The relevance of the health belief model to Australian smokers

Abstract

The Health Belief Model is one of the few models predicting health behavior which explicitly evaluates the role of cues to action from the doctor or others. Rarely have such cues to action been examined formally by the comparison of groups receiving different interventions. Initial and follow-up data covering a wide range of sociopsychological variables were gathered from typical smokers among family-practice patients participating in an Australian quit-smoking program. Patients were randomly assigned either to a control or experimental group, the latter receiving the Give-Up Smoking (GUS) kit, and quit-smoking advice from their doctor. Factor analysis of the initial data largely confirmed the clusters of the Health Belief Model. At follow-up, after the experimental and control group treatment, a totally different factor structure emerged, comprising some very specific sociopsychological variables and cues to action. Implications are discussed for the Health Belief Model relative to other health behavior models.