Applying the Modified Health Belief Model (HBM) to Korean Medical Tourism

The use of Health Belief Model (HBM) to explain factors underlying people to take the COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia

BACKGROUND

SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) has severely impacted people's health worldwide. Vaccines are one of the health measures taken to reduce the impact of COVID-19, but recent reports have revealed that some people are reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Understanding the factors underlying an individual's decision to take the COVID-19 vaccine is critical to designing an immunisation programme. This study examines factors that influence the intention to take a COVID-19 vaccine using the modified Health Belief Model (HBM) framework and analysing demographic factors.

METHOD

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from 10 January to 20 January 2021. Five hundred thirty-seven respondents above 17 years old and residing in Indonesia voluntarily completed an online survey. Survey questions addressed sociodemographic factors; perception of susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers; cues to action; and intention to take the COVID-19 vaccine. A Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach with SmartPLS software was used to analyse the measurements and model construct.

FINDINGS

The results showed that the perception of susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers, as well as cues to action, predicted people's intention to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Model structure explained a large proportion of variance in people's intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 (R2 = 66.8 %). Some demographic factors affected the key variables of the HBM. People with low and middle income negatively influence feeling severity, beneficial and barrier in intending to take vaccine. Other demographic factors such as sex, age, marriage and living areas did not affect the components of the HBM, except for females influencing severity and people living in urban areas associated with benefits variable. These findings imply that COVID-19 vaccination programmes should focus on providing accurate information about the severity of COVID-19 and the benefits of taking the vaccine. Building people's confidence in their ability to eliminate barriers to taking the vaccine and involving family members and community and religious leaders will increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

CONCLUSION

Despite limitations to the study, such as respondent demographics that are unrepresentative of the wider Indonesian population, inadequate survey timing and an exclusive focus on vaccine intention as the outcome variable, the present study contributes to explaining individuals' intentions to take a COVID-19 vaccine in a Eastern country context. This study is valuable to providing public health policy recommendations that focus on effectively designing immunisation programme interventions.

Assessing the associated medical, legal, and social issues in medical tourism and its implications for Nigeria

Medical tourism is thriving in Nigeria among both elites and non-elites with over $1 billion annual expenditure on medical tourism. Inadequate healthcare infrastructure caused by economic problems, corruption and low budgetary allocation to the country's health sector, and lack of trust in the country's healthcare systems to handle complex medical procedures have contributed to this trend. This article discusses the trend of medical tourism in Nigeria and the associated medical, legal, and social issues in medical tourism generally, relying on relevant literature. The paper concludes that medical tourism is not inherently dangerous; however, unequal economic and power status may influence the quality of hospitals where patients receive treatment and the quality of treatment received. This unequal power and economic status may also determine justice in cases of substandard treatment in foreign hospitals. The study recommends that the Nigerian government should improve healthcare systems in the country to reverse the trend of medical tourism and to reduce the financial burden that medical tourism exerts on average Nigerians who need a high level of care but cannot access it in their country. It is also recommended that a regulatory framework that ensures protection from substandard hospitals and justice for Nigerians who fall victim to substandard care abroad must be put in place by the Nigerian government. Relevant health stakeholders should also continue to sensitize the public about the complications that may be associated with some medical procedures sought outside Nigeria especially cosmetic surgery which may result in follow-up challenges.

Exploration of COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention Behaviors among Healthcare Workers

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the pandemic has become an important topic of global public health. To reduce the rapid spread of the pandemic, compliance with preventive behaviors has become one of the important guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). Healthcare workers stand on the frontline for pandemic prevention, and preventive behaviors are essential measures to protect their health and safety. The purpose of this study was to propose an integrative model that explained and predicted COVID-19 preventive behaviors among healthcare workers. The study integrated workplace safety climate and the health belief model (HBM) to verify the impact of workplace safety climate and health belief factors on the safety attitude, safety compliance, and safety satisfaction of healthcare workers performing COVID-19 pandemic prevention behaviors. A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2021 with a self-administered online questionnaire. The sample of the study was drawn from healthcare workers of a famous medical institution in Taipei City as research subjects. After collecting 273 valid questionnaires and verifying them through the analysis of structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings revealed that workplace safety climate had an impact on health belief factors, and then health belief factors had impacts on safety attitudes. In addition, safety attitude affected safety compliance, while safety compliance further affected safety satisfaction. The study showed that workplace safety climate can strengthen healthcare workers' health beliefs and further affect their safety attitudes, safety compliance, and safety satisfaction. The study attempted to propose a model of healthcare workers' pandemic prevention behaviors as a reference for medical facility administrators in real practice.

Understanding the Role of Psychosocial Factors in Pakistani Parents' Hesitancy to Vaccinate Their Kids: The Mediating Role of Knowledge and Mistrust of Science about the COVID-19 Vaccine

Vaccination is a vital component in the battle against outbreaks of infectious diseases. Recognizing parents’ reluctance to vaccinate their children is even more critical now, given the ongoing threat of a COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy theories, vaccination safety concerns, parental efficacy and risk perception, and a lack of confidence in science all influence intention. To investigate how these variables interact with vaccination behavior against COVID-19, we developed a model with psychosocial factors serving as the predictor and mistrust in science and vaccine knowledge serving as the mediator. In order to validate the model, the parents’ intentions regarding their children’s vaccination with COVID-19 were used. The study included 454 Pakistani parents who completed an online questionnaire assessing their intention to vaccinate their children. We analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). A significant level of vaccine hesitation is due to belief in vaccine conspiracy theories, and vaccine safety concerns were investigated. A surprising correlation exists between risk perception and vaccination intentions, followed by parental self-efficacy. It is significant to note that vaccine knowledge mediated conspiracy beliefs, risk perceptions, and intentions fully but partially mediated parental self-efficacy. Conspiracy theories were mediated by a mistrust in science, while perceptions of risk and vaccine safety were partially mediated. The findings of this research were used to develop sensible policy reforms and public health campaigns to encourage vaccination against both common infections such as measles, human papillomaviruses, or pertussis, and novel diseases such as COVID-19.

Predicting preventive travel behaviors under the COVID-19 pandemic through an integration of Health Belief Model and Value-Belief-Norm

This study developed a conceptual framework for a preventive travel decision-making process amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, combining the Health Belief Model (HBM) and Value-Belief-Norm (VBN). Analyzing 409 responses collected from an online survey, this study verified the integrated model as a salient theory addressing the importance of social components and health belief factors in affecting behavior. The model revealed that altruistic value influences the HBM variables, whereas personal norms mediate preventive behaviors and beliefs in both VBN and HBM. These findings offer new theoretical insights into decision-making process and provide practitioners with effective crisis management strategies concerning pro-social and health beliefs.

Cruise transport service usage post COVID-19: The health belief model application

This study investigates the key psychological factors that influence customer's intention to use cruise services post COVID-19. A theoretical model grounded on consumer and health-driven theories (i.e. perceived value, perceived trust and health belief model) is developed. A survey questionnaire is designed and administered to 376 Chinese consumers. The theoretical model was tested via structural equation modelling. Results reveal that the constructs of the health belief model (i.e. perceived benefits, perceived health threat, self-efficacy and cues to action) have a significant effect on customers' perceived value towards cruise services. Perceived value then has direct and indirect effects on customers' cruise intention through perceived trust. This study enhances academic research by justifying customers' intention to use cruise services via consumer and health-belief viewpoints and provides implications for cruise management and policy formulation.

Post-epidemic factors influencing customer's booking intent for a hotel or leisure spot: an empirical study

Purpose

The new coronavirus is a highly infectious disease with mutating variants leading to pervasive risk around geographies and public health system. The economy has been suffering due to the strategic lockdown adopted by the local administrative bodies, and in most of the countries, it is further leading to a major wave of unemployment with millions of job and business losses affecting the hotels, travel and tourism industry widely. To attain a sustainable business in the post-pandemic situations, the industry now must think of information system approaches to convince tourists to feel safe with the most hygienic hospitality and services to be offered in any property. The key aspect of the study is to provide the impact of new-age AI-driven technology solutions that will dominate the future direction of the modernized hospitality industry promising robust health-safety measures in a hotel, and further help create sustainable business and leisure travel facilities to cope with post-epidemic scenarios.

Design/methodology/approach

The study emphasizes to provide a robust technology-oriented framework based on a mixed research method that would help hotels to adopt and implement new-age AI-driven solution within the hotel premise to serve customers with at most hygiene, contactless service and thereafter, aiming for faster recovery of businesses and regaining customer trust to fuel booking intent in the post-epidemic scenario.

Findings

The paper provides a technology-focused solution that would impact hotel industries' post-pandemic scenario. The study contributes to helping boost the tourism industry using information management solutions such as biosensors, robotic room services and contactless hosting. The findings show the adoption of robots/RPA solutions and Biosensors by the industry will be a disruptive paradigm shift.

Originality/value

The study expands the scope of research in information technology and management with a focus on the hospitality industry while contributing to new factors impacting customer buying behavior in the industry.

Facilitators and Inhibitors of Lifestyle Modification and Maintenance of KOREAN Postmenopausal Women: Revealing Conversations from FOCUS Group Interview

Modifiable lifestyle behaviors, such as lack of physical activity, smoking, and unhealthy diet, are associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases in postmenopausal women, in addition to other risk factors, such as aging and physiological changes. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of encouraging healthy lifestyles and health-promoting behaviors among postmenopausal women, to achieve a better health status. However, it is difficult to modify lifestyle and maintain that change. This study was aimed at identifying the factors that affect the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits in postmenopausal women, using various theoretical models. This qualitative study included focus-group interviews with 21 Korean postmenopausal women aged 54 to 69 years. A theory-guided thematic analysis was performed based on the Health Belief Model, Self-Determination Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior. As a result, facilitators and inhibitors to healthy lifestyle modification and maintenance are identified. Various sources of motivation and reinforcement are important for menopausal women to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Autonomy support and self-regulation strategies play an important role in integrating health-promoting behaviors into a daily routine. In addition to personal effort, a social support system is also important to help individuals maintain a healthy lifestyle