over and above HAPA variables only in the unhealthy snack condition. CHBs were significantly negatively associated with intention and action planning. Content analysis revealed that people generated only a few CHB messages. However, CHBs were more likely to be present and were also more diverse in the unhealthy snack condition compared to the fruit and vegetable condition. Based on a mixed method approach, this study suggests that CHBs play a more important role for eating unhealthy snacks than for fruit and vegetable consumption. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmentally friendly health care food services: a survey of beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Elisa D; Garcia, Alicia C

2011-01-01

There is increasing global interest in sustainability and the environment. A hospital/health care food service facility consumes large amounts of resources; therefore, efficiencies in operation can address sustainability. Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours about environmentally friendly practices in hospital/health care food services were explored in this study. Questionnaires addressed environmentally friendly initiatives in building and equipment, waste management, food, and non-food procurement issues. The 68 participants included hospital food service managers, clinical dietitians, dietary aides, food technicians, and senior management. Data analysis included correlation analysis and descriptive statistics. Average scores for beliefs were high in building and equipment (90%), waste management (94%), and non-food procurement (87%), and lower in food-related initiatives (61%) such as buying locally, buying organic foods, buying sustainable fish products, and reducing animal proteins. Average positive scores for behaviours were positively correlated with beliefs (waste management, p=0.001; food, p=0.000; non-food procurement, p=0.002). Average positive scores for attitude in terms of implementing the initiatives in health care were 74% for building and equipment, 81% for waste management, 70% for non-food procurement, and 36% for food. The difference in food-related beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes suggests the need for education on environmental impacts of food choices. Research is recommended to determine facilitators and barriers to the implementation of green strategies in health care. As food experts, dietitians can lead changes in education, practice, and policy development.

Mental Health Beliefs Amongst Emirati Female College Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Darmaki, Fatima; Thomas, Justin; Yaaqeib, Saad

2016-02-01

Recent epidemiological data from Arabian Gulf nations suggest that mental health problems such as depression and anxiety have a relatively high prevalence, particularly amongst women. However, despite the widespread morbidity, treatment seeking for mental health problems is low. Mental health beliefs amongst female Emirati college students were explored. A questionnaire exploring perceptions about the causes, consequences and best forms of intervention for mental health problems was administered to 70 participants. Data revealed that social and environmental factors were given the most weight in terms of etiology. Social stigma was the most frequently identified barrier to help seeking. Religious practices were commonly reported as an approach to cope with mental health problems and to maintain good psychological health. Most participants reported willingness to seek help from a healthcare professional. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for improving the quality and accessibility of mental health services in the gulf region.

Influence of Religious Beliefs on the Health of Cancer Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Tai-Jung; Chung, Ue-Lin; Chang, Chee-Jen; Wang, Hsiu-Ho

2016-01-01

This study investigated the influence of religious beliefs on the health of cancer patients and identified the factors contributing to the influence. A questionnaire survey was conducted using a convenient sampling method. A structured questionnaire was used to the samplings, and the data of 200 cancer patients were collected. The effects of religion on the health of cancer patients achieved an average score of 3.58. The top five effects are presented as follows: (a) Religion provides me with mental support and strength, (b) religion enables me to gain confidence in health recovery, (c) religion motivates me to cope with disease-related stress positively and optimistically, (d) religion helps me reduce anxiety, and (e) religion gives me courage to face uncertainties regarding disease progression. Moreover, among the demographic variables, gender, type of religion, and experience of religious miracles contributed to the significantly different effects of religion on patients. Specifically, the effect of religion on the health of patients who were female and Christian and had miracle experiences was significantly (< .01) higher than that on other patients. These results are helpful in understanding the influence of religious beliefs on the health of cancer patients and identified the factors contributing to the influence. The result can serve as a reference for nursing education and clinical nursing practice.

Determinants of physical activity in primary school students using the health belief model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ar-Yuwat, Sireewat; Clark, Mary Jo; Hunter, Anita; James, Kathy S

2013-01-01

Thailand is a middle-income country in which two-thirds of children demonstrate an insufficient level of physical activity. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for obesity and many other health-related consequences in children. Thus, it is important to understand how primary school children perceive things in their daily life as determinants of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of cues, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers on the level of physical activity among primary school students. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Phitsanulok Province, Thailand, in 2011. Multistage sampling selected a total of 123 primary school students. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children and the Cues, Perceived Benefits, and Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire were used to assess the student levels of physical activity, as well as the perceived benefits, barriers, and cues to action. The association between these factors and the level of physical activity was determined by correlation statistics and confirmed by robust regression. Multivariate analysis of variance compared health belief model determinants: perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action on physical activity between male and female students. Self-administered questionnaires were validated and tested in a pilot study. The level of activity among primary school children was significantly influenced by perceived barriers, such as fear of strangers when playing outdoors, bad weather, and too much homework. However, activity was not influenced by cues to action or perceived benefits. Perceived benefits, barriers, and cues to physical activity did not differ by gender. A safe environment and fewer barriers, such as amount of homework, could enhance physical activity in primary school children.

Applying the Health Belief Model and an Integrated Behavioral Model to Promote Breast Tissue Donation Among Asian Americans.

Science.gov (United States)

Shafer, Autumn; Kaufhold, Kelly; Luo, Yunjuan

2018-07-01

An important part in the effort to prevent, treat, and cure breast cancer is research done with healthy breast tissue. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center (KTB) encourages women to donate a small amount of healthy breast tissue and then provides that tissue to researchers studying breast cancer. Although KTB has a large donor base, the volume of tissue samples from Asian women is low despite prior marketing efforts to encourage donation among this population. This study builds on prior work promoting breast cancer screenings among Asian women by applying constructs from the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) to investigate why Asian-American women are less inclined to donate their healthy breast tissue than non-Asian women and how this population may be motivated to donate in the future. A national online survey (N = 1,317) found Asian women had significantly lower perceived severity, some lower perceived benefits, and higher perceived barriers to tissue donation than non-Asian women under HBM and significantly lower injunctive norms supporting breast tissue donation, lower perceived behavioral control, and lower intentions to donate under IBM. This study also compares and discusses similarities and differences among East, Southeast, and South Asian women on these same constructs.

Vegan lifestyle behaviors: an exploration of congruence with health-related beliefs and assessed health indices.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyett, Patricia A; Sabaté, Joan; Haddad, Ella; Rajaram, Sujatha; Shavlik, David

2013-08-01

This study aimed to investigate health belief as a major motive for diet and lifestyle behaviors of 100 vegans in the United States; and to determine congruence with selected health and nutrition outcomes. Response data from an administered questionnaire was analyzed. Statistical analyses determined the most common factors influencing diet choice; the number of vegans practicing particular lifestyle behaviors; body mass index; and prevalence of self-reported chronic disease diagnoses. Nutrient intakes were analyzed and assessed against Dietary Reference Intakes. Health was the most reported reason for diet choice (47%). In the health belief, animal welfare, and religious/other motive categories, low percentages of chronic disease diagnoses were reported: 27%, 11%, and 15%, respectively. There were no significant differences in health behaviors and indices among vegan motive categories, except for product fat content choices. Within the entire study population, health-related vegan motive coincided with regular exercise; 71% normal BMI (mean=22.6); minimal alcohol and smoking practices; frequently consumed vegetables, nuts, and grains; healthy choices in meal types, cooking methods, and low-fat product consumption; and adequate intakes for most protective nutrients when compared to reference values. But incongruence was found with 0% intake adequacy for vitamin D; and observation of excessive sodium use. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effect of an Educational Intervention Program on the Adoption of Low Back Pain Preventive Behaviors in Nurses: An Application of the Health Belief Model

OpenAIRE

Sharafkhani, Naser; Khorsandi, Mahboobeh; Shamsi, Mohsen; Ranjbaran, Mehdi

2015-01-01

Study Design?Randomized controlled trial. Objective?The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of a theory-based educational intervention program on the level of knowledge and Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs among nurses in terms of the adoption of preventive behaviors. Methods?This pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted on 100 nurses who were recruited through the multistage sampling method. The nurses were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups....

Political ideologies and health-oriented beliefs and behaviors: an empirical examination of strategic issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Murrow, J J; Coulter, R L; Coulter, M K

2000-01-01

The area of health care has been called the most important political issue of the 1990s. Attitudes toward health care reform, increasing health costs, and defensive medical practices have been examined in the public press and by academicians. In addition, a substantial amount of research has been directed toward the improvement of individual personal health due to changes in personal health-related habits and behaviors. To date, there are relatively few studies which have attempted to examine the political tendencies of a nationwide sample of respondents as they relate to personal health-related beliefs and behaviors. This article explores the consumer's views on critical questions relating to health orientations and political tendencies. The results indicate a divergence between the political orientations of respondents and their beliefs and behaviors associated with health and wellness. Implications for policy-makers are discussed.

Development of a health information technology acceptance model using consumers' health behavior intention.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jeongeun; Park, Hyeoun-Ae

2012-10-01

For effective health promotion using health information technology (HIT), it is mandatory that health consumers have the behavioral intention to measure, store, and manage their own health data. Understanding health consumers' intention and behavior is needed to develop and implement effective and efficient strategies. To develop and verify the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in health care by describing health consumers' behavioral intention of using HIT. This study used a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design. We extended TAM by adding more antecedents and mediating variables to enhance the model's explanatory power and to make it more applicable to health consumers' behavioral intention. Additional antecedents and mediating variables were added to the hypothetical model, based on their theoretical relevance, from the Health Belief Model and theory of planned behavior, along with the TAM. We undertook structural equation analysis to examine the specific nature of the relationship involved in understanding consumers' use of HIT. Study participants were 728 members recruited from three Internet health portals in Korea. Data were collected by a Web-based survey using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The overall fitness indices for the model developed in this study indicated an acceptable fit of the model. All path coefficients were statistically significant. This study showed that perceived threat, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use significantly affected health consumers' attitude and behavioral intention. Health consumers' health status, health belief and concerns, subjective norm, HIT characteristics, and HIT self-efficacy had a strong indirect impact on attitude and behavioral intention through the mediators of perceived threat, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. An extended TAM in the HIT arena was found to be valid to describe health consumers' behavioral intention. We categorized the concepts in

Setting Overweight adults in motion: the role of health beliefs.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

MSc Annemieke van Nunen; PhD Ad Vingerhoets; MD E.J.M. Wouters; PhD Rinie Geenen

2009-01-01

Objective: Health beliefs of overweight adults who did and did not enter an exercise program were compared to identify possible factors that hamper people to increase physical exercise. Method: Participants (n = 116, 78 women and 38 men) were overweight adults without comorbidities. Self-report

Segmenting by Risk Perceptions: Predicting Young Adults’ Genetic-Belief Profiles with Health and Opinion-Leader Covariates

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Rachel A.; Greenberg, Marisa; Parrott, Roxanne L.

2014-01-01

With a growing interest in using genetic information to motivate young adults’ health behaviors, audience segmentation is needed for effective campaign design. Using latent class analysis, this study identifies segments based on young adults’ (N = 327) beliefs about genetic threats to their health and personal efficacy over genetic influences on their health. A four-class model was identified. The model indicators fit the risk perception attitude framework (Rimal & Real, 2003), but the covariates (e.g., current health behaviors) did not. In addition, opinion leader qualities covaried with one profile: those in this profile engaged in fewer preventative behaviors and more dangerous treatment options, and also liked to persuade others, making them a particularly salient group for campaign efforts. The implications for adult-onset disorders, like alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency are discussed. PMID:24111749

Health-related beliefs and consumer knowledge as determinants of fish consumption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pieniak, Zuzanna; Verbeke, Wim; Scholderer, Joachim

2010-01-01

samples from Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Spain. The sample consisted of 4786 respondents, aged 18-84 years, who were responsible for food purchasing and cooking in the household. Results: European consumers had a very strong belief that eating fish is healthy. Consumers' belief......' knowledge. Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that communication should focus on health-related benefits other than fish consumption alone. Communicating that eating fish is healthy and stressing the health benefits of fish alone, as is still commonly performed (e.g. in generic promotion...... that eating fish is healthy, their interest in healthy eating and objective fish-related nutrition knowledge, positively, but only weakly, influenced fish consumption frequency. Subjective knowledge was found to be a stronger predictor of fish consumption than the previously noted factors. Age and education...

Autonomous Motivation Is Not Enough: The Role of Compensatory Health Beliefs for the Readiness to Change Stair and Elevator Use

OpenAIRE

Radtke, Theda; Rackow, Pamela

2014-01-01

Compensatory health beliefs (CHBs) are beliefs that an unhealthy behavior can be compensated with a healthy behavior. In line with the CHBs model, the aim of this study was twofold. First, the study investigated the relationship between autonomous motivation and CHBs that physical inactivity can be compensated by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Second, the study focused on the associations between CHBs and readiness to use the stairs more often and stair and elevator use. Thus, a c...

Idealized cultural beliefs about gender: implications for mental health.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahalingam, Ramaswami; Jackson, Benita

2007-12-01

In this paper, we examined the relationship between culture-specific ideals (chastity, masculinity, caste beliefs) and self-esteem, shame and depression using an idealized cultural model proposed by Mahalingam (2006, In: Mahalingam R (ed) Cultural psychology of immigrants. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 1-14). Participants were from communities with a history of extreme male-biased sex ratios in Tamilnadu, India (N = 785). We hypothesized a dual-process model of self-appraisals suggesting that achieving idealized cultural identities would increase both self-esteem and shame, with the latter leading to depression, even after controlling for key covariates. We tested this using structural equation modeling. The proposed idealized cultural identities model had an excellent fit (CFI = 0.99); the effect of idealized identities on self-esteem, shame and depression differed by gender. Idealized beliefs about gender relate to psychological well-being in gender specific ways in extreme son preference communities. We discuss implications of these findings for future research and community-based interventions.

Health beliefs of blue collar workers. Increasing self efficacy and removing barriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, S; Sisk, R J; Baldwin, K A

1997-05-01

The study compared the health beliefs of participants and non-participants in a blood pressure and cholesterol screening held at the worksite. A cross sectional, ex-post facto design was used. Questionnaires measuring health beliefs related to cardiac screening and prevention of cardiac problems were distributed to a convenience sample of 200 blue-collar workers in a large manufacturing plant in the Midwest. One hundred fifty-one (75.5%) completed questionnaires were returned, of which 45 had participated in cardiac worksite screening in the past month. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze data. Participants perceived significantly fewer barriers to cardiac screening and scored significantly higher on self efficacy than non-participants. These findings concur with other studies identifying barriers and self efficacy as important predictors of health behavior. Occupational health nurses' efforts are warranted to reduce barriers and improve self efficacy by advertising screenings, scheduling them at convenient times and locations, assuring privacy, and keeping time inconvenience to a minimum.

Health beliefs, attitudes and service utilization among Haitians.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Jennifer D; Mars, Dana R; Tom, Laura; Apollon, Guy; Hilaire, Dany; Iralien, Gerald; Cloutier, Lindsay B; Sheets, Margaret M; Zamor, Riché

2013-02-01

Understanding the factors that influence health beliefs, attitudes, and service use among Haitians in the United States is increasingly important for this growing population. We undertook a qualitative analysis to explore the factors related to cancer screening and utilization of health services among Haitians in Boston. Key informant interviews (n=42) and nine focus groups (n=78) revealed that Haitians experience unique barriers to health services. These include language barriers, unfamiliarity with preventive care, confidentiality concerns, mistrust and stigma concerning Western medicine, and a preference for natural remedies. Results suggest that many Haitians could benefit from health system navigation assistance, and highlight the need for comprehensive, rather than disease-focused programs, to decrease stigma and increase programmatic reach. Faith-based organizations, social service agencies, and Haitian media were identified as promising channels for disseminating health information. Leveraging positive cultural traditions and existing communication networks could increase the impact of Haitian health initiatives.

Smoking is ok as long as I eat healthily: Compensatory Health Beliefs and their role for intentions and smoking within the Health Action Process Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Radtke, Theda; Scholz, Urte; Keller, Roger; Hornung, Rainer

2012-10-01

Compensatory Health Beliefs (CHBs) are defined as beliefs that the negative consequences of unhealthy behaviours can be compensated for by engaging in healthy behaviours. CHBs have not yet been investigated within a framework of a behaviour change model, nor have they been investigated in detail regarding smoking. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate on a theoretical basis whether smoking-specific CHBs, as a cognitive construct, add especially to the prediction of intention formation but also to changes in smoking behaviour over and above predictors specified by the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA). The sample comprised 385 adolescent smokers (mean age: 17.80). All HAPA-specific variables and a smoking-specific CHB scale were assessed twice, 4 months apart. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Smoking-specific CHBs were significantly negatively related to the intention to stop smoking over and above HAPA-specific predictors. Overall, 39% of variance in the intention to quit smoking was explained. For the prediction of smoking, CHBs were not able to explain variance over and above planning and self-efficacy. Thus, smoking-specific CHBs seem mainly important in predicting intentions but not behaviour. Overall, the findings contribute to the understanding of the role of smoking-specific CHBs within a health-behaviour change model.

Food beliefs and practices during pregnancy in Ghana: implications for maternal health interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

de-Graft Aikins, Ama

2014-01-01

Ghanaian women's food beliefs and practices during pregnancy and the scope for developing more effective maternal health interventions were explored in this study. Thirty-five multiethnic Ghanaian women between the ages of 29 and 75 were interviewed about pregnancy food beliefs and practices. I show that, based on the data analysis, their knowledge about food was drawn from lifeworlds (family and friends), educational settings, health professionals, mass media, and body-self knowledge (unique pregnancy experiences). Core lay ideas converged with expert knowledge on maternal health nutrition. Multiple external factors (e.g., economics, cultural representations of motherhood) and internal factors (e.g., the unpredictable demands of the pregnant body) influenced pregnancy food practices. I suggest and discuss a need for culturally situated multilevel interventions.

A Scoping Review of Maternal and Child Health Clinicians Attitudes, Beliefs, Practice, Training and Perceived Self-Competence in Environmental Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lamin Daddy Massaquoi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Clinicians regularly assess, diagnose and manage illnesses which are directly or indirectly linked to environmental exposures. Yet, various studies have identified gaps in environmental assessment in routine clinical practice. This review assessed clinicians’ environmental health practices, attitudes and beliefs, and competencies and training. Relevant articles were sought using a systematic search strategy using five databases, grey literature and a hand search. Search strategies and protocols were developed using tailored mesh terms and keywords. 43 out of 11,291 articles were eligible for inclusion. Clinicians’ attitudes and beliefs towards environmental health and routine clinical practice were generally positive, with most clinicians believing that environmental hazards affect human health. However, with the exception of tobacco smoke exposure, environmental health assessment was infrequently part of routine clinical practice. Clinicians’ self-competence in environmental assessment was reported to be inadequate. Major challenges were the time required to complete an assessment, inadequate training and concerns about negative patients’ responses. Clinicians have strong positive attitudes and beliefs about the importance of environmental health assessments. However, more concerted and robust strategies will be needed to support clinicians in assuming their assessment and counselling roles related to a wider range of environmental hazards.

Quantum Graphical Models and Belief Propagation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leifer, M.S.; Poulin, D.

2008-01-01

Belief Propagation algorithms acting on Graphical Models of classical probability distributions, such as Markov Networks, Factor Graphs and Bayesian Networks, are amongst the most powerful known methods for deriving probabilistic inferences amongst large numbers of random variables. This paper presents a generalization of these concepts and methods to the quantum case, based on the idea that quantum theory can be thought of as a noncommutative, operator-valued, generalization of classical probability theory. Some novel characterizations of quantum conditional independence are derived, and definitions of Quantum n-Bifactor Networks, Markov Networks, Factor Graphs and Bayesian Networks are proposed. The structure of Quantum Markov Networks is investigated and some partial characterization results are obtained, along the lines of the Hammersley-Clifford theorem. A Quantum Belief Propagation algorithm is presented and is shown to converge on 1-Bifactor Networks and Markov Networks when the underlying graph is a tree. The use of Quantum Belief Propagation as a heuristic algorithm in cases where it is not known to converge is discussed. Applications to decoding quantum error correcting codes and to the simulation of many-body quantum systems are described

Masculine beliefs, parental communication, and male adolescents' health care use.

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Marcell, Arik V; Ford, Carol A; Pleck, Joseph H; Sonenstein, Freya L

2007-04-01

Male adolescents frequently become disconnected from health care, especially as they get older, which limits physicians' abilities to address their health needs and results in missed opportunities to connect them to the health care system as they enter adulthood. In this study we tested the ability of modifiable (beliefs about masculinity, parental communication, sex education, and health insurance) and nonmodifiable (age, race/ethnicity, and region of residence) factors to prospectively predict health care use by male adolescents. We conducted a prospective analysis of data from 1677 male participants aged 15 to 19 years who completed the National Survey of Adolescent Males, a household probability survey conducted throughout the United States in 1988 (wave 1, participation rate: 74%) and in 1990-1991 (wave 2, follow-up rate: 89%). We present percentages and adjusted relative risks of the factors that predict male adolescents' self-report of a physical examination by a regular provider in the past year measured at wave 2. On average, 1067 (66%) of 1677 male adolescents at wave 2 reported having a physical examination within the last year. Factors associated with a lower likelihood of a physical examination included living in the South, Midwest, and West; being older in age; and holding more traditional masculine beliefs. Factors associated with a higher likelihood of a physical examination included communicating about reproductive health with both parents and being insured. Male adolescents who were sexually active or engaged in > or = 2 other risk behaviors had neither a higher nor lower likelihood of a physical examination. Efforts to enhance male adolescents' health through health care should include work to modify masculine stereotypes, improve mothers' and fathers' communication about health with their sons, expand health insurance coverage, and identify interventions to connect male adolescents at increased risk for health problems with health care.

Are Cigarette Smokers', E-Cigarette Users', and Dual Users' Health-Risk Beliefs and Responses to Advertising Influenced by Addiction Warnings and Product Type?

