health behavior change
Definition
Health behavior change refers to the voluntary adoption and sustained maintenance of actions that reduce individual and population-level risk of disease, guided by theoretically grounded and empirically validated behavioral science models. The Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model conceptualizes this process through three determinants: accurate information about transmission and prevention, personal and social motivation to act, and the behavioral skills required to perform preventive actions effectively. Applied to pandemic contexts, the model addresses behaviors such as vaccination uptake, face mask use, social distancing, antiviral utilization, and self-isolation across diverse populations and cultures. Ad hoc, atheoretical public health approaches have repeatedly proven limited in effectiveness, as seen in both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics, reinforcing the case for comprehensive, multivariate, theory-based frameworks from the outset of any public health response.
Sources: Fisher & Fisher (2023)
Related Terms
- intervention (1 shared article)
- Information—Motivation—Behavioral Skills Model (1 shared article)
- prevention (1 shared article)
- COVID-19 (1 shared article)
- Next pandemic (1 shared article)
Applications
Health Behavior Change and Pandemic Prevention
Pandemic prevention depends on widespread, voluntary, and sustained health behavior change, with specific preventive behaviors varying according to the pathogen and its mode of transmission. The IMB model provides a systematic framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to promote such behaviors at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels, and is intended to be applicable from the very outset of future pandemics.
Sources: Fisher & Fisher (2023)
Health Behavior Change and Vaccination Uptake
Uneven and often inadequate vaccine uptake across populations represents a central challenge in pandemic control and a direct target for health behavior change interventions. The IMB model has been applied to understanding low COVID-19 bivalent booster uptake in adults and extremely low vaccine uptake in children, identifying information deficits, motivational barriers, and insufficient behavioral skills as modifiable determinants.
Sources: Fisher & Fisher (2023)
