Testing the Health Belief Model in a Field Study to Promote Bicycle Safety Helmets

Calls for communitywide interventions to promote bicycle safety helmet usage among children abound, yet little is known about the factors that cause parents to purchase helmets and consistently insist on their usage. The health belief model proposes that cues to action are important influences on self-protective behaviors. A communitywide field study was conducted to test the effectiveness of six different kinds of cues to action. Parents of children between the ages of 5 and 18 were selected via random-digit-dialing techniques for participation in the study. The results indicated that cues to action affected perceptions of threat but were unrelated to attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. However, perceptions of threat were found to be important influences on bicycle helmet attitudes, intentions, and behaviors.