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Berry, Christopher; Burton, Scot; Howlett, Elizabeth

2017-10-01

This research examines cigarette smokers' and e-cigarette users' product-related health-risk beliefs across tobacco products and considers the effects of addiction warnings on consumers' responses to persuasion attempts. Study 1 used a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 195 adult cigarette smokers, e-cigarette users, and dual users to examine health-risk beliefs associated with combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes (cancer, lung disease, stroke, heart disease, harm to an unborn baby, and addiction). Using a sample of 265 adult cigarette smokers, e-cigarette users, and dual users, Study 2 used a between-subjects experiment to examine the effects of an addiction warning presented in an advertisement on health-risk beliefs and willingness to try the promoted product. Study 1 results reveal that health-risk beliefs for cigarettes are extremely high, whereas health-risk beliefs for e-cigarettes are lower and vary across specific health-risk beliefs; specifically, beliefs related to addiction and harm to an unborn baby are greater than other risk beliefs. Extending these findings, Study 2 results demonstrate that health-risk beliefs associated with cigarette smoking are not affected by an addiction warning in a cigarette advertisement. However, an addiction warning in an e-cigarette advertisement does modify e-cigarette-related risk beliefs, which, in turn, reduces consumers' willingness to try the promoted e-cigarette. Findings indicate that the addition of an addiction warning may be effective in changing consumers' risk beliefs associated with e-cigarettes and consumers' responses to e-cigarette persuasion attempts. By examining cigarette smokers' and e-cigarette users' product-related health-risk beliefs and considering the effects of an addiction warning on consumers' responses to persuasion attempts, this research contributes to the understanding of how warnings in tobacco promotion affect cigarette smokers', e-cigarette users', and dual users' health

Beliefs about health, illness and acceptance of the limitations of chronic somatic disease inpeople with psoriasis

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Joanna Miniszewska

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Occurrence of a chronic disease means for an affected person significant changes in life and the disease itself can be seen in various categories. Assessment of the disease often affects its acceptance, which in turn affects the choice of coping strategies in dealing with it. Beliefs about psoriasis, a chronic skin disease that causes numerous psychosocial consequences, may influence its acceptance. Aim of the study: To determine the relationship between the way the disease is perceived, beliefs about having an impact on one’s own health, and acceptance of limitations of the disease. Material and methods: The study included 61 psoriasis patients. The following measures were employed: Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS, Disease-Related Appraisals Scale (SOWC, Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC, Self-Administered Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (SAPASI. Results: Sex and occurrence of the disease in family members did not differentiate the respondents in terms of the level of acceptance of the disease. Their perception of the disease as a threat, harm, obstacles and imbalances of life and treatment of health in terms of a chance, and severity of psoriasis measured with SAPASI correlated negatively with the disease acceptance. Internal health locus of control affected it positively. Two homogeneous subgroups were separated. Assessment of the disease in terms of an obstacle/loss, internal health locus of control and treatment of health in terms of a chance allow to predict the level of psoriasis acceptance. Conclusions: People’s beliefs relating to their own illness and their belief in having (or not an influence on their own health are associated with the level of accepting the disease. In other words, beliefs about a disease correlate with adaptation to it.

The Effect of Educational Program Based on the Health Belief Model on Brucellosis Preventive Behaviors among Traditional Ranchers in Rural Areas of Hamadan Province

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Zahra Eskandari

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Training brucellosis preventive behaviors is mandatory to reduce the incidence of this disease in at-risk groups. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational program based on Health Belief Model (HBM on brucellosis preventive behaviors among traditional ranchers in rural areas of Hamadan Province, Iran. Materials and Methods: This interventional study was performed with a pretest-posttest design and a control group in 2016. The participants were traditional ranchers of the villages of Hamadan Province, who are identified at high risk for brucellosis. In this study, 70 ranchers were randomly selected and divided into experimental and control groups. The data was collected using a questionnaire consisting of demographic information, knowledge, behavior checklist, and HBM constructs. The experimental group received the educational intervention during 4 sessions with film screening and the use of video and text messages. Data was analyzed using chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, independent t-test, and paired t-test in SPSS. Results: After the intervention, the mean scores of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived self-efficacy, and cues to action and prevention of brucellosis in the experimental group had significantly increased in comparison to the control group (P<0.001. Conclusions: Results of this study showed that the educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model could promote brucellosis preventive behaviors among traditional ranchers.

The Impact of Education About Cervical Cancer and Human Papillomavirus on Women's Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and Beliefs: Using the PRECEDE Educational Model.

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Koç, Zeliha; Özdeş, Emel Kurtoğlu; Topatan, Serap; Çinarli, Tuğba; Şener, Asuman; Danaci, Esra; Palazoğlu, Cansu Atmaca

2018-02-14

Early detection of cervical cancer improves the chances of successful treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of education about cervical cancer and human papillomavirus on the healthy lifestyle, behavior, and beliefs of Turkish women who were without cancer, using the PRECEDE education model. This qualitative and quantitative study was conducted as a prospective, randomized, 2-group (intervention and control) trial at a community training center in north Turkey. A total of 156 Turkish women who were without cancer participated in this study. The semistructured interview form, the SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire, the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test, and the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale II were used. The subdimension scores of the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test were found to be higher among women in the study group (cervical cancer seriousness, P = .001; health motivation, P = .001) as compared with the control group after the education program. The SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire domain scores for physical role limitations, mental role limitations, and general health perceptions increased in the study group after the intervention. The posteducation health motivation of women in the study group was improved, the women's perceptions of obstacles to Papanicolaou testing decreased, and through increased knowledge and awareness, the rate of Papanicolaou testing increased. Educational programs aimed at motivating women to increase their awareness of cervical cancer, preventing cervical cancer, and having Papanicolaou testing are necessary and beneficial in this sample.

Health belief dualism in the postnatal practices of rural Swazi women: an ethnographic account.

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Thwala, Siphiwe B P; Holroyd, Eleanor; Jones, Linda K

2012-12-01

This study explores and describes the values, beliefs, and practices of rural Swazi women regarding childbearing in the postpartum period. A retrospective ethnographic research design was used. A snowballing sampling method was used to recruit fifteen participants. Face-to-face unstructured audio-taped interviews and field notes were utilised to gather data. Results showed that rural Swazi women held a dual health belief system of modern and traditional medicinal use; practiced lengthy periods of postpartum confinement; customarily gave regular enemas and traditional medicines to their babies; undertook the specific cultural practice of taking the baby to enyonini [a tree struck by lightening] to perform specific rituals; used self-prescribed pharmacy medicines; used both traditional and modern contraception; as well as practiced breastfeeding. Rural Swazi women observe modern health practices alongside traditional customary practices that are inherent to their health belief and value systems in the postnatal period. These customary beliefs and values underpin their birth practices postpartum. Recommendations include the need to consider including formal knowledge on cultural aspects of childbirth and postpartum care into midwifery education; a review of maternal care practices and policies to incorporate widely practised traditional elements including redressing the use of self-prescribed pharmacy medicines to ensure a higher level of safety. Copyright © 2011 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of the Educational Intervention on some Health Belief Model Constructs regarding the Prevention of Obesity in Students

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Ahmadreza Noorbakhsh

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Background Obesity causes depression and undermines mental health in adolescents. It is also related to adulthood diseases and mortality. The current study drew upon an educational intervention to modify some Health Belief Model constructs to preventing overweight and obesity among adolescents.  Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study 100 boy students recruited from selected boys junior high schools in Isfahan. They were randomly assigned to intervention (n=50 and control (n=50 groups. In 4 training sessions, a nutritionist introduced different types of healthy foods and explained how to consume them. A sports coach also taught how to do physical exercises well in 4 sessions (each one 90 minutes in terms of nutrition and physical activity. Data of pretest and posttest gathered from demographic and a valid questionnaire were fed into the SPSS software, version 20.0 and analyzed using relevant statistical tests. Results: The independent t-test revealed that, before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the mean scores of knowledge, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, physical activity, and nutrition behavior (P>0.05; but, after the intervention, this difference between the two groups was significant (P

Do trust-based beliefs mediate the associations of frequency of private prayer with mental health? A cross-sectional study.

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Pössel, Patrick; Winkeljohn Black, Stephanie; Bjerg, Annie C; Jeppsen, Benjamin D; Wooldridge, Don T

2014-06-01

Significant associations of private prayer with mental health have been found, while mechanisms underlying these associations are largely unknown. This cross-sectional online study (N = 325, age 35.74, SD 18.50, 77.5 % females) used path modeling to test if trust-based beliefs (whether, when, and how prayers are answered) mediated the associations of prayer frequency with the Anxiety, Confusion, and Depression Profile of Mood States-Short Form scales. The association of prayer and depression was fully mediated by trust-based beliefs; associations with anxiety and confusion were partially mediated. Further, the interaction of prayer frequency by stress was associated with anxiety.

Cultural beliefs and mental health treatment preferences of ethnically diverse older adult consumers in primary care.

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Jimenez, Daniel E; Bartels, Stephen J; Cardenas, Veronica; Dhaliwal, Sanam S; Alegría, Margarita

2012-06-01

Beliefs concerning the causes of mental illness may help to explain why there are significant disparities in the rates of formal mental health service use among racial/ethnic minority elderly as compared with their white counterparts. This study applies the cultural influences on mental health framework to identify the relationship between race/ethnicity and differences in 1) beliefs on the cause of mental illness, 2) preferences for type of treatment, and 3) provider characteristics. Analyses were conducted using baseline data collected from participants who completed the cultural attitudes toward healthcare and mental illness questionnaire, developed for the Primary Care Research in Substance Abuse and Mental Health for the Elderly study, a multisite randomized trial for older adults (65+) with depression, anxiety, or at-risk alcohol consumption. The final sample consisted of 1,257 non-Latino whites, 536 African Americans, 112 Asian Americans, and 303 Latinos. African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos had differing beliefs regarding the causes of mental illness when compared with non-Latino whites. Race/ethnicity was also associated with determining who makes healthcare decisions, treatment preferences, and preferred characteristics of healthcare providers. This study highlights the association between race/ethnicity and health beliefs, treatment preferences, healthcare decisions, and consumers' preferred characteristics of healthcare providers. Accommodating the values and preferences of individuals can be helpful in engaging racial/ethnic minority patients in mental health services.

Are modern health worries, environmental concerns, or paranormal beliefs associated with perceptions of the effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine?

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Jeswani, Mamta; Furnham, Adrian

2010-09-01

To investigate to what extent paranormal beliefs, modern health worries (MHWs), and environmental concerns were related to beliefs about, and behaviour associated with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Of the participants, 150 completed a four-part questionnaire measuring use and perception of CAM, MHWs, paranormal beliefs, and environmental concerns. A factor analysis on the CAM questions revealed three clear components, labelled efficacy of CAM, attitudes to CAM, and safety of CAM. Age, total MHWs, paranormal beliefs, and environmental concerns were used as predictor variables in regression analyses with efficacy as criterion variable. Age was found to be a significantly related to efficacy of CAM. When total MHW score, paranormal belief score, and environmental concern score were added to the model, the r(2) increased by 29%. Environmental concern did not significantly relate to efficacy but spiritualism beliefs did. A factor analysis of the MHW scale items revealed nine factors. Out of these, radiation, doctors playing God, disasters, and epidemics, as well as harmful rays and air contaminants significantly predict belief in the efficacy of CAM. Overall, older people, with more MHWs, and who believe in the paranormal are more likely to believe that CAM works, possibly because of a more intuitive, 'holistic', thinking style. Limitations of the study are considered.

Congruency between educators' teaching beliefs and an electronic health record teaching strategy.

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Bani-issa, Wegdan; Rempusheski, Veronica F

2014-06-01

Technology has changed healthcare institutions into automated settings with the potential to greatly enhance the quality of healthcare. Implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) to replace paper charting is one example of the influence of technology on healthcare worldwide. In the past decade nursing higher education has attempted to keep pace with technological changes by integrating EHRs into learning experiences. Little is known about educators' teaching beliefs and the use of EHRs as a teaching strategy. This study explores the composition of core teaching beliefs of nurse educators and their related teaching practices within the context of teaching with EHRs in the classroom. A collective case study and qualitative research approach was used to explore and describe teaching beliefs of seven nurse educators teaching with EHRs. Data collection included open-ended, audio-taped interviews and non-participant observation. Content analysis of transcribed interviews and observational field notes focused on identification of teaching belief themes and associated practices. Two contrasting collective case studies of teaching beliefs emerged. Constructivist beliefs were dominant, focused on experiential, student-centered, contextual and collaborative learning, and associated with expanded and a futuristic view of EHRs use. Objectivist beliefs focused on educators' control of the context of learning and were associated with a constrained, limited view of EHRs. Constructivist educators embrace technological change, an essential ingredient of educational reform. We encourage nurse educators to adopt a constructivist view to using technology in teaching in order to prepare nurses for a rapidly changing, technologically sophisticated practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Communication Behavior of Oncology Health-care Providers (HCPs) regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Patient Health care.

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Banerjee, Smita C; Walters, Chasity B; Staley, Jessica M; Alexander, Koshy; Parker, Patricia A

2018-01-01

Delivery of culturally competent care toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients depends on how health-care providers (HCPs) communicate with them; however, research about knowledge, attitude, and behavior of HCPs toward LGBT patients is scant. The objectives of our study were to describe oncology HCPs' knowledge and examine if beliefs about LGB and transgender patients mediate the effects of LGBT health-care knowledge on open communication behaviors with LGB and transgender patients, respectively. A total of 1253 HCPs (187 physicians, 153 advance practice professionals (APPs), 828 nurses, and 41 others) at a Comprehensive Cancer Center completed an online survey that included the following measures: LGBT health-care knowledge, beliefs, communication behaviors, willingness to treat LGBT patients, encouraging LGBT disclosure, and perceived importance of LGBT sensitivity training. Only 50 participants (5%) correctly answered all 7 knowledge items, and about half the respondents answered 3 (out of 7) items correctly. Favorable beliefs about LGBT health care mediated the effect of higher LGBT health-care knowledge on open communication behaviors with transgender patients, controlling for effects of type of profession, religious orientation, gender identity, sexual orientation, and having LGBT friends/family. The results of this study demonstrated an overall lack of medical knowledge and the need for more education about LGBT health care among oncology HCPs.

Pregnant Women's Infant Oral Health Knowledge and Beliefs: Influence of Having Given Birth and of Having a Child in the Home.

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Baker, Suzanne D; Quiñonez, Rocio B; Boggess, Kim; Phillips, Ceib

2016-06-01

Introduction Prenatal oral health interventions can positively impact maternal and child oral health, yet limited information exists concerning how to best educate pregnant women about infant oral health. Our objective was to examine the influence of having given birth on pregnant women's infant oral health knowledge and beliefs. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from a cross-sectional survey of pregnant women ≥18 years old attending UNC's Ultrasound Clinic. Four binomial items were categorized as infant knowledge (IK) and five rated on a Likert scale (1-5) as infant belief (IB). Overall IK and IB scores were calculated, averaging the items within each construct. Respondents were categorized into two groups: multiparous (N = 268), women having at least one previous live birth and a child between 2 and 6 years old, or nulliparous (N = 186), women with no previous live births or a child between 2 and 6 years old. Regression models for IK and IB were conducted using SAS 9.2 with maternal demographic characteristics, dental utilization, and birth history as explanatory variables (p ≤ 0.05). Results IK was affected by race (p = 0.04), mother's oral health self-rating (p = 0.0002), and birth history (p birth, adjusting for explanatory variables. IB was influenced by maternal oral health beliefs (p = 0.002) and history of access to dental care (p = 0.0002). IB did not differ based on birth history (p = 0.17). Discussion The influence of birth history on pregnant women's infant oral health knowledge and beliefs can be considered in future intervention designs to maximize available resources.

Attitudes Towards Seeking Psychological Help: An Integrative Model Based on Contact, Essentialist Beliefs About Mental Illness, and Stigma.

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Hantzi, Alexandra; Anagnostopoulos, Fotios; Alexiou, Eva

2018-06-16

Based on intergroup contact theory, a proposed comprehensive model of attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help was tested, including both potential barriers to mental health help-seeking (i.e., public stigma and self-stigma of seeking help, prejudicial and essentialist beliefs about mental illness, intergroup anxiety) and potential facilitators (i.e., direct and extended contact with persons with mental illness). Relevant measures were completed by 119 community-dwelling participants. Path analysis showed that direct (but not extended) contact with mental illness, by reducing intergroup anxiety, led to less negative beliefs about mental illness and weaker essentialist beliefs about mental illness (the latter being directly and positively associated with negative beliefs about mental illness). Moreover, less negative beliefs about mental illness, by reducing perceptions of self (but not public) stigma of seeking psychological help, were related to more positive attitudes towards help-seeking. Results are discussed in the context of the (unintentional) adverse effects of biogenetic (essentialist) explanations of mental disorders, and the clinical implications regarding interventions that aim at improving help-seeking attitudes.

Lay beliefs about emotional problems and attitudes toward mental health care among parents and adolescents: Exploring the impact of immigration.

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Verhulp, Esmée E; Stevens, Gonneke W J M; Pels, Trees V M; Van Weert, Caroline M C; Vollebergh, Wilma A M

2017-04-01

Individuals' lay beliefs about mental health problems and attitudes toward mental health care are thought to be influenced by the cultural background of these individuals. In the current study, we investigated differences between immigrant Dutch and native Dutch parents and adolescents in lay beliefs about emotional problems and attitudes toward mental health care. Additionally, among immigrant Dutch parents, we examined the associations between acculturation orientations and lay beliefs about emotional problems as well as attitudes toward mental health care. In total, 349 pairs of parents and their adolescent children participated in our study (95 native Dutch, 85 Surinamese-Dutch, 87 Turkish-Dutch, 82 Moroccan-Dutch). A vignette was used to examine participants' lay beliefs. Immigrant Dutch and native Dutch parents differed in their lay beliefs and attitudes toward mental health care, whereas hardly any differences were revealed among their children. Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch parents showed more passive and fewer active solutions to emotional problems compared to native Dutch parents. Additionally, Moroccan-Dutch and Surinamese-Dutch parents reported greater fear of mental health care compared to native Dutch parents. Furthermore, the results showed that immigrant Dutch parents who were more strongly oriented toward the Dutch culture reported less fear of mental health care. Our results showed clear differences in lay beliefs and attitudes toward mental health care between immigrant Dutch and native Dutch parents but not between their children. Substantial differences were also found between parents from different immigrant Dutch populations as well as within the population of immigrant Dutch parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Belief Bisimulation for Hidden Markov Models Logical Characterisation and Decision Algorithm

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Jansen, David N.; Nielson, Flemming; Zhang, Lijun

2012-01-01

This paper establishes connections between logical equivalences and bisimulation relations for hidden Markov models (HMM). Both standard and belief state bisimulations are considered. We also present decision algorithms for the bisimilarities. For standard bisimilarity, an extension of the usual...... partition refinement algorithm is enough. Belief bisimilarity, being a relation on the continuous space of belief states, cannot be described directly. Instead, we show how to generate a linear equation system in time cubic in the number of states....

Influence of Health Warnings on Beliefs about the Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking, in the Context of an Experimental Study in Four Asian Countries

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Jessica L. Reid

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Cigarette package health warnings can be an important and low-cost means of communicating the health risks of smoking. We examined whether viewing health warnings in an experimental study influenced beliefs about the health effects of smoking, by conducting surveys with ~500 adult male smokers and ~500 male and female youth (age 16–18 in Beijing, China (n = 1070, Mumbai area, India (n = 1012, Dhaka, Bangladesh (n = 1018, and Republic of Korea (n = 1362. Each respondent was randomly assigned to view and rate pictorial health warnings for 2 of 15 different health effects, after which they reported beliefs about whether smoking caused 12 health effects. Respondents who viewed relevant health warnings (vs. other warnings were significantly more likely to believe that smoking caused that particular health effect, for several health effects in each sample. Approximately three-quarters of respondents in China (Beijing, Bangladesh (Dhaka, and Korea (which had general, text-only warnings thought that cigarette packages should display more health information, compared to approximately half of respondents in the Mumbai area, India (which had detailed pictorial warnings. Pictorial health warnings that convey the risk of specific health effects from smoking can increase beliefs and knowledge about the health consequences of smoking, particularly for health effects that are lesser-known.

Psychometric properties and assessment of the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale among the general Arabic population

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Sahib MN

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Mohanad Naji Sahib Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Rafidain University College, Baghdad, Iraq Background: Any educational program should be implemented with a good understanding of the population’s beliefs. Therefore, the aims of this study were to validate the Arabic version of the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS-A and assess the osteoprotective attitude among the Iraqi population. Methods: A cross-sectional design, with a random cluster sampling method from the community, was used. The forward–backward–forward translation method was used to translate the questionnaire from English to Arabic. In addition, the Arabic version of Osteoporosis Knowledge Tool (OKT-A and the Arabic version of Osteoporosis Self-Efficacy Scale (OSES-A were used to assess the osteoprotective behaviors. Results: The results showed good face validity and reliability. The construct validity analysis showed seven factors that explain 72.82% of the variance. In addition, the results revealed a low health belief score (149.95±35.936 with only 36.67% of the study population found to have a high OHBS-A level. The results showed significant differences among employment status, marital status, and osteoporosis (OP awareness groups in relation to total OHBS-A scores. In addition, there were significant associations between age groups and OP awareness with health belief levels. Moreover, both exercise and calcium intake subscales of the Osteoporosis Knowledge Tool (OKT positively correlated with all OHBS-A subscales. Exercise and calcium intake subscales of Osteoporosis Self-Efficacy Scale (OSES positively correlated with the perceived susceptibility and perceived barriers toward exercise and calcium intake. The binary logistic regression analysis showed that OKT levels, OSES levels, and age were predictors of OHBS-A levels. Conclusion: Besides cultural obstacles, an educational program for both genders and all age groups is important and should be tailored according to

Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs among Health Professional School students: a cross-sectional study

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Margherita Ferrante

2013-06-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: To examine smoking prevalence, attitudes, knowledge and behaviours/beliefs among Health Professional School students according to the Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS approach. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Catania University Medical Schools. The GHPSS questionnaires were self-administered. Logistic regression model was performed. The level of significance was p < 0.05. RESULTS: 422 students answered to the questionnaire. Prevalence of current smokers was 38.2%. 94.3% of the total sample believe that health professionals should receive specific training to quit smoking, but only 21.3% of the sample received it during the study courses. CONCLUSIONS: Given the high prevalence of smokers among health professionals and their key role both as advisers and behavioral models, our results highlight the importance of focusing attention on smoking cessation training addressed to them.

Health professionals' beliefs related to parental involvement in ambulatory care: an international inquiry.

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Tourigny, Jocelyne; Chartrand, Julie; Massicotte, Julie

2008-01-01

Changes in health care delivery in Canada and Europe, especially the shift to ambulatory care, have modified the care that children and parents receive and have prompted the need for a partnership alliance. The objectives of this exploratory study were to identify Canadian and Belgian health professionals' beliefs and attitudes towards parental involvement in their child's ambulatory care and to determine if these beliefs varied according to cultural background. Health professionals from both countries generally were in favor of parental involvement in their child's care, but are uncertain about its advantages and disadvantages. Facilitators and barriers mentioned by the health care providers were related to parents' abilities or their attitudes toward partnership, and they also expressed a need for more education on the subject. Results of this study indicate that health professionals working in ambulatory care are not fully ready to utilize parents as true partners in their interventions with children and families. Staff education is an important step towards the establishment and maintenance of a real partnership.

Factors Affecting Intention among Students to Be Vaccinated against A/H1N1 Influenza: A Health Belief Model Approach

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Sharon Teitler-Regev

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The outbreak of A/H1N1 influenza (henceforth, swine flu in 2009 was characterized mainly by morbidity rates among young people. This study examined the factors affecting the intention to be vaccinated against the swine flu among students in Israel. Questionnaires were distributed in December 2009 among 387 students at higher-education institutions. The research questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics and Health Belief Model principles. The results show that the factors positively affecting the intention to take the swine flu vaccine were past experience with seasonal flu shot and three HBM categories: higher levels of perceived susceptibility for catching the illness, perceived seriousness of illness, and lower levels of barriers. We conclude that offering the vaccine at workplaces may raise the intention to take the vaccine among young people in Israel.

Cultural Beliefs and Mental Health Treatment Preferences of Ethnically Diverse Older Adult Consumers in Primary Care

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Jimenez, Daniel E.; Bartels, Stephen J.; Cardenas, Veronica; Daliwal, Sanam S.; Alegría, Margarita

2011-01-01

Background Beliefs concerning the causes of mental illness may help explain why there are significant disparities in the rates of formal mental health service use among racial/ethnic minority elderly as compared with their Caucasian counterparts. This study applies the Cultural Influences on Mental Health framework to identify the relationship between race/ethnicity and differences in: (1) beliefs on the cause of mental illness; (2) preferences for type of treatment; and (3) provider characteristics. Method Analyses were conducted using baseline data collected from participants who completed the Cultural Attitudes toward Healthcare and Mental Illness Questionnaire, developed for the PRISM-E (Primary Care Research in Substance Abuse and Mental Health for the Elderly) study, a multi-site randomized trial for older adults (65+) with depression, anxiety, or at-risk alcohol consumption. The final sample consisted of 1257 non-Latino Whites, 536 African-Americans, 112 Asian-Americans, and 303 Latinos. Results African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latinos had differing beliefs regarding the causes of mental illness when compared to Non-Latino Whites. Race/ethnicity was also associated with determining who makes healthcare decisions, treatment preferences, and preferred characteristics of healthcare providers. Conclusions This study highlights the association between race/ethnicity and health beliefs, treatment preferences, healthcare decisions, and consumers' preferred characteristics of healthcare providers. Accommodating the values and preferences of individuals can be helpful in engaging racial/ethnic minority patients in mental health services. PMID:21992942

Physical health, lifestyle beliefs and behaviors, and mental health of entering graduate health professional students: Evidence to support screening and early intervention.

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Mazurek Melnyk, Bernadette; Slevin, Caitlin; Militello, Lisa; Hoying, Jacqueline; Teall, Alice; McGovern, Colleen

2016-04-01

Little is known about the physical health, lifestyle beliefs and behaviors, and mental health among first-year health professional graduate students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe these attributes as well as to explore the relationships among them. A descriptive correlational study was conducted on the baseline data from a wellness onboarding intervention study with 93 health sciences students from seven different colleges within a large public land grant university in the Midwest United States. Nearly 40% of the sample was overweight/obese, and 19% of students had elevated total cholesterol levels. Only 44% met the recommended 30 min of exercise 5 days per week. Forty-one percent reported elevated depressive symptoms and 28% had elevated anxiety. Four students reported suicidal ideation. Inverse relationships existed among depression/anxiety and healthy lifestyle beliefs/behaviors. Students entering health professional schools are at high risk for depression, anxiety, and unhealthy behaviors, which could be averted through screening and early evidence-based interventions. Assessing the physical health, lifestyle behaviors, and mental health of first-year health sciences professional students is important to identify health problems and modifiable at-risk behaviors so that early interventions can be implemented to improve outcomes. ©2016 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Using the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction to Understand College Students' STI Testing Beliefs, Intentions, and Behaviors.

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Wombacher, Kevin; Dai, Minhao; Matig, Jacob J; Harrington, Nancy Grant

2018-03-22

To identify salient behavioral determinants related to STI testing among college students by testing a model based on the integrative model of behavioral (IMBP) prediction. 265 undergraduate students from a large university in the Southeastern US. Formative and survey research to test an IMBP-based model that explores the relationships between determinants and STI testing intention and behavior. Results of path analyses supported a model in which attitudinal beliefs predicted intention and intention predicted behavior. Normative beliefs and behavioral control beliefs were not significant in the model; however, select individual normative and control beliefs were significantly correlated with intention and behavior. Attitudinal beliefs are the strongest predictor of STI testing intention and behavior. Future efforts to increase STI testing rates should identify and target salient attitudinal beliefs.

Systematic review of beliefs, behaviours and influencing factors associated with disclosure of a mental health problem in the workplace

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Brohan Elaine

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Stigma and discrimination present an important barrier to finding and keeping work for individuals with a mental health problem. This paper reviews evidence on: 1 employment-related disclosure beliefs and behaviours of people with a mental health problem; 2 factors associated with the disclosure of a mental health problem in the employment setting; 3 whether employers are less likely to hire applicants who disclose a mental health problem; and 4 factors influencing employers' hiring beliefs and behaviours towards job applicants with a mental health problem. Methods A systematic review was conducted for the period 1990-2010, using eight bibliographic databases. Meta-ethnography was used to provide a thematic understanding of the disclosure beliefs and behaviours of individuals with mental health problem. Results The searches yielded 8,971 items which was systematically reduced to 48 included studies. Sixteen qualitative, one mixed methods and seven quantitative studies were located containing evidence on the disclosure beliefs and behaviours of people with a mental health problem, and the factors associated with these beliefs and behaviours. In the meta-ethnography four super-ordinate themes were generated: 1 expectations and experiences of discrimination; 2 other reasons for non-disclosure; 3 reasons for disclosure; and 4 disclosure dimensions. Two qualitative, one mixed methods and 22 quantitative studies provided data to address the remaining two questions on the employers perspective. Conclusions By presenting evidence from the perspective of individuals on both sides of the employment interaction, this review provides integrated perspective on the impact of disclosure of a mental health problem on employment outcomes.

Survey of Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviors of Migrant Vietnamese Parents Regarding Young Children's Oral Health.

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Nguyen, Uyen N; Rowe, Dorothy J; Barker, Judith C

2017-04-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors of migrant Vietnamese parents of 1-5 year-olds in San Jose, California. Method: A verbally-administered survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 45 Vietnamese parents recruited at San Jose public libraries. Following preliminary screening, written informed consent was obtained from eligible individuals. A pre-tested, structured 94-item questionnaire was used to collect information regarding parent demographics, and the parent's knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors about children's oral health. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Vietnamese parents acknowledged a number of basic concepts regarding early childhood caries (ECC), such as influences of sugar consumption, oral hygiene, and bottle use. Unlike other groups, they reported some familiarity with the role of bacteria in caries etiology. Oral health knowledge and beliefs, however, were not reflected in parental oral health behaviors such as supervision of children's brushing. Knowledge about the preventive role of fluoride was limited and varied among the population. Parental knowledge and behaviors did not vary by education level or length of residence in US. Conclusion: Vietnamese parents demonstrated reasonably good oral health knowledge, but poor behavioral guidance of their children's oral health, indicating the need for continued parental education emphasizing age-appropriate oral care and the preventative role of fluoride. Copyright © 2017 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Beliefs about dangerousness of people with mental health problems: the role of media reports and personal exposure to threat or harm.

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Reavley, N J; Jorm, A F; Morgan, A J

2016-09-01

To assess the associations between beliefs about the dangerousness of people with mental health problems and exposure to media reports of violence or personal experiences of fear, threat or harm. Telephone interviews were carried out with 5220 Australians aged 18+. Respondents heard a vignette of a person with depression or early schizophrenia and were asked whether they believed him to be dangerous. Other questions covered past 12-month recall of media reports of violence and mental health problems, contact with and experiences of fear, threat or harm by people with mental health problems. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the associations between beliefs about dangerousness and media and these types of contact with people with mental health problems. For the early schizophrenia vignette, recall of media reports and having felt afraid of someone were associated with beliefs about dangerousness. For the depression vignette, media reports about violence and mental health problems or the experiences of feeling afraid or having been threatened or harmed were not strongly associated with beliefs about dangerousness. For both vignettes, knowing someone with a mental health problem and having a higher level of education were associated with less belief in dangerousness. Media reports may play a greater role in forming attitudes in low prevalence disorders and further efforts to reduce any adverse impact of media reporting should focus on these disorders. The study also supports the effectiveness of contact with people with mental health problems in reducing beliefs about dangerousness.

Doing masculinity, not doing health? a qualitative study among dutch male employees about health beliefs and workplace physical activity

OpenAIRE

Verdonk, Petra; Seesing, Hannes; de Rijk, Angelique

2010-01-01

Abstract Background Being female is a strong predictor of health promoting behaviours. Workplaces show great potential for lifestyle interventions, but such interventions do not necessarily take the gendered background of lifestyle behaviours into account. A perspective analyzing how masculine gender norms affect health promoting behaviours is important. This study aims to explore men's health beliefs and attitudes towards health promotion; in particular, it explores workplace physical activi...

Korean Americans' Beliefs about Colorectal Cancer Screening

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Shin-Young Lee, PhD, RN

2013-06-01

Conclusion: Results show the critical need for in-depth understanding of unique health and cultural beliefs about CRC screening in KAs. These beliefs could be useful for future intervention strategies to change health and cultural beliefs in order to increase CRC screening participation in KAs.

Economic versus belief-based models: Shedding light on the adoption of novel green technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girod, Bastien; Mayer, Sebastian; Nägele, Florian

2017-01-01

Understanding the determinants for the adoption of novel green consumer technologies is important to effectively foster their diffusion. Energy and environmental science literature often takes an approach based on economic variables such as objectively measureable household and technology characteristics. Increasingly, also subjective variables based on personal belief are considered. On the basis of a survey about the intention to adopt an exemplary novel green consumer technology (intelligent thermostats), we contribute to the clarification of the explanatory power of these two approaches. We first compare the economic model to the belief-based model and second, investigate how beliefs about the green technology are influenced by personal environmental norms and innovativeness. Our evaluation shows that the belief-based model explains considerably higher variance in the intention to adopt. Thereby the perceived hedonic satisfaction, usefulness, habit and facilitating conditions reveal as key determinants. Moreover, environmental norms show lower impact than personal innovativeness. In the discussion we consolidate these findings and point to the risk of omitted variable bias when selectively including belief-based variables in adoption models. Our findings suggest that policies can effectively accelerate the early market diffusion of green consumer technologies by incentivizing retailers to introduce and market such technologies. - Highlights: • Adoption of a green consumer technology (energy-saving thermostats) is evaluated. • Subjective beliefs about the technology show higher impact than objective measures. • Key beliefs relate to pleasure, usefulness, habits and facilitating conditions. • Personal innovativeness is more relevant for adoption than environmental norms. • Isolated use of belief-based adoption determinants can lead to omitted variable bias.

Breast Cancer Knowledge, Perception and Breast Self- Examination Practices among Yemeni Women: an Application of the Health Belief Model.

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Al-Sakkaf, Khaled Abdulla; Basaleem, Huda Omer

2016-01-01

The incidence of breast cancer is rapidly increasing in Yemen with recent indications of constituting one-third of female cancers. The main problem in Yemen remains very late presentation of breast cancer, most of which should have been easily recognisable. Since stage of disease at diagnosis is the most important prognostic variable, early diagnosis is an important option to be considered for control of breast cancer in low resourced settings like Yemen. In the present study, we aimed at describing breast cancer knowledge, perceptions and breast self-examination (BSE) practices among a sample of Yemeni women. This cross-sectional study covered 400 women attending four reproductive health centres in Aden, Yemen through face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire during April - July 2014. We collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge about breast cancer, and screening practices as well as respondents' perceptions based on the five sub scales of the Health Belief Model (HBM): perceived susceptibility; perceived severity; perceived barriers; perceived benefits; and self-efficacy. The response format was a fivepoint Likert scale. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 20) was used for statistical analysis. Statistical significance was set at pearly detection and reduce the burden of breast cancer.

Beliefs about Racism and Health among African American Women with Diabetes: A Qualitative Study

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Wagner, Julie A.; Osborn, Chandra Y.; Mendenhall, Emily A.; Budris, Lisa M.; Belay, Sophia; Tennen, Howard A.

2011-01-01

Exposure to racism has been linked to poor health outcomes. Little is known about the impact of racism on diabetes outcomes. This study explored African American (AA) women’s beliefs about how racism interacts with their diabetes self-management and control. Four focus groups were conducted with a convenience sample of 28 adult AA women with type 2 diabetes who were recruited from a larger quantitative study on racism and diabetes. The focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by the authors. Women reported that exposure to racism was a common phenomenon, and their beliefs did in fact link racism to poor health. Specifically, women reported that exposure to racism caused physiological arousal including cardiovascular and metabolic perturbations. There was consensus that physiological arousal was generally detrimental to health. Women also described limited, and in some cases maladaptive, strategies to cope with racist events including eating unhealthy food choices and portions. There was consensus that the subjective nature of perceiving racism and accompanying social prohibitions often made it impossible to address racism directly. Many women described anger in such situations, and the tendency to internalize anger and other negative emotions, only to find that the negative emotions would be reactivated repeatedly with exposure to novel racial stressors, even long after the original racist event remitted. AA women in this study believed that racism affects their diabetes self-management and control. Health beliefs can exert powerful effects on health behaviors and may provide an opportunity for health promotion interventions in diabetes. PMID:21528110

The Relationship of Health Beliefs with Information Sources and HPV Vaccine Acceptance among Young Adults in Korea.

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Kim, Jarim

2018-04-04

Despite the HPV vaccine’s efficacy in preventing cervical cancer, its coverage rates among Asians are very low. To increase immunization coverage among these populations, understanding the psychological factors that affect HPV acceptability is critical. To this end, this study examined the relationships between multidimensional health beliefs and HPV vaccine acceptance, and what information sources effectively foster HPV vaccination-related health beliefs. Data were collected using a survey of 323 undergraduate students in Korea. Results showed that perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and perceived vaccine safety concerns predicted vaccine acceptance. Multiple dimensions of perceived barriers showed differing impacts on vaccine acceptance. In addition, interpersonal information sources were effective in boosting various health beliefs for HPV vaccination. The Internet also was effective in reducing social barriers, but the effects were opposite to those of social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care in adolescents and young adults with Type 1 diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chas Skinner, T.; Hampson, Sarah E.; Fife-Schaw, Chris

2002-01-01

This study compared 3 models of association between personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care in a cross-sectional design. These models were as follows: (a) Emotional stability determines self-care indirectly through personal model beliefs, and conscientiousness is a direct predictor of ....... Participants (N = 358, aged 12-30 years) with Type 1 diabetes completed measures of personality, personal model beliefs, and self-care. Structural equation modeling indicated that Model C was the best fit to the data....

Doing masculinity, not doing health? A qualitative study among Dutch male employees about health beliefs and workplace physical activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Verdonk, Petra; Seesing, Hannes; de Rijk, Angelique

2010-11-19

Being female is a strong predictor of health promoting behaviours. Workplaces show great potential for lifestyle interventions, but such interventions do not necessarily take the gendered background of lifestyle behaviours into account. A perspective analyzing how masculine gender norms affect health promoting behaviours is important. This study aims to explore men's health beliefs and attitudes towards health promotion; in particular, it explores workplace physical activity in relation to masculine ideals among male employees. In the Fall of 2008, we interviewed 13 white Dutch male employees aged 23-56 years. The men worked in a wide range of professions and occupational sectors and all interviewees had been offered a workplace physical activity program. Interviews lasted approximately one to one-and-a-half hour and addressed beliefs about health and lifestyle behaviours including workplace physical activity, as well as normative beliefs about masculinity. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Two normative themes were found: first, the ideal man is equated with being a winner and real men are prepared to compete, and second, real men are not whiners and ideally, not vulnerable. Workplace physical activity is associated with a particular type of masculinity - young, occupied with looks, and interested in muscle building. Masculine norms are related to challenging health while taking care of health is feminine and, hence, something to avoid. Workplace physical activity is not framed as a health measure, and not mentioned as of importance to the work role. Competitiveness and nonchalant attitudes towards health shape masculine ideals. In regards to workplace physical activity, some men resist what they perceive to be an emphasis on muscled looks, whereas for others it contributes to looking self-confident. In order to establish a greater reach among vulnerable employees such as ageing men, worksite health promotion programs including workplace physical

Doing masculinity, not doing health? a qualitative study among dutch male employees about health beliefs and workplace physical activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Rijk Angelique

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Being female is a strong predictor of health promoting behaviours. Workplaces show great potential for lifestyle interventions, but such interventions do not necessarily take the gendered background of lifestyle behaviours into account. A perspective analyzing how masculine gender norms affect health promoting behaviours is important. This study aims to explore men's health beliefs and attitudes towards health promotion; in particular, it explores workplace physical activity in relation to masculine ideals among male employees. Methods In the Fall of 2008, we interviewed 13 white Dutch male employees aged 23-56 years. The men worked in a wide range of professions and occupational sectors and all interviewees had been offered a workplace physical activity program. Interviews lasted approximately one to one-and-a-half hour and addressed beliefs about health and lifestyle behaviours including workplace physical activity, as well as normative beliefs about masculinity. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results Two normative themes were found: first, the ideal man is equated with being a winner and real men are prepared to compete, and second, real men are not whiners and ideally, not vulnerable. Workplace physical activity is associated with a particular type of masculinity - young, occupied with looks, and interested in muscle building. Masculine norms are related to challenging health while taking care of health is feminine and, hence, something to avoid. Workplace physical activity is not framed as a health measure, and not mentioned as of importance to the work role. Conclusions Competitiveness and nonchalant attitudes towards health shape masculine ideals. In regards to workplace physical activity, some men resist what they perceive to be an emphasis on muscled looks, whereas for others it contributes to looking self-confident. In order to establish a greater reach among vulnerable employees such as ageing men

Headteachers' prior beliefs on child health and their engagement in school based health interventions: a qualitative study.

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Todd, Charlotte; Christian, Danielle; Davies, Helen; Rance, Jaynie; Stratton, Gareth; Rapport, Frances; Brophy, Sinead

2015-04-18

Schools play an important role in promoting the health of children. However, little consideration is often given to the influence that headteachers' and school staff's prior beliefs have on the implementation of public health interventions. This study examined primary school headteachers' and school health co-ordinators' views regarding child health in order to provide greater insights on the school's perspective for those designing future school-based health interventions. A qualitative study was conducted using 19 semi-structured interviews with headteachers, deputy headteachers and school health co-ordinators in the primary school setting. All transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Whilst many participants in this study believed good health was vital for learning, wide variance was evident regarding the perceived health of school pupils and the magnitude of responsibility schools should take in addressing child health behaviours. Although staff in this study acknowledged the importance of their role, many believed the responsibility placed upon schools for health promotion was becoming too much; suggesting health interventions need to better integrate school, parental and societal components. With mental health highlighted as an increasing priority in many schools, incorporating wellbeing outcomes into future school based health interventions is advocated to ensure a more holistic understanding of child health is gained. Understanding the health beliefs of school staff when designing interventions is crucial as there appears to be a greater likelihood of interventions being successfully adopted if staff perceive a health issue as important among their pupils. An increased dependability on schools for addressing health was expressed by headteachers in this study, highlighting a need for better understanding of parental, child and key stakeholder perspectives on responsibility for child health. Without this understanding, there is potential for certain

Low Back Pain Preventive Behaviors Among Nurses Based on the Health Belief Model Constructs

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Naser Sharafkhani

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The nursing profession is physically demanding as it is ranked second from the viewpoint of physical activity, following industrial occupations. Nursing is considered a profession with high musculoskeletal disorders, specifically low back pain. This article evaluated the nurses’ educational needs based on the Health Belief Model (HBM with focus on the low back pain and adoption of preventive behaviors. This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 133 nurses who were selected randomly from three public educational hospitals affiliated with Arak University of Medical Sciences. Data collection was performed with a questionnaire, which included demographic characteristics, questions on HBM constructs, and a checklist for explaining the performances. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical tests and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. In this study, among the HBM constructs, the cues to action and the perceived barriers were the main predictors of optimal performance among the sample subjects (B = 0.09, p < .01. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the nurses’ performance on adopting the preventive behaviors and the scores of perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and cues to action (p < .05. However, no significant relationship was observed between the nurses’ performance and perceived susceptibility, severity, and benefits. In this study, as for behavior barriers, the nurses complained about unfamiliarity with the workplace ergonomics and inappropriate conditions based on ergonomic principles, which requires educational planning with the aim of overcoming perceived barriers, improving managerial activities, and enhancing the working place conditions.

[Knowledge and beliefs of professional workers in education, health and social services towards ADHD].

Science.gov (United States)

Massé, Line; Couture, Caroline; Anciaux, Valentine

2010-01-01

This study aims at better understanding the knowledge and beliefs of professional workers in school, health and social service settings in Quebec regarding ADHD. The authors examine the important discrepancies identified by Cohen (1999) between identified standard practices in treating ADHD patients and practices used in Quebec. This situation could be linked to insufficient knowledge of workers or certain of their beliefs that oppose these practices and their reluctance to implement them in their environment. Two measurement scales were utilised : the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Orientation Scale (ADHDOS, Couture, 2002) and the Survey of ADHD of Jerome and al. (1994). Results show among other things, that knowledge and beliefs vary according to professionals'background and training.

Beliefs about Promoting Cognitive Health among Filipino Americans Who Care for Persons with Dementia

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Laditka, Sarah B.; Tseng, Winston; Price, Anna E.; Ivey, Susan L.; Friedman, Daniela B.; Liu, Rui; Wu, Bei; Logsdon, Rebecca G.; Beard, Renee L.

2012-01-01

We examined beliefs about promoting cognitive health among Filipino Americans who care for persons with dementia, their awareness of media information about cognitive health, and their suggestions for communicating such information to other caregivers. We conducted three focus groups (25 participants). The constant comparison method compared…

Media exposure and tobacco product addiction beliefs: Findings from the 2015 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS-FDA 2015).

Science.gov (United States)

Donaldson, Elisabeth A; Hoffman, Allison C; Zandberg, Izabella; Blake, Kelly D

2017-09-01

Addiction beliefs about tobacco use are associated with intentions to use and use of tobacco products. Exposure to information about tobacco products in media sources may affect addiction beliefs. To examine the relationship between media exposure and tobacco product addiction beliefs. A nationally representative sample of US adults (n=3738) from the 2015 National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey was used to examine addiction beliefs about cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes, hookah/waterpipe tobacco, and roll-your-own cigarettes. We used logistic regression to examine the relationship between media exposure and addiction beliefs. We defined media exposure by hours exposed, as well as exposure to tobacco use health effects information through media sources including social media. We categorized media sources by whether respondents actively or passively engaged with the source. A majority (60.6% to 87.3%) of respondents believed that cigarettes, cigars, roll-your-own cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are addictive. Less than half of respondents believed that electronic cigarettes or hookah/waterpipes are addictive (45.2% and 49.8%, respectively). Respondents exposed to messages about tobacco use health effects on active media channels (e.g., social media) had greater odds of believing that smokeless tobacco (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.48), hookah/waterpipe (AOR=1.69), and roll-your-own cigarettes (AOR=1.61) are addictive. Respondents exposed to tobacco use health effects messages on passive media channels (e.g., television), had greater odds of believing that cigarettes (AOR=2.76) and electronic cigarettes (AOR=2.12) are addictive. US adult exposure to information about the health effects of tobacco use was associated with addiction beliefs about tobacco products. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Using the Health Belief Model to Explain Mothers' and Fathers' Intention to Participate in Universal Parenting Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Salari, Raziye; Filus, Ania

2017-01-01

Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical framework, we studied factors related to parental intention to participate in parenting programs and examined the moderating effects of parent gender on these factors. Participants were a community sample of 290 mothers and 290 fathers of 5- to 10-year-old children. Parents completed a set of questionnaires assessing child emotional and behavioral difficulties and the HBM constructs concerning perceived program benefits and barriers, perceived child problem susceptibility and severity, and perceived self-efficacy. The hypothesized model was evaluated using structural equation modeling. The results showed that, for both mothers and fathers, perceived program benefits were associated with higher intention to participate in parenting programs. In addition, higher intention to participate was associated with lower perceived barriers only in the sample of mothers and with higher perceived self-efficacy only in the sample of fathers. No significant relations were found between intention to participate and perceived child problem susceptibility and severity. Mediation analyses indicated that, for both mothers and fathers, child emotional and behavioral problems had an indirect effect on parents' intention to participate by increasing the level of perceived benefits of the program. As a whole, the proposed model explained about 45 % of the variance in parental intention to participate. The current study suggests that mothers and fathers may be motivated by different factors when making their decision to participate in a parenting program. This finding can inform future parent engagement strategies intended to increase both mothers' and fathers' participation rates in parenting programs.

Predictors of smoking among the secondary high school boy students based on the health belief model

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Samira Mohammadi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Smoking is one of the most important risk factors for health and also health problems, such as heart diseases, especially for young people. This study aimed to investigate the effect of factors related to smoking among the secondary high school students in the city of Marivan (Kurdistan-Iran, in 2015, based on the constructs of health belief model (HBM. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 470 secondary high school students in Marivan in 2015. The samples were selected by random cluster sampling. A question with four sections was used to collect data (demographic questions, knowledge section, attitude section, and questions related to e constructs of HBM. Results: According to the results, the correlation of smoking was stronger with attitude (r = 0.269 and odds ratio = 0.89 but weaker with perceived barriers (r = 0.101. There was not a significant correlation between smoking behavior and knowledge of the harms of smoking (r = −0.005. Moreover, Cues to action was effective predictor of smoking behavior (r = 0.259. Conclusions: The findings of this study show that the prevalence of smoking in the studied sample is somewhat lower than other regions of Iran, but it should be noted that if no interventions are done to prevent smoking in this age group. The findings of the study also showed that the structure of attitudes, self-efficacy, and Cues to action are the strongest predictors of smoking among students. Albeit, attitude was strongest predictor of smoking that shows the prevalence of smoking can be reduced by focusing in this part. Considering the mean age of participants (16/2 ± 0.25 years, that shows the riskiest period for smoking is 16 years and authorities can make change in policies of cigarette selling only for over 18 years.

The Relationship of Health Beliefs with Information Sources and HPV Vaccine Acceptance among Young Adults in Korea

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Jarim Kim

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Despite the HPV vaccine’s efficacy in preventing cervical cancer, its coverage rates among Asians are very low. To increase immunization coverage among these populations, understanding the psychological factors that affect HPV acceptability is critical. To this end, this study examined the relationships between multidimensional health beliefs and HPV vaccine acceptance, and what information sources effectively foster HPV vaccination-related health beliefs. Data were collected using a survey of 323 undergraduate students in Korea. Results showed that perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and perceived vaccine safety concerns predicted vaccine acceptance. Multiple dimensions of perceived barriers showed differing impacts on vaccine acceptance. In addition, interpersonal information sources were effective in boosting various health beliefs for HPV vaccination. The Internet also was effective in reducing social barriers, but the effects were opposite to those of social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A national survey of young women's beliefs about quitting indoor tanning: implications for health communication messages.

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Bleakley, Amy; Jordan, Amy; Ellithorpe, Morgan E; Lazovich, DeAnn; Grossman, Sara; Glanz, Karen

2018-03-15

Indoor tanning is a risk factor for melanoma among young white women. Health communications can be an effective way of reaching this population and promoting behavior change. The purpose of this study was (i) to investigate the associations between intention to quit indoor tanning and attitudes, normative pressure, and efficacy about quitting, and (ii) to identify beliefs about quitting indoor tanning that can be used to design effective health communication messages to reduce skin cancer risk. A national online survey was conducted with 279 non-Hispanic white women ages 18-25 in the USA who are indoor tanners. The survey, based on the reasoned action approach, assessed intention, attitudes, norms, and efficacy and their corresponding underlying beliefs related to quitting indoor tanning, along with other known covariates. Data were collected in November/December 2015. Intention to quit indoor tanning was significantly associated with attitudes, specifically with the beliefs that it would "reduce damage to skin" (increased intention) and "make me less happy" (decreased intention). While self-efficacy was not related to intention to quit indoor tanning, injunctive normative beliefs were with key referent groups including mothers, friends, and romantic partners. Messages aimed at discouraging indoor tanning among young, non-Hispanic, white women should highlight the salient belief that quitting indoor tanning will reduce skin damage, counter the belief that it will make them less happy, and highlight key people who would approve of them quitting indoor tanning.

The effects of beliefs about AIDS-related death on quality of life in Chinese married couples with both husband and wife infected with HIV: examining congruence using the actor-partner interdependence model.

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Yu, Nancy Xiaonan

2017-06-17

This cross-sectional study examined the actor and partner effects of beliefs about AIDS-related death on quality of life in Chinese married couples in which both were living with HIV. A total of 49 married couples in central China who were both infected with HIV completed measures to assess their beliefs about AIDS-related death and quality of life. In the actor-partner interdependence model, the husband-wife dyad showed congruence in their beliefs about AIDS-related death (r = .40) and quality of life-mental health summary (r = .31), respectively, within the couple. Both actor and partner effects of beliefs about AIDS-related death on the quality of life-mental health summary, rather than the quality of life-physical health summary, were significant within the husband-wife dyad. Our findings indicate the dyadic interdependence of beliefs about AIDS-related death and the quality of life-mental health summary in married couples. Psychosocial interventions that target a reduction of negative death beliefs and enhancement of well-being in the context of HIV should treat the couple as a unit.

Association between Perceived Value and Self-Medication with Antibiotics: An Observational Study Based on Health Belief Model Theory

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Annisa N. Insany

2015-06-01

Full Text Available High prevalence of self medication with antibiotics can increase the probability of irrational use of antibiotics which may lead antibiotics resistance. Thus, shifting of behavior is required to minimize the irrational use of antibiotics. This study was aimed to determine the association between public perceived value and self-medication with antibiotics which can be used to develop an intervention model in order to reduce the practice of self-medication with antibiotics. An observational study was conducted during the period of November–December 2014.The subjects were patients who visit primary health care facilities in Bandung. A structured-interview that has been validated was used to investigate the association between perceived value and self-medication behavior based on the Health Belief Model theory (perceived susceptibility, benefits, barrier, and cues to action. Approximately 506 respondents were drawn randomly from 43 community healthcare centers and 8 pharmacies. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and logistic regression (CI 95%, α = 5%. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were shown with a correlation coefficient of >0.3 and a cronbach-alpha value of 0.719, respectively. We found that 29.45% of respondents practiced self-medication with antibiotics over the last six months. Additionally, there was no significant association between the perceived susceptibility, benefits, barrier, and cues to action with self-medication behavior (p>0.05. Easiness to access antibiotics without prescription was presumed as a factor that contribute to self-medication with antibiotics, therefore strict regulation in antibiotics use is very needed as a basic intervention to decrease self-medication with antibiotic.

Indigenous health beliefs, attitudes and practices among VhaVenda: A challenge to the promotion of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies

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F.M. Mulaudzi

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Currently, the syndromic management of HIV/AIDS is based on a biomedical model that focuses on the ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise model. The ABC model overlooks the issue of indigenous cultural practices, sexual behaviours, knowledge and attitudes of the society. A grounded theory study was used for the research. The population for the research on which this article is reporting, was selected from the Vhavenda ethnic group using purposive sampling. In-depth interviews were held at the participants’ own homes. The outcome of the study on which this article is reporting, may assist in identifying indigenous health beliefs, attitudes and practices that will assist in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS. The findings revealed that cultural practices, such as premarital counselling, polygamy and widow inheritance, are believed to be influential in making women more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. The practice of abstinence, as emphasised at initiation schools, should be incorporated into current policies and preventative practices. The findings further demonstrate that policy-makers who formulated the HIV/AIDS strategy have limited knowledge of the health beliefs, attitudes and practices of the people they serve. They thus find it difficult to draw up promotion and prevention strategies that meet the needs of the community. It is therefore imperative that our health-care training curriculum be reviewed to make provision for the incorporation of sound and effective indigenous practices to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and to eliminate or refine practices that are harmful and detrimental to people’s health. The cultural practices that were proved reliable and effective will be recommended for integration into health education.

Constructing rule-based models using the belief functions framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Almeida, R.J.; Denoeux, T.; Kaymak, U.; Greco, S.; Bouchon-Meunier, B.; Coletti, G.; Fedrizzi, M.; Matarazzo, B.; Yager, R.R.

2012-01-01

Abstract. We study a new approach to regression analysis. We propose a new rule-based regression model using the theoretical framework of belief functions. For this purpose we use the recently proposed Evidential c-means (ECM) to derive rule-based models solely from data. ECM allocates, for each

Modeling the Relations among Students' Epistemological Beliefs, Motivation, Learning Approach, and Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Kizilgunes, Berna; Tekkaya, Ceren; Sungur, Semra

2009-01-01

The authors proposed a model to explain how epistemological beliefs, achievement motivation, and learning approach related to achievement. The authors assumed that epistemological beliefs influence achievement indirectly through their effect on achievement motivation and learning approach. Participants were 1,041 6th-grade students. Results of the…

Smoking-specific compensatory health beliefs and the readiness to stop smoking in adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Radtke, Theda; Scholz, Urte; Keller, Roger; Knäuper, Bärbel; Hornung, Rainer

2011-09-01

Compensatory health beliefs (CHBs) are defined as beliefs that negative consequences of unhealthy behaviours can be compensated for by engaging in other health behaviours. CHBs have not yet been investigated in detail regarding smoking. Smoking might cause cognitive dissonance in smokers, if they are aware that smoking is unhealthy and simultaneously hold the general goal of staying healthy. Hence, CHBs are proposed as one strategy for smokers to resolve such cognitive dissonance. The aim of the present study was to develop a scale to measure smoking-specific CHBs among adolescents and to test whether CHBs are related to a lower readiness to stop smoking. For the main analyses, cross-sectional data were used. In order to investigate the retest-reliability follow-up data, 4 months later were included in the analysis. A newly developed scale for smoking-specific CHBs in adolescents was tested for its validity and reliability as well as its predictive value for the readiness to stop smoking in a sample of 244 smokers (15-21 years) drawn from different schools. Multilevel modelling was applied. Evidence was found for the reliability and validity of the smoking-specific CHB scale. Smoking-specific CHBs were significantly negatively related to an individual's readiness to stop smoking, even after controlling for other predictors such as self-efficacy or conscientiousness. CHBs may provide one possible explanation for why adolescents fail to stop smoking. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Mental health beliefs and barriers to accessing mental health services in youth aging out of foster care.

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Sakai, Christina; Mackie, Thomas I; Shetgiri, Rashmi; Franzen, Sara; Partap, Anu; Flores, Glenn; Leslie, Laurel K

2014-01-01

To examine the perspectives of youth on factors that influence mental health service use after aging out of foster care. Focus groups were conducted with youth with a history of mental health needs and previous service use who had aged out of foster care. Questions were informed by the Health Belief Model and addressed 4 domains: youth perceptions of the "threat of mental health problems," treatment benefits versus barriers to accessing mental health services, self-efficacy, and "cues to action." Data were analyzed using a modified grounded-theory approach. Youth (N = 28) reported ongoing mental health problems affecting their functioning; however, they articulated variable levels of reliance on formal mental health treatment versus their own ability to resolve these problems without treatment. Past mental health service experiences influenced whether youth viewed treatment options as beneficial. Youth identified limited self-efficacy and insufficient psychosocial supports "cueing action" during their transition out of foster care. Barriers to accessing mental health services included difficulties obtaining health insurance, finding a mental health provider, scheduling appointments, and transportation. Youths' perceptions of their mental health needs, self-efficacy, psychosocial supports during transition, and access barriers influence mental health service use after aging out of foster care. Results suggest that strategies are needed to 1) help youth and clinicians negotiate shared understanding of mental health treatment needs and options, 2) incorporate mental health into transition planning, and 3) address insurance and other systemic barriers to accessing mental health services after aging out of foster care. Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identifying Health Beliefs Influencing Hispanic College Men's Willingness to Vaccinate against HPV

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Stephens, Dionne P.; Thomas, Tami L.; Eaton, Asia

2016-01-01

This study identifies health beliefs influencing Hispanic college men's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake decision making processes. Hispanic college men were interviewed about their HPV vaccine knowledge, and information seeking behaviors. Overall, participants did not view HPV infection or vaccination as an immediate concern or priority;…

Charting the Eccles' Expectancy-Value Model from Mothers' Beliefs in Childhood to Youths' Activities in Adolescence

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Simpkins, Sandra D.; Fredricks, Jennifer A.; Eccles, Jacquelynne S.

2012-01-01

The Eccles' expectancy-value model posits that a cascade of mechanisms explain associations between parents' beliefs and youths' achievement-related behaviors. Specifically, parents' beliefs predict parents' behaviors; in turn, parents' behaviors predict youths' motivational beliefs, and youths' motivational beliefs predict their behaviors. This…

The Relationships among Chinese Practicing Teachers' Epistemic Beliefs, Pedagogical Beliefs and Their Beliefs about the Use of ICT

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Deng, Feng; Chai, Ching Sing; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Lee, Min-Hsien

2014-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the relationships among practicing teachers' epistemic beliefs, pedagogical beliefs and their beliefs about the use of ICT through survey methodology. Participants were 396 high school practicing teachers from mainland China. The path analysis results analyzed via structural equation modelling technique indicated…

A causal model explaining the relationships governing beliefs, attitudes, and hypnotic responsiveness.

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Shimizu, Takahiro

2014-01-01

The author developed a new scale aimed at measuring beliefs about "hypnotic states" and investigated the influence of such beliefs and attitudes on hypnotic responses in a large sample of Japanese undergraduate students. Exploratory factor analysis of this new questionnaire examining beliefs about hypnotic states yielded four factors: Dissociative or Depersonalized Experience, Loss of Self-Control, Therapeutic Expectation, and Arousing Extraordinary Ability. The results of structural equation modeling showed that Therapeutic Expectation and Arousing Extraordinary Ability influenced hypnotizability through attitudes toward hypnosis, while also directly affecting subjective experiences without mediating attitudes. Present findings suggest that it is more effective to enhance therapeutic expectations than to correct misconceptions about hypnotic states in modification of patients' beliefs before initiating treatment.

Level of paranormal beliefs and its relationship with explanatory models, treatment adherence and satisfaction

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Dushad Ram

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Paranormal beliefs are common among patients with mental illness. Such beliefs may mediate conceptualization of illness, treatment satisfaction and medication adherence. Objective To study the level of paranormal beliefs and its relationship with explanatory models, treatment adherence and satisfaction using standardized assessment tool. Methods Eighty nine patients with mental illness in remission were assessed with Sociodemographic proforma, Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS, Mental Distress Explanatory Model Questionnaire (MMAS, Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS and Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction (SAPS. Results Results revealed a high level of paranormal beliefs on RPBS (Mean 83.96, SD ± 23.91. Variables that had a statistically significant group difference on the score of RPBS were domicile status (p < 05, diagnosis (p < 001, method of treatment sought before (p < 001. In a linear regression analysis four variables explained 35.4% of the variance (R2 = .38, R2Adjusted = .35, F = 13.04, p < .001 in RPBS Score. These variables were total score of MDEMQ (Beta = .308, t = 3.435, p < .001, total score of MMAS (beta = .357, t = 3. 716, p < .001 and magico-religious treatment received earlier (beta = .306, t = 3.52, p < .001 and SAPS. Discussion Based on the finding of this study, it may be concluded that the level of paranormal beliefs may vary with some demographic variables. Levels of paranormal beliefs is positively associated with explanatory models and adherence in patients with mental illness in remission.

Environmental interventions based on the Health Belief Model and the Ecological-social model in the continuation of consumption of rice, free from toxic metals

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Shafiei, Leili; Maleki, Afshin; Sayehmiri, Kourosh

2018-01-01

Background and aim Continuation of healthy nutritional behaviors is one of the important factors in effectiveness of educational intervention programs. The aim of this research is to compare the Health Belief Model and the Ecological-social model in reducing consumption of rice contaminated with toxic metals after completion of environmental intervention and continuation of consumption of healthy rice. Methods This research was the implementation of a six-month randomized controlled trial interventional program in two groups’ interventions along with a control group, with 80 people for each group totally, amounting to 240 women, between 18 and 50 years of age in Ilam, Iran in 2014. The questionnaires of the three groups consisted of demographic information, knowledge, the constructs of the models, performance of rice consumption. Friedman test and repeated measures used for data analysis with SPSS (version 20), and confidence interval of 95% were considered. Results The results of the Friedman test indicated a significant increase in the number of women consuming healthy rice over six months after intervention in both intervention groups (pintervention (pintervention methods caused the altered diet of people regarding consumption of healthy rice over six months after the intervention. Increased social support also probably had a more effective role in continuation of healthy diet among the people. PMID:29588814

The theory of reasoned action as parallel constraint satisfaction: towards a dynamic computational model of health behavior.

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Mark G Orr

Full Text Available The reasoned action approach, although ubiquitous in health behavior theory (e.g., Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior, does not adequately address two key dynamical aspects of health behavior: learning and the effect of immediate social context (i.e., social influence. To remedy this, we put forth a computational implementation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA using artificial-neural networks. Our model re-conceptualized behavioral intention as arising from a dynamic constraint satisfaction mechanism among a set of beliefs. In two simulations, we show that constraint satisfaction can simultaneously incorporate the effects of past experience (via learning with the effects of immediate social context to yield behavioral intention, i.e., intention is dynamically constructed from both an individual's pre-existing belief structure and the beliefs of others in the individual's social context. In a third simulation, we illustrate the predictive ability of the model with respect to empirically derived behavioral intention. As the first known computational model of health behavior, it represents a significant advance in theory towards understanding the dynamics of health behavior. Furthermore, our approach may inform the development of population-level agent-based models of health behavior that aim to incorporate psychological theory into models of population dynamics.

The theory of reasoned action as parallel constraint satisfaction: towards a dynamic computational model of health behavior.

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Orr, Mark G; Thrush, Roxanne; Plaut, David C

2013-01-01

The reasoned action approach, although ubiquitous in health behavior theory (e.g., Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior), does not adequately address two key dynamical aspects of health behavior: learning and the effect of immediate social context (i.e., social influence). To remedy this, we put forth a computational implementation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) using artificial-neural networks. Our model re-conceptualized behavioral intention as arising from a dynamic constraint satisfaction mechanism among a set of beliefs. In two simulations, we show that constraint satisfaction can simultaneously incorporate the effects of past experience (via learning) with the effects of immediate social context to yield behavioral intention, i.e., intention is dynamically constructed from both an individual's pre-existing belief structure and the beliefs of others in the individual's social context. In a third simulation, we illustrate the predictive ability of the model with respect to empirically derived behavioral intention. As the first known computational model of health behavior, it represents a significant advance in theory towards understanding the dynamics of health behavior. Furthermore, our approach may inform the development of population-level agent-based models of health behavior that aim to incorporate psychological theory into models of population dynamics.

Validity and reliability of the Early Childhood Caries Perceptions Scale (ECCPS) to assess health beliefs related to early childhood caries prevention among primary caregivers of children under 5 years of age.

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Pisarnturakit, Pagaporn P; Shaw, Bret R; Tanasukarn, Chanuantong; Vatanasomboon, Paranee

2012-09-01

Primary caregivers' child oral health care beliefs and practices are major factors in the prevention of Early Childhood Caries (ECC). This study assessed the validity and reliability of a newly-developed scale--the Early Childhood Caries Perceptions Scale (ECCPS)--used to measure beliefs regarding ECC preventive practices among primary caregivers of young children. The ECCPS was developed based on the Health Belief Model. The construct validity and reliability of the ECCPS were examined among 254 low-socioeconomic status primary caregivers with children under five years old, recruifed from 4 Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Health Centers and a kindergarten school. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a four-factor structure. The four factors were labeled as Perceived Susceptibility, Perceived Severity, Perceived Benefits and Perceived Barriers. Internal consistency measured by the Cronbach's coefficient alpha for those four factors were 0.897, 0.971, 0.975 and 0.789, respectively. The ECCPS demonstrated satisfactory levels of reliability and validity for assessing the health beliefs related to ECC prevention among low-socioeconomic primary caregivers.

[Anxiety, depression, health-related control beliefs, and their association with health behavior in patients with ischemic heart disease].

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Rafael, Beatrix; Konkolÿ Thege, Barna; Kovács, Péter; Balog, Piroska

2015-05-17

Psychological and lifestyle factors affect the development and outcome of heart disease considerably. The aims of the authors were to examine health control, level of anxiety and depression and to analyse their relationship with health behaviour in patients with ischemic heart disease. The present cross-sectional study involved 116 patients who took part in residential cardiac rehabilitation (56.9% men, mean age: 57.65±8.22 years). 30.9% of the patients reported elevated anxiety and 21.9% increased depressive symptomatology. Social-external control belief was the strongest among respondents. Further, anxiety and depression were negatively associated with healthy diet and the frequency of exercise. Patients with stronger social-external control beliefs were more likely to seek medical attention if they suspected a disease. It is important to assess psychological risk factors linked to cardiovascular diseases in cardiac rehabilitation departments and to initiate psychological interventions if indicated.

Rational Irrationality: Modeling Climate Change Belief Polarization Using Bayesian Networks.

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Cook, John; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2016-01-01

Belief polarization is said to occur when two people respond to the same evidence by updating their beliefs in opposite directions. This response is considered to be "irrational" because it involves contrary updating, a form of belief updating that appears to violate normatively optimal responding, as for example dictated by Bayes' theorem. In light of much evidence that people are capable of normatively optimal behavior, belief polarization presents a puzzling exception. We show that Bayesian networks, or Bayes nets, can simulate rational belief updating. When fit to experimental data, Bayes nets can help identify the factors that contribute to polarization. We present a study into belief updating concerning the reality of climate change in response to information about the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW). The study used representative samples of Australian and U.S. Among Australians, consensus information partially neutralized the influence of worldview, with free-market supporters showing a greater increase in acceptance of human-caused global warming relative to free-market opponents. In contrast, while consensus information overall had a positive effect on perceived consensus among U.S. participants, there was a reduction in perceived consensus and acceptance of human-caused global warming for strong supporters of unregulated free markets. Fitting a Bayes net model to the data indicated that under a Bayesian framework, free-market support is a significant driver of beliefs about climate change and trust in climate scientists. Further, active distrust of climate scientists among a small number of U.S. conservatives drives contrary updating in response to consensus information among this particular group. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Intergenerational variation in sexual health attitudes and beliefs among Sudanese refugee communities in Australia.

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Dean, Judith; Mitchell, Marion; Stewart, Donald; Debattista, Joseph

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to develop intergenerational understanding of the factors perceived to be influencing the sexual health and wellbeing of young Sudanese refugees in Queensland, Australia. Data from 11 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews exploring sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours with young people aged 16 to 24 years, and five focus groups with adults from the broader Queensland Sudanese community, were compared and contrasted. Findings indicate that sexual health-related knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, along with patterns of sexual behaviour, are changing post-resettlement and this creates considerable intergenerational discord and family conflict. Study findings provide an understanding of how the interplay between traditional cultural gender, parenting and relationship norms and perceived normative Australian beliefs and patterns of behaviour influence the construction of both young people's and their parents' attitudes to sexual health post-arrival. We suggest that sexuality education programmes adapted to the specific cultural- and age-related contexts need to be introduced early within the resettlement process for both young people and their families.

The relationship between critical thinking skills and self-efficacy beliefs in mental health nurses.

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Gloudemans, Henk A; Schalk, René M J D; Reynaert, Wouter

2013-03-01

In the Netherlands, the distinction between Bachelor degree and diploma nursing educational levels remains unclear. The added value of Bachelor degree nurses and how they develop professionally after graduation are subject to debate. The aim of this study is to investigate whether Bachelor degree nurses have higher critical thinking skills than diploma nurses do and whether there is a positive relationship between higher critical thinking skills and self-efficacy beliefs. Outcomes might provide instruments that are helpful in positioning of nursing levels in education and practice. Questionnaire data were used of a sample of 95 registered mental health staff nurses (62 diploma nurses and 33 Bachelor degree nurses). First, ANOVA was performed to test whether the two groups were comparable with respect to elements of work experience. Second, t-tests were conducted to compare the two groups of nurses on self-efficacy, perceived performance and critical thinking outcomes. Third, relationships between the study variables were investigated. Finally, structural equation modelling using AMOS was applied to test the relationships. The hypothesis that Bachelor degree nurses are better critical thinkers than diploma nurses was supported (p<0.01). Years in function turned out to be positively related to self-efficacy beliefs (p<0.01). No significant relation was found between the level of education and self-efficacy beliefs. The results of this study support career development and facilitate more efficient positioning of nursing levels. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the Effect of Physical Activity Programs on Self-Esteem and Body Mass Index of Overweight Adolescent Girls, based on Health Belief Model with School-Centered Approach

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Leili Rabiei

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Obesity in adolescents leads to physical and mental complications. Exercise is one of the main components of weight control programs. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of physical activity programs on self-esteem and Body Mass Index of overweight adolescent girls. Materials and Methods: This study was a semi experimental study.The subjects were 140 second grade student girls from two high schools in 5th district of Isfahan. Data collection scales included: tape measure, carriage scale, questionnaire to collect background and personal information, designed questionnaire based on Health Belief Model, weekly physical self- reportedand adolescent weekly food record form, parent’s nutritional performance questionnaire, teachers’ attitude on adolescents’ nutrition questionnaire and Cooper Smith's Standard Self-esteem questionnaire. Education based program on Health Belief Model for improving nutritional status consistent with model structures during six sessions each 60-minute was conducted with emphasis on diet to control weight in overweight and at-risk adolescents. Questionnaires were compared immediately afterand two months after intervention. Results: Average score of model structures and self-esteem of students in both groups had no significant difference at baseline, but immediately after and 2 months after the intervention, the mean component scores were significantly higher in intervention group in comparison with the control group. There was a significant difference in component scores at different times in the experimental group. Significant difference in BMI scores was seen at different times in experimental group. Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that school based approach of physical activity training leads to increase in knowledge, sensitivity, severity and perceived benefits and eventually increase in self- esteem and physical activity in students.

Leisure-time physical activity in university students from 23 countries: associations with health beliefs, risk awareness, and national economic development.

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Haase, Anne; Steptoe, Andrew; Sallis, James F; Wardle, Jane

2004-07-01

Physical inactivity has been linked with chronic disease and obesity in most western populations. However, prevalence of inactivity, health beliefs, and knowledge of the risks of inactivity have rarely been assessed across a wide range of developed and developing countries. A cross-sectional survey was carried out with 19,298 university students from 23 countries varying in culture and level of economic development. Data concerning leisure-time physical activity, health beliefs, and health knowledge were collected. The prevalence of inactivity in leisure time varied with cultural and economic developmental factors, averaging 23% (North-Western Europe and the United States), 30% (Central and Eastern Europe), 39% (Mediterranean), 42% (Pacific Asian), and 44% (developing countries). The likelihood of leisure-time physical activity was positively associated with the strength of beliefs in the health benefits of activity and with national economic development (per capita gross domestic product). Knowledge about activity and health was disappointing, with only 40-60% being aware that physical activity was relevant to risk of heart disease. Leisure-time physical activity is below recommended levels in a substantial proportion of students, and is related to cultural factors and stage of national economic development. The relationship between health beliefs and behavior is robust across cultures, but health knowledge remains deficient. Copyright 2004 The Institute for Cancer Prevention and Elsevier Inc.

To share or not to share: The role of epistemic belief in online health rumors.

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Chua, Alton Y K; Banerjee, Snehasish

2017-12-01

This paper investigates the role of epistemic belief in affecting Internet users' decision to share online health rumors. To delve deeper, it examines how the characteristics of rumors-true or false, textual or pictorial, dread or wish-shape the decision-making among epistemologically naïve and robust users separately. An experiment was conducted. Responses were obtained from 110 participants, who were exposed to eight rumors. This yielded 880 cases (110 participants×8 rumors) for statistical analyses. Epistemologically naive participants were more likely to share online health rumors than epistemologically robust individuals. Epistemologically robust participants were more likely to share textual rumors than pictorial ones. However, there were no differences between true and false rumors or between dread and wish rumors for either epistemologically naive or robust participants. This paper contributes to the understanding of users' health information sharing behavior. It encourages users to cultivate robust epistemic belief in order to improve their online health information processing skills. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Ontological confusions but not mentalizing abilities predict religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in supernatural purpose.

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Lindeman, Marjaana; Svedholm-Häkkinen, Annika M; Lipsanen, Jari

2015-01-01

The current research tested the hypothesis that the abilities for understanding other people's minds give rise to the cognitive biases that underlie supernatural beliefs. We used structural equation modeling (N=2789) to determine the roles of various mentalizing tendencies, namely self-reported affective and cognitive empathy (i.e., mind reading), actual cognitive and affective empathic abilities, hyper-empathizing, and two cognitive biases (core ontological confusions and promiscuous teleology) in giving rise to supernatural beliefs. Support for a path from mentalizing abilities through cognitive biases to supernatural beliefs was weak. The relationships of mentalizing abilities with supernatural beliefs were also weak, and these relationships were not substantially mediated by cognitive biases. Core ontological confusions emerged as the best predictor, while promiscuous teleology predicted only a small proportion of variance. The results were similar for religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, and for belief in supernatural purpose. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Explanatory models of black lung: understanding the health-related behavior of Appalachian coal miners.

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Friedl, J

1982-03-01

Many retired coal miners who are eligible for care in a black lung treatment center at little or no cost to themselves do not enter into available programs or discontinue soon after beginning therapy. Reasons for this behavior are related to the prevalent beliefs among Appalachians concerning the course of black lung and the appropriate treatment for it. The miners' health beliefs are clearly at odds with those of the health care providers who work in the centers. Using the concept of explanatory model, popular and professional health cultures are analyzed, focusing on course of disease, sick role, appropriate treatment, and expected outcome. Differences in explanatory models are discussed with regard to implications for the organization and delivery of care to retired coal miners with black lung.

How to effectively design public health interventions: Implications from the interaction effects between socioeconomic status and health locus of control beliefs on healthy dietary behaviours among US adults.

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Jang, Kyungeun; Baek, Young Min

2018-04-16

This study investigated whether individuals with different socioeconomic status (SES) should be provided differently tailored health messages to promote healthy dietary behaviour (HDB). Prior research has suggested that people with different SESs tend to exhibit different types of beliefs about health, but it remains unclear how SES interacts with these beliefs to influence health outcomes. To better understand the differences in HDB between high- and low-SES populations and propose effective intervention strategies, we examined (i) how SES is associated with HDB, (ii) how internal health locus of control (HLC) and powerful others HLC are associated with HDB, and (iii) how SES interacts with internal and powerful others HLC to influence HDB. Using data from the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey, collected from 2005 to 2012 (N = 6,262) in the United States, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. Education level was found to be positively associated with HDB, while income level was not. Both internal and powerful others HLC beliefs were positively associated with HDB. The positive relationship between internal HLC and HDB strengthened as the level of education and income increased, whereas the positive relationship between powerful others HLC and HDB weakened as respondents' education level increased. These results suggest that the design and delivery of communication messages should be tailored to populations' specific SES and HLC beliefs for effective public health interventions. For example, messages enhancing internal HLC (e.g. providing specific skills and knowledge about health behaviours) might be more helpful for the richer and more-educated, while messages appealing to one's powerful others HLC beliefs (e.g. advice on health lifestyles given by well-known health professionals) might be more effective for less-educated people. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Learning topic models by belief propagation.

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Zeng, Jia; Cheung, William K; Liu, Jiming

2013-05-01

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is an important hierarchical Bayesian model for probabilistic topic modeling, which attracts worldwide interest and touches on many important applications in text mining, computer vision and computational biology. This paper represents the collapsed LDA as a factor graph, which enables the classic loopy belief propagation (BP) algorithm for approximate inference and parameter estimation. Although two commonly used approximate inference methods, such as variational Bayes (VB) and collapsed Gibbs sampling (GS), have gained great success in learning LDA, the proposed BP is competitive in both speed and accuracy, as validated by encouraging experimental results on four large-scale document datasets. Furthermore, the BP algorithm has the potential to become a generic scheme for learning variants of LDA-based topic models in the collapsed space. To this end, we show how to learn two typical variants of LDA-based topic models, such as author-topic models (ATM) and relational topic models (RTM), using BP based on the factor graph representations.

South African consumers’ opinions and beliefs regarding the health benefits of soy and soy products

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Bosman, Magdalena J.C.; Ellis, Susanna M.; Jerling, Johann C.; Badham, Jane; Van der Merwe, Daleen

2011-01-01

Studies linking diet and health and consumers’ demand for health information, has led to an increasing awareness of the role of nutrition in health and disease. Interest in soy foods and an awareness of its health benefits has also increased. The objective was to assess South African (SA) consumers’ opinions and beliefs regarding the health benefits of soy and soy products using different statements. This cross-sectional study randomly selected 3001 respondents from metropolita...

Causal beliefs about obesity and associated health behaviors: results from a population-based survey

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Coups Elliot J

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Several genetic variants are associated with obesity risk. Promoting the notion of genes as a cause for obesity may increase genetically deterministic beliefs and decrease motivation to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Little is known about whether causal beliefs about obesity are associated with lifestyle behaviors. Study objectives were as follows: 1 to document the prevalence of various causal beliefs about obesity (i.e., genes versus lifestyle behaviors, and 2 to determine the association between obesity causal beliefs and self-reported dietary and physical activity behaviors. Methods The study data were drawn from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS. A total of 3,534 individuals were included in the present study. Results Overall, 72% of respondents endorsed the belief that lifestyle behaviors have 'a lot' to do with causing obesity, whereas 19% indicated that inheritance has 'a lot' to do with causing obesity. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that the belief that obesity is inherited was associated with lower reported levels of physical activity (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77-0.99 and fruit and vegetable consumption (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76-0.99. In contrast, the belief that obesity is caused by lifestyle behaviors was associated with greater reported levels of physical activity (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.62, but was not associated with fruit and vegetable intake (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.90-1.28. Conclusions Causal beliefs about obesity are associated with some lifestyle behaviors. Additional research is needed to determine whether promoting awareness of the genetic determinants of obesity will decrease the extent to which individuals will engage in the lifestyle behaviors essential to healthy weight management.

Belief in complementary and alternative medicine is related to age and paranormal beliefs in adults.

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Van den Bulck, Jan; Custers, Kathleen

2010-04-01

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widespread, even among people who use conventional medicine. Positive beliefs about CAM are common among physicians and medical students. Little is known about the beliefs regarding CAM among the general public. Among science students, belief in CAM was predicted by belief in the paranormal. In a cross-sectional study, 712 randomly selected adults (>18 years old) responded to the CAM Health Belief Questionnaire (CHBQ) and a paranormal beliefs scale. CAM beliefs were very prevalent in this sample of adult Flemish men and women. Zero-order correlations indicated that belief in CAM was associated with age (r = 0.173 P paranormal belief (r = 0.365 P paranormal. Paranormal beliefs accounted for 14% of the variance of the CAM beliefs (regression coefficient: 0.376; 95%: CI 0.30-0.44). The level of education (regression coefficient: 0.06; 95% CI: -0.014-0.129) and social desirability (regression coefficient: -0.023; 95% CI: -0.048-0.026) did not make a significant contribution to the explained variance (paranormal beliefs.

Young people's mental health first aid intentions and beliefs prospectively predict their actions: findings from an Australian National Survey of Youth.

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Yap, Marie Bee Hui; Jorm, Anthony Francis

2012-04-30

Little is known about whether mental health first aid knowledge and beliefs of young people actually translate into actual behavior. This study examined whether young people's first aid intentions and beliefs predicted the actions they later took to help a close friend or family member with a mental health problem. Participants in a 2006 national survey of Australian youth (aged 12-25 years) reported on their first aid intentions and beliefs based on one of four vignettes: depression, depression with alcohol misuse, psychosis, and social phobia. At a two-year follow-up interview, they reported on actions they had taken to help any family member or close friend with a problem similar to the vignette character since the initial interview. Of the 2005 participants interviewed at follow-up, 608 reported knowing someone with a similar problem. Overall, young people's first aid intentions and beliefs about the helpfulness of particular first aid actions predicted the actions they actually took to assist a close other. However, the belief in and intention to encourage professional help did not predict subsequent action. Findings suggest that young people's mental health first aid intentions and beliefs may be valid indicators of their subsequent actions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Educational Program on the Prevention of Pediculosis in Primary School Fifth Grade Students: An application of the Health Belief Model

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Abbasali Dehghani Tafti

2018-04-01

Conclusion: Considering that both constructs of self-efficacy and perceived benefits were behavior predictors and the educational program led to improve the attitude and behavior of students, health-based and belief-based programs can be implemented based on these two constructs to improve students' performance in lice preventive behaviors.

Effects of a Nutrition Education Intervention Designed based on the Health Belief Model (HBM on Reducing the Consumption of Unhealthy Snacks in the Sixth Grade Primary School Girls

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Azam Fathi

2017-02-01

Full Text Available BackgroundMalnutrition can threaten mental and physical development of children while healthy nutrition can improve mental and physical status of children. To select the best foods, children need nutrition education. This study aimed to determine the effect of nutrition education on reducing the consumption of unhealthy snacks in female primary school students in Qom- Iran.Materials and MethodsThis interventional study was conducted on 88 students in intervention and control groups who were selected via multistage random sampling method. The data was collected using a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire which was designed based on the health belief model (HBM. First four training sessions were held for the intervention group; two months later, data were collected again from both groups of students (intervention and control group. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 16.0 using descriptive statistics and independent and paired t-test.ResultsThe mean score of knowledge and performance of the intervention group, were 96.12 and 18.61 before the intervention which changed to 110.00 and 68.22 after the intervention. The results showed that before the intervention there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of mean scores of knowledge, and the constructs of the health belief model (P>0.05. After the intervention, the scores of all variables and the behavior of unhealthy snacks consumption were significantly increased in the intervention group (P

The health of adolescents: beliefs and behaviour.

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Friedman, H L

1989-01-01

Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood in which interlocking changes in the body, mind and social relationship take place. Healthy development depends on both a propitious environment and the action of adolescents themselves. A stable family, peace, material conditions for physical health, and educational, social and vocational opportunities with a chance to make use of them before marriage, are necessary environment conditions. However, within this context the adolescent must experiment with new behaviours and relationships inevitably courting some risks. Adolescent health is especially linked to behaviour. If the environment is inadequate or dangerous and the adolescent lacks self-esteem, behaviours dangerous to health are more likely to occur. These include: precocious and unprotected sexual behaviour sometimes resulting in too early or unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases; the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs; injuries arising accidentally from risk taking behaviours especially when combined with alcohol or drugs; intentional injury whether self-inflicted or inflicted by others; and poor eating and habits of hygiene leading to obesity, or emaciation, acne and poor teeth and gums. Adolescent behaviour is often governed by their beliefs about what others think. Two way communication in a trusting atmosphere will reduce myths and misinformation and encourage healthy behaviour. The promotion of health, the prevention of problems, and their treatment and rehabilitation when they arise can best be accomplished with the active co-operation of young people.

Acceptance of health information technology in health professionals: An application of the revised technology acceptance model

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Ketikidis, P.; Dimitrovski, T.; Lazuras, L.; Bath, P.A.

2012-01-01

The response of health professionals to the use of health information technology (HIT) is an important research topic that can partly explain the success or failure of any HIT application. The present study applied a modified version of the revised technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the relevant beliefs and acceptance of HIT systems in a sample of health professionals (n = 133). Structured anonymous questionnaires were used and a cross-sectional design was employed. The main outcome ...

A meta-analysis of the relationship between rational beliefs and psychological distress.

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Oltean, Horea-Radu; David, Daniel Ovidiu

2018-06-01

 Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) model of psychological health assumes that rational beliefs cause functional emotions and adaptive behavior, but the presumed role of rational beliefs as protective factor against psychological distress/disorders is still in debate. An important step in validating an evidence-based therapy is to investigate the underling theoretical assumptions. Thus, the aim of the present meta-analysis is to investigate the direction and magnitude of the relationship between rational beliefs and psychological distress.  Our search identified 26 studies that met our criteria. We evaluated the effect size using the random-effects model and we tested the moderator role of several variables. The overall results revealed a medium negative association between rational beliefs and psychological distress, r = -0.31. The strongest association was found for unconditional acceptance beliefs (r = -0.41). The results add empirical evidence for the underling theory of REBT and revealed that the strength of the association between rational beliefs and distress is robust for a wide range of emotional problems. Therefore, rational beliefs could be a trans-diagnostic protective factor against distress. Moreover, results emphasized that rational beliefs type is an important factor, suggesting an increased focus in therapy on the developing of unconditional acceptance and self-acceptance beliefs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Belief Elicitation to Populate Health Economic Models of Medical Diagnostic Devices in Development

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Haakma, Wieke; Steuten, Lotte Maria Gertruda; Bojke, Laura; IJzerman, Maarten Joost

2014-01-01

Background and Objective Bayesian methods can be used to elicit experts’ beliefs about the clinical value of healthcare technologies. This study investigates a belief–elicitation method for estimating diagnostic performance in an early stage of development of photoacoustic mammography (PAM) imaging

Pharmaceutical industry gifts to physicians: patient beliefs and trust in physicians and the health care system.

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Grande, David; Shea, Judy A; Armstrong, Katrina

2012-03-01

Pharmaceutical industry gifts to physicians are common and influence physician behavior. Little is known about patient beliefs about the prevalence of these gifts and how these beliefs may influence trust in physicians and the health care system. To measure patient perceptions about the prevalence of industry gifts and their relationship to trust in doctors and the health care system. Cross sectional random digit dial telephone survey. African-American and White adults in 40 large metropolitan areas. Respondents' beliefs about whether their physician and physicians in general receive industry gifts, physician trust, and health care system distrust. Overall, 55% of respondents believe their physician receives gifts, and 34% believe almost all doctors receive gifts. Respondents of higher socioeconomic status (income, education) and younger age were more likely to believe their physician receives gifts. In multivariate analyses, those that believe their personal physician receives gifts were more likely to report low physician trust (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.56-3.30) and high health care system distrust (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.49-2.77). Similarly, those that believe almost all doctors accept gifts were more likely to report low physician trust (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.25-2.29) and high health care system distrust (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.82-3.62). Patients perceive physician-industry gift relationships as common. Patients that believe gift relationships exist report lower levels of physician trust and higher rates of health care system distrust. Greater efforts to limit industry-physician gifts could have positive effects beyond reducing influences on physician behavior.

Prediction of safe driving Behaviours based on health belief model: the case of taxi drivers in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

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Razmara, Asghar; Aghamolaei, Teamur; Madani, Abdoulhossain; Hosseini, Zahra; Zare, Shahram

2018-03-20

Road accidents are among the main causes of mortality. As safe and secure driving is a key strategy to reduce car injuries and offenses, the present research aimed to explore safe driving behaviours among taxi drivers based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). This study was conducted on 184 taxi drivers in Bandar Abbas who were selected based on a multiple stratified sampling method. Data were collected by a questionnaire comprised of a demographic information section along with the constructs of the HBM. Data were analysed by SPSS ver19 via a Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. The mean age of the participants was 45.1 years (SD = 11.1). They all had, on average, 10.3 (SD = 7/5) years of taxi driving experience. Among the HBM components, cues to action and perceived benefits were shown to be positively correlated with safe driving behaviours, while perceived barriers were negatively correlated. Cues to action, perceived barriers and perceived benefits were shown to be the strongest predictors of a safe drivers' behaviour. Based on the results of this study in designing health promotion programmes to improve safe driving behaviours among taxi drivers, cues to action, perceived benefits and perceived barriers are important. Therefore, advertising, the design of information campaigns, emphasis on the benefits of safe driving behaviours and modification barriers are recommended.

Application of the Health Belief Model to U.S. Magazine Text and Image Coverage of Skin Cancer and Recreational Tanning (2000-2012).

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McWhirter, Jennifer E; Hoffman-Goetz, Laurie

2016-01-01

The health belief model (HBM) has been widely used to inform health education, social marketing, and health communication campaigns. Although the HBM can explain and predict an individual's willingness to engage in positive health behaviors, its application to, and penetration of the underlying constructs into, mass media content has not been well characterized. We examined 574 articles and 905 images about skin cancer and tanning risks, behaviors, and screening from 20 U.S. women's and men's magazines (2000-2012) for the presence of HBM constructs: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and cues to action. Susceptibility (48.1%) and severity (60.3%) information was common in text. Perceived benefits (36.4%) and barriers (41.5%) to prevention of skin cancer were fairly equally mentioned in articles. Self-efficacy (48.4%) focused on sunscreen use. There was little emphasis on HBM constructs related to early detection. Few explicit cues to action about skin cancer appeared in text (12.0%) or images (0.1%). HBM constructs were present to a significantly greater extent in text versus images (e.g., severity, 60.3% vs. 11.3%, respectively, χ(2) = 399.51, p < .0001; benefits prevention, 36.4% vs. 8.0%, respectively, χ(2) = 184.80, p < .0001), suggesting that readers are not visually messaged in ways that would effectively promote skin cancer prevention and early detection behaviors.

Health beliefs and practices related to dengue fever: a focus group study.

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Wong, Li Ping; AbuBakar, Sazaly

2013-01-01

This qualitative study aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of the meaning of dengue fever (DF) amongst people living in a dengue endemic region, dengue prevention and treatment-seeking behaviours. The Health Belief Model was used as a framework to explore and understand dengue prevention behaviours. A total of 14 focus group discussions were conducted with 84 Malaysian citizens of different socio-demographic backgrounds between 16(th) December, 2011 and 12(th) May, 2012. The study revealed that awareness about DF and prevention measures were high. The pathophysiology of dengue especially dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) were rarely known; as a result, it was seen as deadly by some but was also perceived as easily curable by others without a basis of understanding. Young adults and elderly participants had a low perception of susceptibility to DF. In general, the low perceived susceptibility emerged as two themes, namely a perceived natural ability to withstand infection and a low risk of being in contact with the dengue virus vector, Aedes spp. mosquitoes. The barriers to sustained self-prevention against dengue prevention that emerged in focus groups were: i) lack of self-efficacy, ii) lack of perceived benefit, iii) low perceived susceptibility, and iv) unsure perceived susceptibility. Low perceived benefit of continued dengue prevention practices was a result of lack of concerted action against dengue in their neighborhood. Traditional medical practices and home remedies were widely perceived and experienced as efficacious in treating DF. Behavioural change towards attaining sustainability in dengue preventive practices may be enhanced by fostering comprehensive knowledge of dengue and a change in health beliefs. Wide use of unconventional therapy for DF warrants the need to enlighten the public to limit their reliance on unproven alternative treatments.

