Health Belief Model
People act on health when perceived threat and clear benefits outweigh the barriers in the way.
Storyboard
Each row maps to one animated Remotion scene.What it is
The Health Belief Model is a value-expectancy framework for explaining and predicting health behavior. It holds that whether a person takes a protective action depends on how they weigh the threat of a condition against the costs and benefits of acting, often nudged along by a triggering cue.
The core idea
Action follows from a set of beliefs: perceived susceptibility to a problem, perceived severity of it, perceived benefits of acting, and perceived barriers to acting. A cue to action and a person's confidence in their ability to act tip the balance toward behavior.
How it is used
Health communicators use the model to diagnose which belief is blocking a behavior and to target messages accordingly. It informs screening promotion, the design of reminder systems, and the wording of materials meant to lower perceived barriers or raise perceived benefits.
In practice
A clinic increases mammography uptake by mailing a personalized reminder (cue to action) that stresses early detection benefits and reassures patients that the scan is quick and low cost, directly lowering the perceived barriers.
Source
Adapted by AURA Lab from University of Twente, Communication Theories (2026).