Health Belief Model Essay

The health behavior model that we chose to help lower-sodium intake for adults in Lynchburg, VA is the health belief model. We really needed a model that would demonstrate and make the adults realize that having too much sodium is very detrimental to your health. The health belief model was the best choice for us because it demonstrates that every person is susceptible, but also takes into cue the certain barriers that each person could come across. Also, the constructs in this model parallel perfectly to our intervention program that we want to implement. We have seen the success that the health belief model has had on other interventions of low sodium and hypertension, which affirmed our selection of the theory. For example, in a study that was done in China, …show more content…
Moreover, the health belief model also worked in a study that was taken in the United States specifically in the population of the Hmong Families. The Hmong people are from that Mountains of Laos, but after the Vietnam war many of them came to the United States. (Estimated that around 200,000 Hmongs in America). Since moving to the United States, Hmong members are not used to the culture and making healthy choices. Many are overweight, obese, and having sleeping disorders. The health belief model was implemented to educate and teach the Hmong families all about the effects of diet, what hypertension can do to you, and how a sedentary lifestyle isn’t good. Just like the study that was done in China, the health belief model was affective in allowing people to realize there susceptibility and severity. Our program is hoping to mirror the same affects that these studies do and to help the adults of Lynchburg realize that they are susceptible.
The Health Belief Model has different constructs that will be perfect for our intervention. This model is one of the most used in the health profession because of its effectiveness. The main idea of the model is to have a person