Reexamination of Eisen, Zellman, and McAlister's Health Belief Model Questionnaire

Abstract

Eisen, Zellman, and McAlister 1 proposed a 22-item scale to measure four Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs as applied to adolescent contraceptive behavior. Their factor analysis led them to conclude that there were several discrepancies in their proposed scales. We suggest that they were unduly pessimistic. Although their proposed scales could stand improvement, they are adequate preliminary tools. The major reason they concluded that the scales were deficient was that they applied criteria that are generally appropriate for continuous data to their inherently discrete (categorical) item response data. A secondary consideration is that confirmatory methods of factor analysis can yield results that bear more directly on their proposed organization of items than the traditional exploratory methods that they used. A reanalysis of their data suggests that their proposed scales have fewer problems than they believed they had. Our results increase the likelihood of standardizing HBM measures.