Health Belief Model Essay

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HBM ARTICLE CRITIQUE An application of an extended health belief model to the prediction of breast self-examination among women with a family history of breast cancer. PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE Knowing the importance of understanding the psychosocial predictors of breast self-examination (BSE) among women who were at increased risk of breast cancer, this article sought to use the Health Belief Model to predict the influence of past behaviors on future behaviors. Further, the article paid more attention to the predicting factors of BSE frequency and how to discriminate between those who do and those who don’t practice BSE. Attention was also paid to the expansion of the ‘perceived barriers construct’ to include perceived self-efficacy in addition…show more content…
Participants included women living in Wales with a family history of breast cancer who were referred to the project by their local breast surgeon who verbally consented and fit the criteria as follows: must either have a 1st degree (female) relative diagnosed with breast cancer before turning the age of 50, have a 1st degree relative with bilateral breast cancer diagnosed at any age, two or more 1st degree relatives with breast cancer or a 1st and a 2nd degree relative with breast cancer. Disqualifying criteria included already having breast cancer, previous genetic counseling or non-residents of…show more content…
Perceived susceptibility was measured with questions like “what level of risk do you personally think you have? Perceived severity was measured with questions dealing with how serious they though the disease was (ex: Breast cancer is a hopeless disease: Agree/Disagree?). Perceived benefits of BSE were concerned with the peace of mind one would have in doing these exams and also the chance of early detection. Perceived barriers were split into two categories: emotional and self-efficacy. Perceived emotional barriers were concerned with the possible emotional distress, physical pain, embarrassment or desire for ignorance potentially faced by these women. Perceived self-efficacy barriers dealt with the confidence they felt in performing the BSE both regularly and
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