Abstract

A wide range of health professionals have interest in changing the health behavior of individuals. To intervene effectively and to make informed judgements about how to measure the success of such interventions, health professionals must have an deep understanding of health behavior. This paper provides and overview of the thories of health-related behaviors and the strength and weakness of each, how the theories relate to others, and how they can be used in practice. The theories reviewed include Suchmann's stages of illness experience, Health belief model, Attribution theory, Fishbein's theory of reasoned action, Multiattribute utility models, Consumer information processing, and Andersen's models. Finally, this paper introduces the reader to interesting research findings in our country.

• Keywords: health-related behaviorssuchmann's modelhealth belief modelattribution theorytheory of reasoned actionmultiattribute utility modelsconsumer information processingandersen's models