Measurement of math beliefs and their associations with math behaviors in college students.

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Hendy, Helen M; Schorschinsky, Nancy; Wade, Barbara

2014-12-01

Our purpose in the present study was to expand understanding of math beliefs in college students by developing 3 new psychometrically tested scales as guided by expectancy-value theory, self-efficacy theory, and health belief model. Additionally, we identified which math beliefs (and which theory) best explained variance in math behaviors and performance by college students and which students were most likely to have problematic math beliefs. Study participants included 368 college math students who completed questionnaires to report math behaviors (attending class, doing homework, reading textbooks, asking for help) and used a 5-point rating scale to indicate a variety of math beliefs. For a subset of 84 students, math professors provided final math grades. Factor analyses produced a 10-item Math Value Scale with 2 subscales (Class Devaluation, No Future Value), a 7-item single-dimension Math Confidence Scale, and an 11-item Math Barriers Scale with 2 subscales (Math Anxiety, Discouraging Words). Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that high levels of the newly discovered class devaluation belief (guided by expectancy-value theory) were most consistently associated with poor math behaviors in college students, with high math anxiety (guided by health belief model) and low math confidence (guided by self-efficacy theory) also found to be significant. Analyses of covariance revealed that younger and male students were at increased risk for class devaluation and older students were at increased risk for poor math confidence. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

An integrated model of decision-making in health contexts: the role of science education in health education

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Arnold, Julia C.

2018-03-01

Health education is to foster health literacy, informed decision-making and to promote health behaviour. To date, there are several models that seek to explain health behaviour (e.g. the Theory of Planned Behaviour or the Health Belief Model). These models include motivational factors (expectancies and values) that play a role in decision-making in health contexts. In this theoretical paper, it is argued that none of these models makes consequent use of expectancy-value pairs. It is further argued that in order to make these models fruitful for science education and for informed decision-making, models should systematically incorporate knowledge as part of the decision-making process. To fill this gap, this theoretical paper introduces The Integrated Model of Decision-Making in Health Contexts. This model includes three types of knowledge (system health knowledge, action-related health knowledge and effectiveness health knowledge) as influencing factors for motivational factors (perceived health threat, attitude towards health action, attitude towards health outcome and subjective norm) that are formed of expectancy-value pairs and lead to decisions. The model's potential for health education in science education as well as research implications is discussed.

Control beliefs and health locus of control in Ugandan, German and migrated sub-Saharan African HIV infected individuals.

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Milz, Ruth U; Husstedt, Ingo-W; Reichelt, Doris; Evers, Stefan

2016-04-01

Little is known about the influence of control beliefs on antiretroviral drug adherence in patients who migrated from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. The aim of this study was to explore the differences in health locus of control and control beliefs between HIV infected patients from sub-Saharan Africa with and without a lifetime experience of migration. A sample of 62 HIV infected consecutive patients referred to the HIV clinics at the University Hospital of Münster (Germany) and at the Rubaga Hospital Kampala (Uganda) were enrolled into this study. We compared three groups of patients: sub-Saharan African migrants, German patients, and local Ugandan patients. We used the German health and illness related control beliefs questionnaire (KKG), the Competence and control beliefs questionnaire (FKK), and the Powe Fatalism Inventory-HIV/AIDS-Version (PFI-HIV/AIDS-Version) and translated these scales into English and Luganda. In addition, the patients' sociodemographic, acculturation, clinical, and immunological data were registered. Significant results were shown in HIV related external locus of control between migrated sub-Saharan African and local Ugandan patients compared to German patients. General control beliefs showed no significant differences. In the PFI-HIV-Version, there was a significant difference between migrated sub-Saharan African and Ugandan patients compared to German patients. Our data suggest that the experience of migration does not influence the locus of control. Compared to German HIV patients, African patients in general showed a significantly higher external health locus of control which might have implications for drug adherence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Role of Perceived Stress and Health Beliefs on College Students' Intentions to Practice Mindfulness Meditation

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Rizer, Carol Ann; Fagan, Mary Helen; Kilmon, Carol; Rath, Linda

2016-01-01

Background: Understanding why individuals decide to participate in mindfulness-based practices can aid in the development of effective health promotion outreach efforts. Purpose: This study investigated the role of health beliefs and perceived stress on the intention to practice mindfulness meditation among undergraduate college students. Methods:…

Exploring Smoking Cessation Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices in Occupational Health Nursing.

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Ganz, Ollie; Fortuna, Grace; Weinsier, Stephanie; Campbell, Kay; Cantrell, Jennifer; Furmanski, William L

2015-07-01

The purpose of this study was to explore occupational health nurses' attitudes, beliefs, and practices regarding the delivery of smoking cessation services to workers. The study included 707 members of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) who completed a one-time survey during the fall of 2012. Results indicated that occupational health nurses believed that evidence-based treatments are at least somewhat effective and that they should provide smoking cessation services to their workers; however, a majority of occupational health nurses reported that they did not have appropriate smoking cessation training or guidelines in their workplaces. Occupational health nurses would benefit from training in the use of smoking cessation guidelines and evidence-based smoking cessation interventions, which could be used in their clinical practice. Employers should ensure that workplace policies, such as providing coverage for cessation services, facilitate smokers' efforts to quit. Employers can benefit from many of these policies through cost savings via reduced health care costs and absenteeism. © 2015 The Author(s).

Health Beliefs and Co-morbidities Associated with Appointment-Keeping Behavior Among HCV and HIV/HCV Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Pundhir, Pooja; North, Carol S; Fatunde, Oluwatomilade; Jain, Mamta K

2016-02-01

Appointment-keeping behavior is an important requisite for HCV linkage and treatment initiation. In this study we examine what impact hepatitis C (HCV) knowledge and attitudes has on appointment-keeping behavior among a cohort of HCV and HCV/HIV patients. Knowledge scores and attitude scales, obtained from a cross-sectional survey, were correlated with proportion of appointments kept 1 year prior to taking the survey. Independent risk factors for missing appointments were examined by multiple regression analysis. 292 HCV patients completed the survey, and 149 (51%) were co-infected with HIV. HCV patients kept 67.5 ± 17.4% of their total appointments and a similar proportion (67 ± 38.2) of Liver Clinic appointments, but they attended a higher proportion (73 ± 24.4) of Primary Care Clinic appointments. However, certain health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection were independently associated with lower levels of appointment-keeping behavior. HCV knowledge was not associated with appointment-keeping behavior. Health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection are associated with missing appointments, but no link between knowledge and appointment keeping behavior is apparent. In order to increase engagement into HCV care, HCV care coordination programs need to focus on addressing health beliefs and providing resources to those at highest risk for missing appointments.

A systematic review of the literature exploring illness perceptions in mental health utilising the self-regulation model.

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Baines, Tineke; Wittkowski, Anja

2013-09-01

Psychologists have utilised a range of social cognition models to understand variation in physical health and illness-related behaviours. The most widely studied model of illness perceptions has been the Self-Regulation Model (SRM, Leventhal, Nerenz, & Steele, 1984). The illness perceptions questionnaire (IPQ) and its revised version (IPQ-R) have been utilised to explore illness beliefs in physical health. This review examined 13 quantitative studies, which used the IPQ and IPQ-R in mental health in their exploration of illness perceptions in psychosis, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, depression and adolescents experiencing mood disorders. Across these studies the SRM illness dimensions were largely supported. Mental illnesses were commonly viewed as cyclical and chronic, with serious negative consequences. Perceptions regarding chronicity, controllability and negative consequences were associated with coping and help seeking, while engagement with services and help seeking were also related to illness coherence beliefs. Treatment adherence was linked to beliefs that treatment could control one's illness. Whilst a major limitation of the reviewed studies was the use of cross-sectional designs, overall the applicability of the SRM to mental health was supported. The IPQ and IPQ-R were shown to be valuable measures of illness perceptions in mental health, offering implications for clinical practice.

Illness causal beliefs in Turkish immigrants

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Klimidis Steven

2007-07-01

persists despite modernizing and acculturative influences. Different types of causal beliefs are held in relation to somatic or mental illness, and a variety of apparently logically incompatible beliefs may be concurrently held. Illness causal beliefs are dynamic and are related to demographic, modernizing, and acculturative factors, and to the current presence of illness. Any assumption of uniformity of illness causal beliefs within a community, even one that is relatively culturally homogeneous, is likely to be misleading. A better understanding of the diversity, and determinants, of illness causal beliefs can be of value in improving our understanding of illness experience, the clinical process, and in developing more effective health services and population health strategies.

Illness causal beliefs in Turkish immigrants.

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Minas, Harry; Klimidis, Steven; Tuncer, Can

2007-07-24

types of causal beliefs are held in relation to somatic or mental illness, and a variety of apparently logically incompatible beliefs may be concurrently held. Illness causal beliefs are dynamic and are related to demographic, modernizing, and acculturative factors, and to the current presence of illness. Any assumption of uniformity of illness causal beliefs within a community, even one that is relatively culturally homogeneous, is likely to be misleading. A better understanding of the diversity, and determinants, of illness causal beliefs can be of value in improving our understanding of illness experience, the clinical process, and in developing more effective health services and population health strategies.

Generalizing a model beyond the inherence heuristic and applying it to beliefs about objective value.

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Wood, Graham

2014-10-01

The inherence heuristic is characterized as part of an instantiation of a more general model that describes the interaction between undeveloped intuitions, produced by System 1 heuristics, and developed beliefs, constructed by System 2 reasoning. The general model is described and illustrated by examining another instantiation of the process that constructs belief in objective moral value.

The Effect of Changes in Health Beliefs Among African-American and Rural White Church Congregants Enrolled in an Obesity Intervention: A Qualitative Evaluation.

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Martinez, Diane J; Turner, Monique M; Pratt-Chapman, Mandi; Kashima, Kanako; Hargreaves, Margaret K; Dignan, Mark B; Hébert, James R

2016-06-01

Church interventions can reduce obesity disparities by empowering participants with knowledge and skills within an established community. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Biomedical/Obesity Reduction Trial (BMORe) and investigate changes in health beliefs among obese adult participants. Ten pre-/post-intervention focus groups applying the Health Belief Model conducted in two African-American churches in Tennessee (n = 20) and South Carolina (n = 20), and one rural Appalachian church in Kentucky (n = 21). Two independent coders using NVivo analyzed transcribed audio data and notes. Participants' health status of being overweight/obese and having comorbidities of diabetes and high blood pressure motivated enrollment in BMORe. Initially participants voiced low self-efficacy in cooking healthy and reading food labels. BMORe made participants feel "empowered" after 12 weeks compared to initially feeling "out of control" with their weight. Participants reported improvements in emotional health, quality of life, and fewer medications. During post-intervention focus groups, participants reported increased self-efficacy through family support, sharing healthy eating strategies, and having accountability partners. Solidarity and common understanding among BMORe participants led focus group attendees to comment how their peers motivated them to stay in the program for 12 weeks. Long-term barriers include keeping the weight off by maintaining habits of exercise and healthy eating. Implementation of pre-/post-intervention focus groups is an innovative approach to evaluate an obesity intervention and track how changes in health beliefs facilitated behavior change. This novel approach shows promise for behavioral interventions that rely on participant engagement for sustained effectiveness.

Knowledge and Health Belief Attitudes of Oral Cancer and Its Screening Among At-Risk Southern Thai Muslims.

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Khwankong, Srisuk; Sriplung, Hutcha; Kerdpon, Duangporn

2018-06-01

Oral cancer is one of the leading cancers in Thailand; southern Thai Muslims seem to have a longer delay in attending treatment for oral cancer than Buddhists in the same area. Visual screenings of high-risk populations have been suggested to be an effective prevention method. This study assessed oral cancer knowledge and belief attitudes influencing oral cancer screening in Thai Muslim high-risk groups. Twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews and the focus group discussion were conducted based on the health belief model. Stratified purposeful sampling was used to recruit the participants. Inclusion criteria were those who practiced the risk habits for oral cancer and were 40 years of age or older, smokers (20+ cigarettes per day for at least 20 years) and/or betel quid chewers (10+ times per day for at least 10 years). Participants lacked knowledge about oral cancer in terms of signs and symptoms and predisposing factors. This influenced misleading belief attitudes concerning susceptibility of oral cancer, barriers, and their self-efficacy to have oral cancer screening examinations. Betel quid chewing was not regarded as a risk habit but as having a protective role against the disease. Perceived susceptibility was also seen by some to be dependent upon Allah's will. Traditional medication was mentioned as a preferred alternative to modern treatment. The latter was believed by some to be the cause of death for cancer patients. Interventions to promote oral cancer knowledge and right belief attitudes for oral cancer screening are clearly indicated.

Predictors of HIV-test utilization in PMTCT among antenatal care attendees in government health centers: institution-based cross-sectional study using health belief model in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2013

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Workagegn F

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Fikremariam Workagegn, Getachew Kiros, Lakew Abebe Health Education and Behavioral Sciences Department, Public and Medical Sciences College, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS is the most dramatic epidemic of the century that has claimed over two decades more than 3 million deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa is heavily affected and accounts for nearly 70% of all cases. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is responsible for 20% of all HIV transmissions. With no preventive interventions, 50% of HIV infections are transmitted from HIV-positive mothers to newborns. HIV-testing is central to prevent vertical transmission. Despite, awareness campaigns, prevention measures, and more recently, promotion of antiviral regimens, the prevalence of cases and deaths is still rising and the prevalence of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT voluntary counseling test (VCT use remains low. This study identifies predictors and possible barriers of HIV-testing among antenatal care attendees based on the health belief model (HBM in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: The study was an institution-based cross-sectional survey conducted from September 1 to September 30, 2013. A total of 308 individuals were interviewed using structured questionnaires adopted and modified from similar studies. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. A logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with HIV-test use. Results: In spite of satisfactory knowledge on HIV/AIDS transmission, participants are still at high risk of contracting the infection, wherein only 51.8% tested for HIV; among the married, only 84.1% and among the gestational age of third trimester, 34.1% mothers tested for HIV. Based on the HBM, failure to use PMTCT-HIV-test was related to its perceived lack of net benefit (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.34, confidence interval [CI] [0.19–0.58], P<0.001, but

Does Health Information in Mass Media Help or Hurt Patients? Investigation of Potential Negative Influence of Mass Media Health Information on Patients' Beliefs and Medication Regimen Adherence.

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Im, Heewon; Huh, Jisu

2017-03-01

As an important public health issue, patient medication non-adherence has drawn much attention, but research on the impact of mass media as an information source on patient medication adherence has been scant. Given that mass media often provide confusing and contradicting information regarding health/medical issues, this study examined the potential negative influence of exposure to health information in mass media on patients' beliefs about their illnesses and medications, and medication adherence, in comparison with the effects of exposure to another primary medication information source, physicians. Survey data obtained from patients on blood thinner regimens revealed that the frequency of exposure to health information in mass media was negatively related to accuracy of patients' beliefs about their medication benefits and patient medication adherence. On the other hand, frequency of visits with physicians was positively associated with patients' beliefs about their medication benefits but had no significant relation to medication regimen adherence. The implications of the study findings are discussed, and methodological limitations and suggestion for future research are presented.

Healthcare Access and Health Beliefs of the Indigenous Peoples in Remote Amazonian Peru

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Brierley, Charlotte K.; Suarez, Nicolas; Arora, Gitanjli; Graham, Devon

2014-01-01

Little is published about the health issues of traditional communities in the remote Peruvian Amazon. This study assessed healthcare access, health perceptions, and beliefs of the indigenous population along the Ampiyacu and Yaguasyacu rivers in north-eastern Peru. One hundred and seventy-nine adult inhabitants of 10 remote settlements attending health clinics were interviewed during a medical services trip in April 2012. Demographics, health status, access to healthcare, health education, sanitation, alcohol use, and smoke exposure were recorded. Our findings indicate that poverty, household overcrowding, and poor sanitation remain commonplace in this group. Furthermore, there are poor levels of health education and on-going barriers to accessing healthcare. Healthcare access and health education remain poor in the remote Peruvian Amazon. This combined with poverty and its sequelae render this population vulnerable to disease. PMID:24277789

Healthcare access and health beliefs of the indigenous peoples in remote Amazonian Peru.

Science.gov (United States)

Brierley, Charlotte K; Suarez, Nicolas; Arora, Gitanjli; Graham, Devon

2014-01-01

Little is published about the health issues of traditional communities in the remote Peruvian Amazon. This study assessed healthcare access, health perceptions, and beliefs of the indigenous population along the Ampiyacu and Yaguasyacu rivers in north-eastern Peru. One hundred and seventy-nine adult inhabitants of 10 remote settlements attending health clinics were interviewed during a medical services trip in April 2012. Demographics, health status, access to healthcare, health education, sanitation, alcohol use, and smoke exposure were recorded. Our findings indicate that poverty, household overcrowding, and poor sanitation remain commonplace in this group. Furthermore, there are poor levels of health education and on-going barriers to accessing healthcare. Healthcare access and health education remain poor in the remote Peruvian Amazon. This combined with poverty and its sequelae render this population vulnerable to disease.

Moral Beliefs and Cognitive Homogeneity

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Nevia Dolcini

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The Emotional Perception Model of moral judgment intends to account for experientialism about morality and moral reasoning. In explaining how moral beliefs are formed and applied in practical reasoning, the model attempts to overcome the mismatch between reason and action/desire: morality isn’t about reason for actions, yet moral beliefs, if caused by desires, may play a motivational role in (moral agency. The account allows for two kinds of moral beliefs: genuine moral beliefs, which enjoy a relation to desire, and motivationally inert moral beliefs acquired in ways other than experience. Such etiology-based dichotomy of concepts, I will argue, leads to the undesirable view of cognition as a non-homogeneous phenomenon. Moreover, the distinction between moral beliefs and moral beliefs would entail a further dichotomy encompassing the domain of moral agency: one and the same action might possibly be either genuine moral, or not moral, if acted by individuals lacking the capacity for moral feelings, such as psychopaths.

The relationship between beliefs about emotions and quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome.

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Bowers, Hannah; Wroe, Abigail; Pincus, Tamar

2017-12-01

Suppression of undesirable emotions, as well as beliefs about the unacceptability of experiencing and expressing emotions, have both been shown to be related to poorer health-related outcomes in several clinical groups. Potential models through which these variables relate have yet to be tested in those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and are therefore examined in the current article. Online questionnaires were administered to people with IBS (n = 84) to test a mediation model in which beliefs about the unacceptability of emotions are associated with greater emotional suppression, which in turn relates to increased affective distress and consequently poorer quality of life. An alternate model to test the direction of effect along with two further models using support-seeking as mediators of the same predictor and outcome were also tested. Emotional suppression and affective distress (in that particular order) mediate the relationship between beliefs about emotions and quality of life IBS. The models using support-seeking as mediators of the relationship between beliefs about emotions and the two outcomes were not supported. These findings suggest a role for emotional processing in medically unexplained symptoms and imply the need to address such beliefs about emotions in psychological therapies.

Survey of osteoporosis preventive behaviors among women in Fasa: The Application of the Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory

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Ali Khani Jeihooni

2016-04-01

self-regulation, social protection of social cognitive theory, and questionnaire of functional feeding and walking were determined to prevent osteoporosis in women. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software. Results: The average age of women was 40/9± 6/2 years. The variables of perceived susceptibility, motivation, social support and self-regulation for walking behavior and variables of perceived sensitivity and self-regulation for feeding behavior were predicted. There was a significant association between walking performance and perceived susceptibility (B=0.252 ,p=0/007, motivation (B=0.235 ,p=0.009, social support (B=0.078 ,p=0.030 and Self-regulation (B=0.105 ,p=0.007. In this study, there was a significant association between nutritional performance and perceived susceptibility (B=0.10,p=0.02, self-regulation (r=0.069 ,p=0.050. The variables under study expressed 29/1% of the variance in walking behavior and 20/2% of the variance in feeding behavior in osteoporosis prevention. Conclusion: The study indicated that perceived susceptibility, motivation, self-regulation and social support, otherwise more people might have osteoporosis preventive behaviors better .Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory can be used as a framework for designing and implementing educational interventions for the prevention of osteoporosis in women and can help to improve and maintain their health.

Use pattern and predictors of use of highly caffeinated energy drinks among South Korean adolescents: a study using the Health Belief Model.

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Ha, Dongmun; Song, Inmyung; Jang, Gyeongil; Lee, Eui-Kyung; Shin, Ju-Young

2017-09-24

Concerns about the use of highly caffeinated energy drinks among Korean adolescents remains. We compared adolescents' perceptions regarding the use of drinks to their behaviours and factors. A structured questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model was administered to 850 freshmen and sophomores at three high schools in Bucheon, South Korea. Benefits were defined as beneficial effects from the use of highly caffeinated energy drinks (eg, awakening from sleepiness) and harms as adverse effects of the drinks (eg, cardiac palpitation). Likelihood of action represents the likelihood of taking actions that are perceived to be more beneficial after comparison of the benefits and harms of caffeine use. Descriptive analysis was used to quantify the relationship between their beliefs about highly caffeinated energy drinks and their use. We conducted hierarchical logistic regression to compute ORs and 95% CIs for: (1) demographic factors, (2) health threat, (3) likelihood of action and (4) cues to act. Altogether, 833 students responded to the questionnaire (effective response rate=98.0%). About 63.0% reported use of highly caffeinated energy drinks and 35.2% had used them as needed and habitually. The more susceptible the respondents perceived themselves to be to the risk of using these drinks, the less likely they were to use them (OR: 0.73, 95% CI 0.50 to 1.06). The more severe the perception of a health threat, the less that perception was associated with use (OR: 0.44, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.67). Likelihood of action was the strongest predictor of use, explaining 12.5% in use. Benefits and harms (OR: 4.43, 95% CI 2.77 to 7.09; OR: 1.86, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.99) also were significant predictors. Enhancing adolescents' perceptions of benefits and harms regarding using highly caffeinated energy drinks could be an effective way to influence the use of these drinks. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All

An ethnographic study of diabetes health beliefs and practices in Sri Lankan adults.

