The Antecedents of Preventive Health Care Behavior: An Empirical Study

A conceptual model of preventive health care behavior is proposed and tested. Results suggest that preventive health care behaviors are strongly influenced by the value con sumers perceive in engaging in such actions. This value is greatly affected by response efficacy, or the person’s belief that a specific action will mitigate the health threat. A separate consideration affecting adherence to a pre scribed preventive health care behavior is self-efficacy, or the person’s belief that the target behaviors can be enacted. Additionally, health motivation and health consciousness are also shown to influence preventive health care behav iors. Future research directions and managerial implica tions of the findings are outlined.