ABSTRACT
All health belief models share the common problem of finding valid and reliable ways of measuring the variables that they employ. The basic health belief model is a cognitive model that describes the way individuals respond to a health threat in terms of a rational weighing up of the costs and benefits of any suggested course of action. The protection motivation model is similar to the basic health belief model with the addition of the variable of self-efficacy. The theory of planned behavior is a social psychological model that has proved very useful in predicting some types of behavioral change in the health domain. The theory of planned behavior is a general model concerned with the relationship between attitudes and behavior. The protection motivation model can be seen as a development of the basic model and is particularly designed to understand how people react to fear-inducing communications.