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Amarasekara, A A T D; Fongkaew, W; Turale, S; Wimalasekara, S W; Chanprasit, C

2014-12-01

Globally, type 2 diabetes is increasingly prevalent; however, unique cultural contexts in each country might affect these diabetes control behaviours. Diabetes is a serious health issue in Sri Lanka and little is known about the impact of sociocultural context on diabetes health behaviours. This first-time qualitative Sri Lankan study explored the health beliefs and practices of adults with diabetes to enhance current nursing care and medical treatment. An ethnographic approach was used to collect data through participant observations, in-depth interviews with 14 key informants in their homes and field notes. Data were analysed by thematic analysis. Findings revealed unique, informative insights into sociocultural worlds of the participants from three Sinhalese, Tamils and Moor ethnic groups. Findings are described under five themes: gaining religious support, changing food habits is a struggle, exercising is challenging, Western medicine causes long-term consequences and Ayurveda/traditional treatments can cure. In Sri Lankans, the impact of sociocultural context on glycaemic control behaviours is significant and should be taken in consideration when health professionals provide care, treatment and health education. Study informants were selected from three ethnic groups and just two communities. Further in-depth research is required using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in individual groups. Culturally relevant policies and protocols for community care and treatment of people with diabetes are urgently required in Sri Lanka to enhance cultural treatment and care and reduce the epidemic of diabetes. These policies need to take into account traditional beliefs and practices of various ethnic groups. © 2014 International Council of Nurses.

How frequent are non-evidence-based health care beliefs in chiropractic students and do they vary across the pre-professional educational years.

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Innes, Stanley I; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte; Walker, Bruce F

2018-01-01

Evidence suggests that a students' beliefs already prior to entering a program may be important as a determinant in sustaining unsuitable health care beliefs. Our objectives were to investigate the proportion of Australian chiropractic students who hold non-evidence-based beliefs in the first year of study and the extent to which they may be involved in non-musculoskeletal health conditions. Finally, to see if this proportion varies over the course of the chiropractic program. In 2016, students from two Australian chiropractic programs answered a questionnaire on how often they would give advice on five common health conditions in their future practices as well as their opinion on whether chiropractic spinal adjustments could prevent or help seven health-related conditions. From a possible 831 students, 444 responded (53%). Students were highly likely to offer advice (often/quite often) on a range of non-musculoskeletal conditions. The proportions were lowest in first year and highest the final year. Also, high numbers of students held non-evidence-based beliefs about 'chiropractic spinal adjustments' which tended to occur in gradually decreasing in numbers in sequential years, except for fifth year when a reversal of the pattern occurred. New strategies are required for chiropractic educators if they are to produce graduates who understand and deliver evidence-based health care and able to be part of the mainstream health care system.

Improve Knowledge, Beliefs and Behavior of Undergraduate Female Nursing Students in Al-Alzhar University toward Breast Self-Examination Practice

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El-Mohsen, Afaf S. Abd; El-Maksoud, Mona M. Abd

2015-01-01

Breast cancer is a public health problem that is most common form of cancer among females in both developed and developing world, The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been used as a theoretical framework to study Breast Self-Examination and other breast cancer detection behaviors. The aim of this study: Was to improve knowledge, beliefs and behavior…

Belief Functions: Theory and Applications - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Belief Functions

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Masson, Marie-Hélène

2012-01-01

The theory of belief functions, also known as evidence theory or Dempster-Shafer theory, was first introduced by Arthur P. Dempster in the context of statistical inference, and was later developed by Glenn Shafer as a general framework for modeling epistemic uncertainty. These early contributions have been the starting points of many important developments, including the Transferable Belief Model and the Theory of Hints. The theory of belief functions is now well established as a general framework for reasoning with uncertainty, and has well understood connections to other frameworks such as probability, possibility and imprecise probability theories.   This volume contains the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Belief Functions that was held in Compiègne, France on 9-11 May 2012. It gathers 51 contributions describing recent developments both on theoretical issues (including approximation methods, combination rules, continuous belief functions, graphical models and independence concepts) an...

Functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs among Thai healthcare workers in Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital: its association with intention to quit tobacco and alcohol.

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Jiraniramai, Surin; Jiraporncharoen, Wichuda; Pinyopornpanish, Kanokporn; Jakkaew, Nalinee; Wongpakaran, Tinakon; Angkurawaranon, Chaisiri

2017-07-12

Individual health beliefs are likely to play a key role in how people respond to knowledge and information about the potential harm from smoking and alcohol abuse. The objectives of the study were to 1) explore whether functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were associated with intention to quit smoking and confidence to quit smoking and 2) explore whether functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were associated with intention to quit alcohol drinking and confidence to quit alcohol drinking. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2013 among health care workers working in Thailand. Using predicted factor scores from factor analysis, the relationship between factor scores for each of the two beliefs and intention to quit and confidence to quit were tested using ANOVA and further adjusted for age and sex using linear regression. Functional beliefs were inversely associated with the intention to quit and confidence to quit smoking. Both functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were each inversely associated with the intention to quit and confidence to quit alcohol drinking. Our study enhances the understanding of the complexities of health beliefs regarding these two commonly abused substances. As functional beliefs were associated with smoking and alcohol use, interventions to counter the cultural values and individual beliefs about the benefits of smoking and alcohol use are needed. Tackling risk minimizing beliefs by providing individualized feedback regarding harm may also be useful in alcohol drinkers.

Beliefs, Preferences and Health Insurance Behavior : Verwachtingen, voorkeuren en gedrag in relatie tot een zorgverzekering

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K.J. van Wilgenburg (Kim)

2018-01-01

markdownabstractThis thesis contributes to an accumulation of research that uses behavioral economics to provide insights into social issues of substantial policy interest. The main body of the thesis uses data on beliefs, preferences and health insurance behavior collected purposefully for this

Explaining body size beliefs in anorexia.

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Gadsby, Stephen

2017-11-01

Cognitive neuropsychiatry has had much success in providing theoretical models for the causal origins of many delusional beliefs. Recently, it has been suggested that some anorexia nervosa patients' beliefs about their own body size should be considered delusions. As such, it seems high time the methods of cognitive neuropsychiatry were turned to modelling the false body size beliefs of anorexics. In this paper, I adopt an empiricist approach to modelling the causal origins of false body size beliefs in anorexia. Within the background of cognitive neuropsychiatry, empiricist models claim that abnormal beliefs are grounded by abnormal experiences bearing similar content. I discuss the kinds of abnormal experiences of body size anorexics suffer from which could ground their false beliefs about body size. These oversized experiences come in three varieties: false self-other body comparisons, spontaneous mental imagery of a fat body and distorted perception of affordances. Further theoretical and empirical research into the oversized experiences which anorexics suffer from presents a promising avenue for understanding and treating the disorder.

Effects of imparting planned health education on hot flush beliefs and quality of life of climacteric women.

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Sis Çelik, A; Pasinlioğlu, T

2017-02-01

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of imparting planned health education to climacteric women on their beliefs related to hot flushes and on their quality of life. The research was conducted using pretest and post-test semi-experimental models along with a control group. Of 450 women, 255 were randomly selected and invited to participate in the study. Five people did not agree to participate in the study. Three people were also excluded from the study because they did not complete training. The research sample was comprised of 247 climacteric women (121 women in the experimental group and 126 women in the control group) who were Life Questionnaire. Three educational sessions at 2-week intervals were given to the women in the experimental group. The research was supported with an educational booklet prepared by the researchers. Training was not given to the women in the control group. After the education of the experimental group (after about 6 months), women in both groups recompleted the data collection forms, and post-test data were collected. On all the subscales, the total of the Hot Flush Beliefs Scale, and the average post-test score, the women in the experimental group scored lower than the women in the control group (the average post-test total score in the experimental group was 26.22 ± 10.09 and in control group it was 52.25 ± 15.04; p Life Questionnaire for the women in the experimental group was lower than that for the women in the control group (p life of the women in the experimental group showed an upward trend, that of the women in the control group remained the same. It was found that planned health education about the climacteric period reduced women's negative beliefs about hot flushes and enhanced their quality of life.

African-American and Latina Women Seeking Public Health Services: Cultural Beliefs regarding Pregnancy, including Medication-taking Behavior

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Luz Dalia Sanchez, MD, MCP, MHA, PhD

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: to describe cultural beliefs and medication-taking-behavior about pregnancy in African-American and Latina women. Design: qualitative study using phenomenological methodology; face-to-face, semi structured interviews and focus group. Thematic analysis was done to obtain themes consistent with the research objective. Setting: Maricopa County, Arizona, Department of Public-health Programs, November 2008 through April 2009.Participants: women seeking public-health services in the greater Phoenix, Arizona.Results: fifteen adult women representing two ethnic groups (seven African-Americans and eight Latinas participated. Themes derived from the interview data included: “The Dilemma: To Become or Not to Become Pregnant;” “The Ideal Stress-free World: Support System;” “Changing Worlds: Wanting Dependency;” and “The Health care System: Disconnection from Pregnancy to Postpartum.”Conclusions: based on the cultural themes: 1. pregnancies were not planned; 2. healthy life-style changes were not likely to occur during pregnancy; 3. basic facts about the biology of sexual intercourse and pregnancy were not understood, and there was no usage of any preconceptional or prenatal medications; and 4. professional health care was not desired or considered necessary (except during delivery. These cultural beliefs can contribute to negative birth outcomes, and need to be considered by pharmacists and other health-care providers. The information gained from this study can guide the implementation of educational programs developed by pharmacists that are more sensitive to the cultural beliefs and points of view of these particular women. Such programs would thus be more likely to be favorably received and utilized.

Betting and Belief: Modeling the Impact of Prediction Markets on Public Attribution of Climate Change

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Gilligan, J. M.; Nay, J. J.; van der Linden, M.

2016-12-01

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and an almost complete consensus among scientists, a large fraction of the American public is not convinced that global warming is anthropogenic. This doubt correlates strongly with political, ideological, and cultural orientation. [1] It has been proposed that people who do not trust climate scientists tend to trust markets, so prediction markets might be able to influence their beliefs about the causes of climate change. [2] We present results from an agent-based simulation of a prediction market in which traders invest based on their beliefs about what drives global temperature change (here, either CO2 concentration or total solar irradiance (TSI), which is a popular hypothesis among many who doubt the dominant role of CO2). At each time step, traders use historical and observed temperatures and projected future forcings (CO2 or TSI) to update Bayesian posterior probability distributions for future temperatures, conditional on their belief about what drives climate change. Traders then bet on future temperatures by trading in climate futures. Trading proceeds by a continuous double auction. Traders are randomly assigned initial beliefs about climate change, and they have some probability of changing their beliefs to match those of the most successful traders in their social network. We simulate two alternate realities in which the global temperature is controlled either by CO2 or by TSI, with stochastic noise. In both cases traders' beliefs converge, with a large majority reaching agreement on the actual cause of climate change. This convergence is robust, but the speed with which consensus emerges depends on characteristics of the traders' psychology and the structure of the market. Our model can serve as a test-bed for studying how beliefs might evolve under different market structures and different modes of decision-making and belief-change. We will report progress on studying alternate models of belief-change. This

An Education for Peace Model That Centres on Belief Systems: The Theory behind The Model

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Willis, Alison

2017-01-01

The education for peace model (EFPM) presented in this paper was developed within a theoretical framework of complexity science and critical theory and was derived from a review of an empirical research project conducted in a conflict affected environment. The model positions belief systems at the centre and is socioecologically systemic in design…

High School Students' Scientific Epistemological Beliefs, Self-Efficacy in Learning Physics and Attitudes toward Physics: A Structural Equation Model

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Kapucu, Serkan; Bahçivan, Eralp

2015-01-01

Background: There are some theoretical evidences that explain the relationships between core beliefs (i.e., epistemological beliefs) and peripheral beliefs (self-efficacy in learning) in the literature. The close relationships of such type of beliefs with attitudes are also discussed by some researchers. Constructing a model that investigates…

Supernatural beliefs, aetiological models and help seeking behaviour in patients with schizophrenia.

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Kate, Natasha; Grover, Sandeep; Kulhara, Parmanand; Nehra, Ritu

2012-01-01

Few studies have evaluated the supernatural beliefs of patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to study the personal beliefs, aetiological models and help seeking behaviour of patients with schizophrenia using a self-rated questionnaire. Seventy three patients returned the completed supernatural Attitude questionnaire. 62% of patients admitted that people in their community believed in sorcery and other magico-religious phenomena. One fourth to half of patients believed in ghosts/evil spirit (26%), spirit intrusion (28.8%) and sorcery (46.6%). Two-third patients believed that mental illness can occur either due to sorcery, ghosts/evil spirit, spirit intrusion, divine wrath, planetary/astrological influences, dissatisfied or evil spirits and bad deeds of the past. 40% of the subjects attributed mental disorders to more than one of these beliefs. About half of the patients (46.6%) believed that only performance of prayers was sufficient to improve their mental status. Few patients (9.6%) believed that magico-religious rituals were sufficient to improve their mental illness but about one-fourth (24.7%) admitted that during recent episode either they or their caregivers performed magico-religious rituals. Supernatural beliefs are common in patients with schizophrenia and many of them attribute the symptoms of mental disorders to these beliefs.

Capability beliefs on, and use of evidence-based practice among four health professional and student groups in geriatric care: A cross sectional study

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2018-01-01

Implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) is a complex task. This study, conducted in an acute geriatric setting, aims to compare self-reported capability beliefs on EBP between health professionals and students, and to compare the use of EBP between health professional groups. Occupational therapists, physicians, physiotherapists and registered nurses with three or more months’ employment, and all students from the occupational therapy, medical, physiotherapy and nursing programs, who had conducted workplace learning at the department, were invited. Data on capability beliefs and use of EBP were collected using the Evidence-based Practice Capabilities Beliefs Scale assessing six activities of EBP: formulate questions; search databases; search other sources; appraise research reports; participate in implementation in practice; and participate in evaluation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Capability beliefs on EBP: The health professionals (n = 101; response rate 80%) reported high on search other sources but less on appraise research reports. The students (n = 124; response rate 73%) reported high on all EBP activities. The health professionals reported significantly higher on search other sources than the students. The students reported significantly higher on formulate questions and appraise research reports than the health professionals. No significant differences were identified between the health professional groups or between the student groups. Use of EBP: Health professionals reported wide-ranging use from several times each month to once every six months. The physicians reported significantly more frequent use than registered nurses and occupational therapists. Health professionals supervising students reported more frequent use of appraise research reports than the non-supervising group. There is a need for improving the use of EBP, particularly among registered nurses and occupational therapists. Supervision of students might

Capability beliefs on, and use of evidence-based practice among four health professional and student groups in geriatric care: A cross sectional study.

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Anne-Marie Boström

Full Text Available Implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP is a complex task. This study, conducted in an acute geriatric setting, aims to compare self-reported capability beliefs on EBP between health professionals and students, and to compare the use of EBP between health professional groups. Occupational therapists, physicians, physiotherapists and registered nurses with three or more months' employment, and all students from the occupational therapy, medical, physiotherapy and nursing programs, who had conducted workplace learning at the department, were invited. Data on capability beliefs and use of EBP were collected using the Evidence-based Practice Capabilities Beliefs Scale assessing six activities of EBP: formulate questions; search databases; search other sources; appraise research reports; participate in implementation in practice; and participate in evaluation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Capability beliefs on EBP: The health professionals (n = 101; response rate 80% reported high on search other sources but less on appraise research reports. The students (n = 124; response rate 73% reported high on all EBP activities. The health professionals reported significantly higher on search other sources than the students. The students reported significantly higher on formulate questions and appraise research reports than the health professionals. No significant differences were identified between the health professional groups or between the student groups. Use of EBP: Health professionals reported wide-ranging use from several times each month to once every six months. The physicians reported significantly more frequent use than registered nurses and occupational therapists. Health professionals supervising students reported more frequent use of appraise research reports than the non-supervising group. There is a need for improving the use of EBP, particularly among registered nurses and occupational therapists. Supervision of

Psychosis or Faith? Clinicians' Assessment of Religious Beliefs

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O'Connor, Shawn; Vandenberg, Brian

2005-01-01

This study investigated mental health professionals' assessment of the pathognomonic significance of religious beliefs. A total of 110 participants reviewed 3 vignettes depicting individuals possessing the religious beliefs associated with Catholicism, Mormonism, and Nation of Islam. The religious beliefs of the individuals in the vignettes were…

In Asian americans, is having a family member diagnosed with cancer associated with fatalistic beliefs?

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Carolee Polek

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: Cancer can evoke long-held cultural beliefs which either facilitate or impede efforts to expand the health literacy of families. Among these beliefs is fatalism which holds that controlling ones′ outcome is not possible, and that ones′ outcome is predestined. Some fatalistic beliefs are broadly held within the Asian American (AA community and may be challenged or reinforced by the experience of having a family member diagnosed with cancer. This study evaluated the relationship between having a family member diagnosed with cancer and selected demographics in AAs on fatalistic beliefs. Methods: Data from 519 AA subjects from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Information Trends Survey were used to complete a secondary analysis. Descriptive statistics characterize fatalistic beliefs. Four models using four questions assessed fatalistic beliefs as dependent variables and independent variables of having or not having a family member diagnosed with cancer, completing college or not, sex, and age were assessed using ordinal regression. Results: All of the fatalistic beliefs examined were endorsed by large portions of the subjects. When considering the role of being exposed to having a family member with cancer, it was associated with an increase in the likelihood in a belief that one is likely to get cancer, and everything can cause cancer. Being exposed to a family member diagnosed with cancer was not significantly associated with believing, there was little one could do to control their cancer risk. This belief was broadly rejected. While the belief that there are so many different recommendations about preventing cancer, it is hard to know what to do, was broadly endorsed and not associated with having a family member diagnosed with cancer. Conclusions: The major practice implications within oncology nursing suggest the importance in assessing cancer health literacy and providing corrective knowledge in families

Activities, self-referent memory beliefs, and cognitive performance: evidence for direct and mediated relations.

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Jopp, Daniela; Hertzog, Christopher

2007-12-01

In this study, the authors investigated the role of activities and self-referent memory beliefs for cognitive performance in a life-span sample. A factor analysis identified 8 activity factors, including Developmental Activities, Experiential Activities, Social Activities, Physical Activities, Technology Use, Watching Television, Games, and Crafts. A second-order general activity factor was significantly related to a general factor of cognitive function as defined by ability tests. Structural regression models suggested that prediction of cognition by activity level was partially mediated by memory beliefs, controlling for age, education, health, and depressive affect. Models adding paths from general and specific activities to aspects of crystallized intelligence suggested additional unique predictive effects for some activities. In alternative models, nonsignificant effects of beliefs on activities were detected when cognition predicted both variables, consistent with the hypothesis that beliefs derive from monitoring cognition and have no influence on activity patterns. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Changing smoking attitudes by strengthening weak antismoking beliefs - Taiwan as an example.

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Chang, Chingching

2006-12-01

I first explored the strength of Taiwanese high school students' beliefs regarding five antismoking messages. Findings of a nationwide survey showed that the students held these beliefs in the following order of decreasing strength: second-hand smoke damages health, smoking has long-term health consequences, smoking has short-term health consequences, cigarette marketers are manipulative, and smokers are perceived negatively. Experiment one further showed that antismoking ads featuring weakly held beliefs are more effective than those featuring strongly held beliefs. Experiment two demonstrated that antismoking campaigns need to be framed carefully; in general, it is more effective to positively frame messages about strongly held antismoking beliefs but negatively frame messages about weakly held antismoking beliefs.

Positive self-beliefs as a mediator of the relationship between adolescents' sports participation and health in young adulthood.

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Dodge, Tonya; Lambert, Sharon F

2009-07-01

The present study examined the relationship between participation in sports during adolescence and physical activity and subjective health in young adulthood. A sample of 8,152 (males = 50.8%, females = 49.2%) adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used. Results of the study showed that participating in an organized sport during adolescence was associated with higher levels of physical activity and better subjective health during young adulthood after controlling for participation in general physical activities (e.g., jogging, biking, skateboarding) during adolescence. Participation in sports during adolescence was associated with more positive self-beliefs 1 year later that, in turn, were associated with higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity and better subjective health 6 years later. Results suggest that positive self-beliefs partially mediate the relationship between adolescents' participation in sports and two health outcomes in young adulthood: moderate to vigorous physical activity and subjective health. Findings highlight the utility of youths' participation in organized sports for promoting healthy outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Discourse versus practice: are traditional practices and beliefs in pregnancy and childbirth included or excluded in the Ecuadorian health care system?

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Gallegos, Carlos Andres; Waters, William F; Kuhlmann, Anne Sebert

2017-03-01

Traditional beliefs, knowledge and practices are formally integrated into the Ecuadorian health system. We sought to understand whether they are integrated in practice. Qualitative data were collected in two rural parishes in the central highlands of Ecuador through four focus group discussions (30 participants), eight key informant interviews, three participatory exercises (24 participants), structured observations of health facilities and analysis of official documents. We found different levels of integration, coexistence, tolerance, and intolerance of traditional health beliefs and practices in health facilities. One parish has undergone dramatic social and cultural transformation, and the role of traditional birth attendants is limited. In the other parish, traditional indigenous norms and values persist, and traditional birth attendants are sought during pregnancy and childbirth. The degree to which traditional birth attendants, indigenous women and their families are included or excluded from public health services depends largely on decisions taken by local health professionals. Formal policies in Ecuador stipulate that health care should be intercultural, but the role of traditional birth attendants is not necessarily incorporated in practice. The integration of culturally-informed beliefs and practices is critical for providing appropriate health services to members of vulnerable populations. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Health beliefs and practices related to cancer screening among Arab Muslim women in an urban community.

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Salman, Khlood Faik

2012-01-01

In this exploratory study I investigated the participation status in breast and cervical cancer screening of a group of American immigrant Arab Muslim women (AMW). Perceived knowledge of and barriers to screening participation, relationships among demographic variables, health practice and beliefs, and self-reports of traditionalism and acculturation also are studied. Factors including religious and cultural beliefs, economic concerns, and modesty and embarrassment were considered. To reach the goals of Healthy People 2010 (HP 2010), an effective and meaningful educational initiative to raise awareness about breast and cervical cancer of AMW will require specific interventions consistent with their cultural and religious traditions.

How do physicians discuss e-health with patients? the relationship of physicians' e-health beliefs to physician mediation styles.

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Fujioka, Yuki; Stewart, Erin

2013-01-01

A survey of 104 physicians examined the role of physicians' evaluation of the quality of e-health and beliefs about the influence of patients' use of e-health in how physicians discuss e-health materials with patients. Physicians' lower (poor) evaluation of the quality of e-health content predicted more negative mediation (counter-reinforcement of e-health content). Perceived benefits of patients' e-health use predicted more positive (endorsement of e-health content). Physician's perceived concerns (negative influence) regarding patients' e-health use were not a significant predictor for their mediation styles. Results, challenging the utility of restrictive mediation, suggested reconceptualizing it as redirective mediation in a medical interaction. The study suggested that patient-generated e-health-related inquiries invite physician mediation in medical consultations. Findings and implications are discussed in light of the literature of physician-patient interaction, incorporating the theory of parental mediation of media into a medical context.

The effect of an educational program based on health belief model on preventing osteoporosis in women

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Ali Khani Jeihooni

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease. The study′s objective is to investigate the effect of an educational program based on Health Belief Model (HBM on preventing osteoporosis in women. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 120 patients (60 experimental and 60 control who were registered under the health centers in Fasa City, Fars Province, Iran, were selected in 2014. A questionnaire consisting of demographic information, HBM constructs was used to measure nutrition and walking performance for the prevention of osteoporosis before, immediately after intervention, and 6 months later. Bone mineral density (BMD was recorded at the lumbar spine and femur before and 6 months after intervention. Results: The mean age of women participated in the study was 41.75 ± 5.4 years for the experimental group, and 41.77 ± 5.43 years for the control group. The mean body mass index was 22.44 ± 3.30 for the experimental group and 22.27 ± 3.05 for the control group. The average number of women deliveries for the experimental group was 2.57 ± 1.47 and 2.50 ± 1.19 for the control group. There is no significant difference between the two groups in education level (P = 0.771, marital status (P = 0.880, occupation (P = 0.673, breastfeeding (P = 0.769, smoking (P = 0.315, history of osteoporosis in the family (P = 0.378, history of special diseases (P = 0.769, and records of bone densitometry (P = 0.543. Immediately and 6 months after intervention, the experimental group showed a significant increase in the knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, internal cues to action, nutrition, and walking performance compared to the control group. Six months after intervention, the value of lumbar spine BMD T-score in the experimental group increased to 0.127, while in the control group it reduced to −0.043. The value of the hip BMD T-score in the intervention group

Folk-Economic Beliefs: An Evolutionary Cognitive Model.

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Boyer, Pascal; Petersen, Michael Bang

2017-10-12

The domain of "folk-economics" consists in explicit beliefs about the economy held by laypeople, untrained in economics, about such topics as e.g., the causes of the wealth of nations, the benefits or drawbacks of markets and international trade, the effects of regulation, the origins of inequality, the connection between work and wages, the economic consequences of immigration, or the possible causes of unemployment. These beliefs are crucial in forming people's political beliefs, and in shaping their reception of different policies. Yet, they often conflict with elementary principles of economic theory and are often described as the consequences of ignorance, irrationality or specific biases. As we will argue, these past perspectives fail to predict the particular contents of popular folk-economic beliefs and, as a result, there is no systematic study of the cognitive factors involved in their emergence and cultural success. Here we propose that the cultural success of particular beliefs about the economy is predictable if we consider the influence of specialized, largely automatic inference systems that evolved as adaptations to ancestral human small-scale sociality. These systems, for which there is independent evidence, include free-rider detection, fairness-based partner-choice, ownership intuitions, coalitional psychology, and more. Information about modern mass-market conditions activates these specific inference-systems, resulting in particular intuitions, e.g., that impersonal transactions are dangerous or that international trade is a zero-sum game. These intuitions in turn make specific policy proposals more likely than others to become intuitively compelling, and as a consequence exert a crucial influence on political choices.

The influence of online store beliefs on consumer online impulse buying: A model and empirical application

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Verhagen, T.; van Dolen, W.

2011-01-01

Our study provides insight into the relationships between online store beliefs and consumer online impulse buying behavior. Drawing upon cognitive emotion theory, we developed a model and showed how beliefs about functional convenience (online store merchandise attractiveness and ease of use) and

Evaluation of risk from acts of terrorism :the adversary/defender model using belief and fuzzy sets.

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Darby, John L.

2006-09-01

Risk from an act of terrorism is a combination of the likelihood of an attack, the likelihood of success of the attack, and the consequences of the attack. The considerable epistemic uncertainty in each of these three factors can be addressed using the belief/plausibility measure of uncertainty from the Dempster/Shafer theory of evidence. The adversary determines the likelihood of the attack. The success of the attack and the consequences of the attack are determined by the security system and mitigation measures put in place by the defender. This report documents a process for evaluating risk of terrorist acts using an adversary/defender model with belief/plausibility as the measure of uncertainty. Also, the adversary model is a linguistic model that applies belief/plausibility to fuzzy sets used in an approximate reasoning rule base.

Do biogenetic causal beliefs reduce mental illness stigma in people with mental illness and in mental health professionals? A systematic review.

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Larkings, Josephine S; Brown, Patricia M

2018-06-01

Viewing mental illness as an 'illness like any other' and promoting biogenetic causes have been explored as a stigma-reduction strategy. The relationship between causal beliefs and mental illness stigma has been researched extensively in the general public, but has gained less attention in more clinically-relevant populations (i.e. people with mental illness and mental health professionals). A systematic review examining whether endorsing biogenetic causes decreases mental illness stigma in people with mental illness and mental health professionals was undertaken using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. Multiple databases were searched, and studies that explored the relationship between biogenetic causal beliefs and mental illness stigma in people with mental illness or mental health professionals were considered. Studies were included if they focussed on depression, schizophrenia, or mental illness in general, were in English, and had adult participants. The search identified 11 journal articles reporting on 15 studies, which were included in this review. Of these, only two provided evidence that endorsing biogenetic causes was associated with less mental illness stigma in people with mental illness or mental health professionals. The majority of studies in the present review (n = 10) found that biogenetic causal beliefs were associated with increased stigma or negative attitudes towards mental illness. The present review highlights the lack of research exploring the impacts of endorsing biogenetic causes in people with mental illness and mental health professionals. Clinical implications associated with these results are discussed, and suggestions are made for further research that examines the relationship between causal beliefs and treatment variables. © 2017 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Awareness of osteoporosis in postmenopausal Indian women: An evaluation of Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale.

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Gopinathan, Nirmal Raj; Sen, Ramesh Kumar; Behera, Prateek; Aggarwal, Sameer; Khandelwal, Niranjan; Sen, Mitali

2016-01-01

The level of awareness about osteoporosis in postmenopausal women who are the common sufferers. This study aims to evaluate the level of awareness in postmenopausal women using the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS). Osteoporosis has emerged as a common health problem in geriatric population. A proactive role needs to be played for preventing its consequences. Before initiating any preventive measures, an evaluation of awareness level of the target population is necessary. The questionnaire-based study design was used for this study. A questionnaire (OHBS)-based study in 100 postmenopausal women in Chandigarh was conducted. The bone mineral density (BMD) was measured in each case by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) of the participants were noted. Statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate any correlation between the various components of the OHBS and the BMD. No statistically significant difference was noted in the seven component parameters of OHBS among the normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic women suggesting that the health belief regarding susceptibility is not much different between the three groups of the study population. A statistically significant difference between the mean BMI of normal and osteoporotic population was noted. The results show that there is a great deficit in the awareness level of postmenopausal Indian women regarding osteoporosis. Most of the women were unaware of the condition and the means to prevent it. The study emphasizes that health care professionals have lot of ground to cover to decrease the incidence of osteoporosis and its associated health problem.

Remarriage Beliefs as Predictors of Marital Quality and Positive Interaction in Stepcouples: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.

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Garneau, Chelsea L; Higginbotham, Brian; Adler-Baeder, Francesca

2015-12-01

Using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, we examined remarriage beliefs as predictors of marital quality and positive interaction in a sample of 179 stepcouples. Three beliefs were measured using subscales from the Remarriage Belief Inventory (RMBI) including success is slim, children are the priority, and finances should be pooled. Several significant actor and partner effects were found for both wives' and husbands' beliefs. Wives' marital quality was positively associated with their own beliefs that finances should be pooled and negatively associated with their own beliefs that success is slim. Wives' reports of their own and spouses' positive interaction were both positively associated with their beliefs that finances should be pooled. Their reports of spouses' positive interaction were also negatively associated with husbands' beliefs that success is slim. Husbands' marital quality was positively associated with wives' beliefs that children are the priority, positively associated with their own beliefs that finances should be pooled, and negatively with success is slim. Positive interaction for husbands was positively associated with wives' beliefs that finances should be pooled and negatively associated with their own beliefs that success is slim. Finally, husbands' reports of positive interaction for their spouses were positively associated with wives' beliefs that finances should be pooled. Implications for future research utilizing dyadic data analysis with stepcouples are addressed. © 2015 Family Process Institute.

Beliefs and implementation of evidence-based practice among community health nurses: A cross-sectional descriptive study.

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Pereira, Filipa; Pellaux, Victoria; Verloo, Henk

2018-03-08

To describe beliefs about evidence-based practice and record levels of implementation among community health nurses working independently and in community healthcare centres in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. In many settings, evidence-based practice is considered a key means of delivering better and secure health care. However, there is a paucity of published studies on the implementation of evidence-based practice in community health care. Cross-sectional descriptive study (n = 100). Beliefs about evidence-based practice and levels of implementation were measured using validated scales developed by Melnyk et al. (Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 5, 2008, 208). Information on respondents' sociodemographic and professional characteristics was collected. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The final response rate was 32.3% (n = 100). More than half of respondents had previously heard about evidence-based practice; most believed in the value of using evidence to guide their practice and were prepared to improve their skills to be able to do so. However, the rate of implementation of evidence-based practice in daily practice in the 8 weeks before the survey was poor. Statistically significant positive associations were found between beliefs about evidence-based practice and how respondents had heard about it and between implementation rates and whether they had heard about evidence-based practice and how they had done so. Evidence-based practices requiring scientific knowledge and skills were implemented less frequently. Greater professional community healthcare experience and management roles did not increase implementation of evidence-based practice. The systematic implementation of evidence-based practice by community health nurses working independently and in healthcare centres in Valais was rare, despite their positive beliefs about it. These results revealed the level of implementation of evidence-based practice by

The birth beliefs scale - a new measure to assess basic beliefs about birth.

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Preis, Heidi; Benyamini, Yael

2017-03-01

Basic beliefs about birth as a natural and safe or a medical and risky process are central in the decisions on where and how to birth. Despite their importance, they have not been studied separately from other childbirth-related constructs. Our aim was to develop a measure to assess these beliefs. Pregnant Israeli women (N = 850, gestational week ≥14) were recruited in women's health centers, in online natural birth forums, and through home midwives. Participants filled in questionnaires including sociodemographic and obstetric background, the Birth Beliefs Scale (BBS), dispositional desire for control (DC) and planned mode of delivery. Factor analyses revealed that the BBS is composed of two factors: beliefs about birth as a natural process and beliefs about birth as a medical process. Both subscales showed good internal and test-retest reliability. They had good construct validity, predicted birth choices, and were weakly correlated with DC. Women's medical obstetric history was associated with the BBS, further supporting the validity of the scale. Beliefs about birth may be the building blocks that make up perceptions of birth and drive women's preferences. The new scale provides an easy way to distinctly assess them so they can be used to further understand planned birth behaviors. Additional studies are needed to comprehend how these beliefs form in different cultural contexts and how they evolve over time.

Examining Belief and Confidence in Schizophrenia

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Joyce, Dan W.; Averbeck, Bruno B.; Frith, Chris D.; Shergill, Sukhwinder S.

2018-01-01

Background People with psychoses often report fixed, delusional beliefs that are sustained even in the presence of unequivocal contrary evidence. Such delusional beliefs are the result of integrating new and old evidence inappropriately in forming a cognitive model. We propose and test a cognitive model of belief formation using experimental data from an interactive “Rock Paper Scissors” game. Methods Participants (33 controls and 27 people with schizophrenia) played a competitive, time-pressured interactive two-player game (Rock, Paper, Scissors). Participant’s behavior was modeled by a generative computational model using leaky-integrator and temporal difference methods. This model describes how new and old evidence is integrated to form both a playing strategy to beat the opponent and provide a mechanism for reporting confidence in one’s playing strategy to win against the opponent Results People with schizophrenia fail to appropriately model their opponent’s play despite consistent (rather than random) patterns that can be exploited in the simulated opponent’s play. This is manifest as a failure to weigh existing evidence appropriately against new evidence. Further, participants with schizophrenia show a ‘jumping to conclusions’ bias, reporting successful discovery of a winning strategy with insufficient evidence. Conclusions The model presented suggests two tentative mechanisms in delusional belief formation – i) one for modeling patterns in other’s behavior, where people with schizophrenia fail to use old evidence appropriately and ii) a meta-cognitive mechanism for ‘confidence’ in such beliefs where people with schizophrenia overweight recent reward history in deciding on the value of beliefs about the opponent. PMID:23521846

DeepQA: improving the estimation of single protein model quality with deep belief networks.

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Cao, Renzhi; Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Hou, Jie; Cheng, Jianlin

2016-12-05

Protein quality assessment (QA) useful for ranking and selecting protein models has long been viewed as one of the major challenges for protein tertiary structure prediction. Especially, estimating the quality of a single protein model, which is important for selecting a few good models out of a large model pool consisting of mostly low-quality models, is still a largely unsolved problem. We introduce a novel single-model quality assessment method DeepQA based on deep belief network that utilizes a number of selected features describing the quality of a model from different perspectives, such as energy, physio-chemical characteristics, and structural information. The deep belief network is trained on several large datasets consisting of models from the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) experiments, several publicly available datasets, and models generated by our in-house ab initio method. Our experiments demonstrate that deep belief network has better performance compared to Support Vector Machines and Neural Networks on the protein model quality assessment problem, and our method DeepQA achieves the state-of-the-art performance on CASP11 dataset. It also outperformed two well-established methods in selecting good outlier models from a large set of models of mostly low quality generated by ab initio modeling methods. DeepQA is a useful deep learning tool for protein single model quality assessment and protein structure prediction. The source code, executable, document and training/test datasets of DeepQA for Linux is freely available to non-commercial users at http://cactus.rnet.missouri.edu/DeepQA/ .

Food beliefs and practices in urban poor communities in Accra: implications for health interventions.

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Boatemaa, Sandra; Badasu, Delali Margaret; de-Graft Aikins, Ama

2018-04-02

Poor communities in low and middle income countries are reported to experience a higher burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and nutrition-related NCDs. Interventions that build on lay perspectives of risk are recommended. The objective of this study was to examine lay understanding of healthy and unhealthy food practices, factors that influence food choices and the implications for developing population health interventions in three urban poor communities in Accra, Ghana. Thirty lay adults were recruited and interviewed in two poor urban communities in Accra. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed thematically. The analysis was guided by the socio-ecological model which focuses on the intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, structural and policy levels of social organisation. Food was perceived as an edible natural resource, and healthy in its raw state. A food item retained its natural, healthy properties or became unhealthy depending on how it was prepared (e.g. frying vs boiling) and consumed (e.g. early or late in the day). These food beliefs reflected broader social food norms in the community and incorporated ideas aligned with standard expert dietary guidelines. Healthy cooking was perceived as the ability to select good ingredients, use appropriate cooking methods, and maintain food hygiene. Healthy eating was defined in three ways: 1) eating the right meals; 2) eating the right quantity; and 3) eating at the right time. Factors that influenced food choice included finances, physical and psychological state, significant others and community resources. The findings suggest that beliefs about healthy and unhealthy food practices are rooted in multi-level factors, including individual experience, family dynamics and community factors. The factors influencing food choices are also multilevel. The implications of the findings for the design and content of dietary and health interventions are discussed.

Power and Politics in the Global Health Landscape: Beliefs, Competition and Negotiation Among Global Advocacy Coalitions in the Policy-Making Process

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McDougall, Lori

2016-01-01

Background: Advocacy coalitions play an increasingly prominent role within the global health landscape, linking actors and institutions to attract political attention and resources. This paper examines how coalitions negotiate among themselves and exercise hidden forms of power to produce policy on the basis of their beliefs and strategic interests. Methods: This paper examines the beliefs and behaviours of health advocacy coalitions using Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as an informal theoretical lens. Coalitions are further explored in relation to the concept of transnational advocacy networks (Keck and Sikkink) and of productive power (Shiffman). The ACF focuses on explaining how policy change takes place when there is conflict concerning goals and technical approaches among different actors. This study uses participant observation methods, self-reported survey results and semi-structured qualitative interviews to trace how a major policy project of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era, the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, was constructed through negotiations among maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy coalitions. Results: The Global Strategy represented a new opportunity for high-level political attention. Despite differing policy beliefs, MNCH and SRHR actors collaborated to produce this strategy because of anticipated gains in political attention. While core beliefs did not shift fundamentally and collaboration was primarily a short-term tactical response to a time-bound opportunity, MNCH actors began to focus more on human rights perspectives and SRHR actors adopted greater use of quantifiable indicators and economic argumentation. This shift emphasises the inherent importance of SRHR to maternal and child health survival. Conclusion: As opportunities arise, coalitions respond based on principles and policy beliefs, as well as to perceptions of

Power and Politics in the Global Health Landscape: Beliefs, Competition and Negotiation Among Global Advocacy Coalitions in the Policy-Making Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lori McDougall

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Background Advocacy coalitions play an increasingly prominent role within the global health landscape, linking actors and institutions to attract political attention and resources. This paper examines how coalitions negotiate among themselves and exercise hidden forms of power to produce policy on the basis of their beliefs and strategic interests. Methods This paper examines the beliefs and behaviours of health advocacy coalitions using Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF as an informal theoretical lens. Coalitions are further explored in relation to the concept of transnational advocacy networks (Keck and Sikkink and of productive power (Shiffman. The ACF focuses on explaining how policy change takes place when there is conflict concerning goals and technical approaches among different actors. This study uses participant observation methods, self-reported survey results and semistructured qualitative interviews to trace how a major policy project of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG era, the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, was constructed through negotiations among maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR advocacy coalitions. Results The Global Strategy represented a new opportunity for high-level political attention. Despite differing policy beliefs, MNCH and SRHR actors collaborated to produce this strategy because of anticipated gains in political attention. While core beliefs did not shift fundamentally and collaboration was primarily a short-term tactical response to a time-bound opportunity, MNCH actors began to focus more on human rights perspectives and SRHR actors adopted greater use of quantifiable indicators and economic argumentation. This shift emphasises the inherent importance of SRHR to maternal and child health survival. Conclusion As opportunities arise, coalitions respond based on principles and policy beliefs, as well as to perceptions

Power and Politics in the Global Health Landscape: Beliefs, Competition and Negotiation Among Global Advocacy Coalitions in the Policy-Making Process.

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, Lori

2016-01-30

Advocacy coalitions play an increasingly prominent role within the global health landscape, linking actors and institutions to attract political attention and resources. This paper examines how coalitions negotiate among themselves and exercise hidden forms of power to produce policy on the basis of their beliefs and strategic interests. This paper examines the beliefs and behaviours of health advocacy coalitions using Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as an informal theoretical lens. Coalitions are further explored in relation to the concept of transnational advocacy networks (Keck and Sikkink) and of productive power (Shiffman). The ACF focuses on explaining how policy change takes place when there is conflict concerning goals and technical approaches among different actors. This study uses participant observation methods, self-reported survey results and semi-structured qualitative interviews to trace how a major policy project of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era, the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, was constructed through negotiations among maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy coalitions. The Global Strategy represented a new opportunity for high-level political attention. Despite differing policy beliefs, MNCH and SRHR actors collaborated to produce this strategy because of anticipated gains in political attention. While core beliefs did not shift fundamentally and collaboration was primarily a short-term tactical response to a time-bound opportunity, MNCH actors began to focus more on human rights perspectives and SRHR actors adopted greater use of quantifiable indicators and economic argumentation. This shift emphasises the inherent importance of SRHR to maternal and child health survival. As opportunities arise, coalitions respond based on principles and policy beliefs, as well as to perceptions of advantage. Global health policy-making is an arena of

Hearing loss prevention for carpenters: Part 1 - Using health communication and health promotion models to develop training that works

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carol Merry Stephenson

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In phase 1 of a large multiyear effort, health communication and health promotion models were used to develop a comprehensive hearing loss prevention training program for carpenters. Additionally, a survey was designed to be used as an evaluation instrument. The models informed an iterative research process in which the authors used key informant interviews, focus groups, and early versions of the survey tool to identify critical issues expected to be relevant to the success of the hearing loss prevention training. Commonly held attitudes and beliefs associated with occupational noise exposure and hearing losses, as well as issues associated with the use or non-use of hearing protectors, were identified. The training program was then specifically constructed to positively shape attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions associated with healthy hearing behaviors - especially those associated with appropriate hearing protector use. The goal was to directly address the key issues and overcome the barriers identified during the formative research phase. The survey was finalized using factor analysis methods and repeated pilot testing. It was designed to be used with the training as an evaluation tool and thus could indicate changes over time in attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions regarding hearing loss prevention. Finally, the training program was fine tuned with industry participation so that its delivery would integrate seamlessly into the existing health and safety training provided to apprentice carpenters. In phase 2, reported elsewhere in this volume, the training program and the survey were tested through a demonstration project at two sites.

The technology acceptance model: its past and its future in health care.

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Holden, Richard J; Karsh, Ben-Tzion

2010-02-01

Increasing interest in end users' reactions to health information technology (IT) has elevated the importance of theories that predict and explain health IT acceptance and use. This paper reviews the application of one such theory, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), to health care. We reviewed 16 data sets analyzed in over 20 studies of clinicians using health IT for patient care. Studies differed greatly in samples and settings, health ITs studied, research models, relationships tested, and construct operationalization. Certain TAM relationships were consistently found to be significant, whereas others were inconsistent. Several key relationships were infrequently assessed. Findings show that TAM predicts a substantial portion of the use or acceptance of health IT, but that the theory may benefit from several additions and modifications. Aside from improved study quality, standardization, and theoretically motivated additions to the model, an important future direction for TAM is to adapt the model specifically to the health care context, using beliefs elicitation methods.

'We don't have to go and see a special person to solve this problem': Trauma, mental health beliefs and processes for addressing 'mental health issues' among Sudanese refugees in Australia.

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Savic, Michael; Chur-Hansen, Anna; Mahmood, Mohammad Afzal; Moore, Vivienne M

2016-02-01

The impact of trauma on refugee mental health has been a particular focal point for research and treatment in Western contexts, despite uncertainty about the degree to which this corresponds with refugees' needs, mental health beliefs and healing mechanisms. This study explored the mental health beliefs of resettling Sudanese refugees in Australia. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with Sudanese community representatives and with a range of health and social work professionals who were not necessarily Sudanese. The concept of trauma was not universally considered to be salient for Sudanese refugees. Key informants, especially those in refugee-oriented services, emphasised stoicism and a desire to move forward and questioned the appropriateness of Western psychological therapies. Processes that exist within the family and the Sudanese community to deal with stressors like loss, grief and social isolation were explained. Dialogue between services and community members is needed to ensure responses to refugee mental health are sensitive to the diversity of needs and mental health beliefs of refugees. This will enable workers to ascertain how individual refugees understand their experiences of distress or sadness and to determine whether community strategies and/or professional responses are appropriate. © The Author(s) 2015.

Assessing Medical Students' Awareness of and Sensitivity to Diverse Health Beliefs Using a Standardized Patient Station.

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Robins, Lynne S.; White, Casey B.; Alexander, Gwen L.; Gruppen, Larry D.; Grum, Cyril M.

2001-01-01

Assessed students' competence in addressing the health beliefs and cultural concerns of a standardized patient, an African American woman with diabetes, during a clinical interview. Found that minority students displayed greater competence in addressing the patient's concerns about altering culturally-based dietary behaviors; white students…

Health Care Professionals’ Beliefs About Using Wiki-Based Reminders to Promote Best Practices in Trauma Care

OpenAIRE

Archambault, Patrick Michel; Bilodeau, Andrea; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Aubin, Karine; Lavoie, André; Lapointe, Jean; Poitras, Julien; Croteau, Sylvain; Pham-Dinh, Martin; Légaré, France

2012-01-01

Background Wikis are knowledge translation tools that could help health professionals implement best practices in acute care. Little is known about the factors influencing professionals’ use of wikis. Objectives To identify and compare the beliefs of emergency physicians (EPs) and allied health professionals (AHPs) about using a wiki-based reminder that promotes evidence-based care for traumatic brain injuries. Methods Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we conducted semistructured int...