Spontaneous responses to thinking about disease detection and health promotion behaviors

In the present study, we examined whether the Health Belief Model (HBM) variables were appropriate for understanding thought about different types of health behaviors. It was predicted that thought about performing a disease detection behavior would produce more responses referring to susceptibility and severity than thought about health promotion behaviors. Ninety-five participants indicated their spontaneous responses to thought about five disease detection behaviors or five health promotion behaviors. Responses were content analyzed for references to HBM variables. As expected, participants who considered disease detection behaviors made significantly more references to perceived severity and personal susceptibility than participants who considered health promotion behaviors.