Utilizing the health belief model to predict dieting and exercising behavior of obese and nonobese adolescents.

This study was undertaken to explain dieting and exercising behavior of obese and nonobese adolescents as measured by the elements of the Health Belief Model (HBM). An elicitation questionnaire was used to determine salient beliefs about dieting, exercising, and obesity for each of the major components of the HBM. The Health Belief Model questionnaire, developed from the elicited salient beliefs, contained items employed to measure attitudes towards obesity and exercise, knowledge of obesity and exercise, weight locus of control, and beliefs and evaluations about obesity and exercise. Discriminant analysis and stepwise discriminant analysis were employed in the data analysis of the 69 obese and 100 nonobese HBM respondents to determine the relative importance of the investigated factors in predicting obesity. It was found that benefits of dieting was the most powerful predictor of dieting behavior for the obese adolescents, whereas susceptibility to the causes of obesity best explained present dieting behavior of nonobese adolescents. Exercising behavior of obese teenagers was best explained by cues to exercising. No HBM variables were significant in predicting exercising behavior of nonobese adolescents.