Assignment: Applying the Health Belief Model to Populations Essay

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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Assignment: Applying the Health Belief Model to Populations Essay

Title: Assignment: Applying the Health Belief Model to Populations Essay

Health Belief Model (HBM) is considered a theoretical framework readily used to guide decisions on disease prevention and health promotion programs. According to Green and Murphy (2014), the theory is a conceptual framework used in understanding health behavior among populations. According to the model, a person is likely to take positive action if there is a perception that the current behavior can yield negative health outcomes (Sharma, 2016). Even though the model is used to explain and predict a person’s change in health behaviors, it remains uncertain on how key factors of perceived benefits of an action have a significant influence on choices. As such, the present article focuses on an elaboration of the health belief model using a case study of an American diagnosed with high blood pressure. The focus will explore the constructs that underpin the HBM and how the theory provides a framework for the motivation of the patient in the case study to embrace behavioral change with regard to hypertension.

Chosen Topic: African American woman diagnosed with high blood pressure

Ella is a 32-year-old, African-American and single woman with a demanding workload that creates physical and emotional stress. Investigations from a recent health screening showed a high blood pressure reading. Ella has since started to make an adjustment to her diet as well as increase daily physical activity.

Based on this case study, it is important to explore factors that influence the patterns of behavior of Ella. Health behavior model and social cognitive theory stand out as the most intrapersonal health behavior theories that influence the patterns of actions of Ella (Sharma, 2016). This is guided by the premise that the theories determine knowledge about healthy dietary choices and provide motivation for the need to embrace physical activity as one of the major components of a healthy lifestyle. However, this proposition is yet to be established through an elaboration of the Health Behavior Model and Social Cognitive Theory.

Health Belief Model as a Framework for Predicting Behavior Change

Green and Murphy (2014) postulate that HBM was developed in the 1950s purposely to describe the reason for the widespread failure of individuals in the United States of America to take part in programs that aim to prevent and detect illnesses. The theory was extended to explore peoples’ responses to various symptoms of ill-health and how their behaviors changed based on diagnosed diseases especially on the aspects of adherence to prescribed medication and self-care. HBM address preventive health behaviors as opposed to addressing the behavior that occurs due to an illness. In other words, the model focuses on preventive measures based on the exposure of a person to a given disease (Sharma, 2016). This model also explains why people take actions to prevent or control diseases that compromise the quality of their lives. HBM postulates that health behaviors among people are motivated by six key constructs related to perceived seriousness, perceived barriers to behavior, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived self-efficacy, and cues to actions. Assignment Applying the Health Belief Model to Populations Essay

Social Cognitive Theory

The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) explores how personal experiences, the action of others as well as the environmental factors influence the behavior of a person. The theory is based on several key components that influence individual behavior change (Sharma, 2016). Self-efficacy as one of these components is based on a belief that a person has on how to control and execute behavior. On the other hand, behavioral capability as the second component explores the skills of a person in performing a behavior. The third component is expectations and this determines the outcomes of behavior. Expectancies, self-control, observational learning, and reinforcements are also components of SCT that model the behavior of people.

The frameworks defined by the health belief model and social cognitive theory provide an avenue for determining the correlates between health beliefs and associated health behavior for Ella. In other words, the HBM and SCT provide illustrations of why a given population behaves in a specific way. Such information is vital in making a decision about an intervention to provide a solution to health problem affecting the population (Green & Murphy, 2014). Nonetheless, the model can be used to develop health education strategies for a given population. The Health Belief Model constructs that relate to the case of Ella are described in the following discussion.

Construct of Perceived Benefits and Perceived Barriers in Influencing Health Change

The constructs of perceived benefits and perceived barriers combine to form a likelihood of engaging in a behavior. The benefits of taking preventive actions as remedies to high blood pressure are viewed as greater than the harms associated with the condition for Ella (Ferdinand, 2015). This will prompt her to adopt a healthy lifestyle to reduce the severity of the underlying factor or prevent the condition. Perceived barriers, on the other hand, focus on negative outcomes related to adopting a healthy behavior (Weber et al., 2014). If Ella views such actions as negative, then she is not likely to embrace the change towards a healthy lifestyle. For example, Ella may adopt a behavioral intention to eat healthy food as well as engage in physical activity if there are no perceived barriers to such actions. This depends on her knowledge about unhealthy behaviors that underlie high blood pressure especially with regard to her choice of foods that have high sodium content.

Construct of Perceived Seriousness and Perceptions of Susceptibility

These two constructs combine to instill a perception of fear or threat to a disease. For Ella, the fear that she is more susceptible to develop hypertension will motivate her to embrace a healthy lifestyle. For long the African Americans have been the subject of non-communicable diseases which includes high blood pressure (Mou, Shin & Cohen, 2016). The perceived personalize risk as per the

genetic trait of the racial group is likely to instill a culture of positive behavior change for Ella, especially with regard to diets that have high sodium content. A heightened perceived susceptibility is likely to enhance prompt dietary and behavioral changes as a remedy to hypertension (Weber et al., 2014). Moreover, if the perceived severity of the condition can yield a serious consequence, then an action to address the challenge will be implemented immediately. For instance, hypertension can have negative impacts on the outcomes of conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disease (Ferdinand, 2015). With this perceived severity, Ella can modify her behavior towards healthy dietary choices and positive lifestyle habits.

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Personal, Environmental, and Social Factors Influence Ella’s Health Behaviors

The personal belief about hypertension will influence Ella’s decision on lifestyle habit. This depends on her knowledge about the condition. Environmental factors relate to work setting and elements at home that deter healthy living (Sharma, 2016). For instance, Ella has a busy schedule at the place of work and this can affect her routine patterns of developing a workable exercise plan. Besides, the conditions at work make her develop stress which if not well controlled may exacerbate high blood pressure (Weber et al., 2014). The social factors relate to the influence of others in her lifestyle choices. Since she is a single mother, her patterns of behavior may not change readily due to lack of social support. However, the colleagues at work may motivate her towards adopting a healthy lifestyle by encouraging her to practice good nutrition and maintain a regular exercise.

How the Theory is applied in Health Interventions for Ella

The SCT is used to investigate the behavior of Ella. The framework of the theory helps in the identification of decision-making points which can be used for short and long-term health interventions to influence the behavior of specific Ella. Specifically, helps in the identification and reduction of barriers associated with management of hypertension (Green & Murphy, 2014). Self-efficacy construct is used to instill knowledge about hypertension as well as aspects of care practices to motivate Ella in making healthy decisions on diets. Expectancies construct of SCT is used to assign the value of outcomes which entail setting targets on hypertension control (Sharma, 2016). The reinforcement construct, on the other hand, aims to motivate Ella towards behavioral change as she anticipates a positive health outcome.

The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been used extensively to create effective health behavior change interventions and programs. The focus of the HBM is to describe how certain personal beliefs influence health behavior. Using the HBM constructs of perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived seriousness, perceived susceptibility, cues to action, modifying variables, and self-efficacy, you will apply the health belief model to a specific health topic.
For this Assignment, the topic will be assigned by your Instructor. However, you will select a target population from the populations provided in the Target Population document found in your Learning Resources.
To prepare:
• Review this module’s Resources.
• Visit the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research’s Social and Behavioral Theories website to review the constructs of the Health Belief Model and complete Exercise 1.
• Review the topic assigned to you by your Instructor. Please be sure to contact your Instructor if you have any questions.
• Select one target population from the populations provided in the Target Population document found in your Learning Resources.
• Select at least three peer-reviewed, scholarly articles related to your assigned topic and target population.
Submit a 3- to 4-page paper (not including title page and references) that includes the following:
• Title page
• Health Belief Model
o In your own words, provide a brief description of the Health Belief Model.
• Perceived Benefits and Perceived Barriers
o Using the constructs of perceived benefits and perceived barriers, describe the assigned health topic and how these constructs apply to your selected target group. Be specific and provide examples.
• Other Constructs
o Select two other constructs of your choice and describe how the constructs specifically apply to your target group and the assigned health topic. Be specific and provide examples.
• Summary of HBM
o Summarize the HBM and its application to your selected target and assigned health topic.
• APA formatted references
Note: Be sure to cite the sources within your text where you refer to them using APA format. Include peer-reviewed journal articles that establish the evidence-based research for your responses.

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Applying Research Skills Scoring Guide

CRITERIA	NON-PERFORMANCE	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
Apply academic peer reviewed journal articles relevant to the health care problem or issue being researched.	Does not describe academic peer reviewed journal articles related to the health care problem or issue being researched.	Describes academic peer reviewed journal articles related to the health care problem or issue being researched.	Applies academic peer reviewed journal articles relevant to the health care problem or issue being researched.	Applies academic peer reviewed journal articles relevant to the health care problem or issue being researched, including why the chosen articles are relevant to the topic.
Assess the credibility of information and explain the relevance of the information sources.	Does not describe origin of information or relevant aspects of the information sources.	Describes a few of the origins of the information and relevant aspects of the information sources.	Assess the credibility of information and explain the relevance of the information sources.	Assesses the credibility of information, explaining the process used for determining the sources’ credibility, and explains the relevance of the information sources, providing the reasons for considering the sources relevant to the topic.
Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.	Does not analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.	Analyzes academic peer-reviewed journal articles but fails to use the annotated bibliography format effectively.	Analyzes academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.	Analyzes academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format, and provides rationale for inclusion of each selected article.
Summarize what was learned from developing an annotated bibliography.	Does not describe what was learned from developing the annotated bibliography.	Describes a portion of what was learned from developing the annotated bibliography.	Summarizes what was learned from developing an annotated bibliography.	Summarizes what was learned from developing the annotated bibliography, including examples.
Produce text with minimal grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors.	Produces text with significant grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors, making text difficult to follow.	Produces text with some grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors, making text difficult to follow at times.	Produces text with minimal grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors.	Produces text free of grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors.
Integrate into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.	Does not integrate into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.	Integrates into text mostly appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style, but there are lapses in style use.	Integrates into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.	Integrates into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style without errors and uses current reference sources.

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For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

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Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource