Health Perception and COVID-19 Prevention in Bangladesh: A Health Belief Model Reassessment of Socioeconomic Mobility
Keywords:
Social mobility, socioeconomic status, perceptual disparities, COVID-19 pandemicAbstract
Introduction:
Social mobility remains to be an essential component in sociology-based analyses of social inequalities. While the Health Belief Model (HBM) has been extensively used for the analysis of health seeking behavior, it takes socioeconomic position of people for granted and does not consider that individuals can change their position on the socioeconomic ladder. Such limitations become especially important when analyzing health-related decisions of people in rapidly growing urban environments such as Dhaka, because changes in the socioeconomic environment could potentially affect the relationship between perceptions of health and real-life behaviors. Besides, most of the applications of the HBM model do not provide an explanation for the difference between perceptions of the risk and preventive actions undertaken, which could be seen in cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why the present research reexamines HBM and considers SES mobility as one of the main predictors for the gap between the Perception Gap Index (PGI) and the Preventive Behavior Gap Index (PBGI).
Methods:
Utilizing explanatory sequential mixed method approach, this research combines surveys with case studies of individuals who live in slums and non-slums areas in Dhaka North City. The current study analyzes the impact of intragenerational socio-economic mobility on health perception and the gap in preventive behaviors towards COVID-19 in Bangladesh.
Results:
From the findings, it can be concluded that an increase in socio-economic status has a positive impact on health perception and preventive behavior adoption, while a decrease in socio-economic status has a negative impact.
Conclusions:
The implications of the study include a call for deliberate policy interventions to mitigate socioeconomic disparities and provide equal access to health prevention resources.
References
Ruan Q, Yang K, Wang W, Jiang L, Song J. Clinical predictors of mortality due to COVID-19 based on an analysis of data of 150 patients from Wuhan, China. Intensive Care Med. 2020 May 1;46(5):846–8. doi:10.1007/s00134-020-05991-x
Bangladesh at high risk of coronavirus [Internet]. 2026 [cited 2026 Mar 15]. Available from: https://www.newagebd.net/article/101292/bangladesh-at-high-risk-of-coronavirus
Hossain MJ. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic among Health Care Providers in Bangladesh: A Systematic Review. Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2020 Nov 8;S8–15. Located at: Bangladesh. doi:10.3329/bjid.v7i00.50156
SciSpace - Paper [Internet]. 1967 [cited 2026 Mar 15]. The American occupational structure. Available from: https://scispace.com/papers/the-american-occupational-structure-10srb801qp
Oakes JM, Rossi PH. The measurement of SES in health research: current practice and steps toward a new approach. Social Science & Medicine. 2003 Feb 1;56(4):769–84. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00073-4
Jones CJ, Smith H, Llewellyn C. Evaluating the effectiveness of health belief model interventions in improving adherence: a systematic review. Health Psychology Review. 2014 Jul 3;8(3):253–69. doi:10.1080/17437199.2013.802623 PubMed PMID: 25053213.
Rosenstock IM, Strecher VJ, Becker MH. Social Learning Theory and the Health Belief Model. Health Education Quarterly. 1988 Jun 1;15(2):175–83. doi:10.1177/109019818801500203
Harrison JA, Mullen PD, Green LW. A meta-analysis of studies of the Health Belief Model with adults. Health Educ Res. 1992 Mar 1;7(1):107–16. doi:10.1093/her/7.1.107
Janz NK, Becker MH. The Health Belief Model: A Decade Later. Health Education Quarterly. 1984 Mar 1;11(1):1–47. doi:10.1177/109019818401100101
Lau JTF, Griffiths S, Au DWH, Choi KC. Changes in knowledge, perceptions, preventive behaviours and psychological responses in the pre-community outbreak phase of the H1N1 epidemic. Epidemiology & Infection. 2011 Jan;139(1):80–90. doi:10.1017/S0950268810001925
Blau PM, Duncan OD, Tyree A. The American occupational structure. New York: Wiley; 1967.
Hoyle RH, editor. Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications.
Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage Publications; 1995.
Roemer E, Schuberth F, Henseler J. HTMT2–an improved criterion for assessing discriminant
validity in structural equation modeling. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 2021; 121(12):2637-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-02-2021-0082
Benitez J, Henseler J, Castillo A, Schuberth F. How to perform and report an impactful analysis
using partial least squares: guidelines for confirmatory and explanatory IS research. Information & Management. 2020; 57:103168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2019. 05.003
Henseler J, Ringle CM, Sarstedt M. Using partial least squares path modeling in advertising
research: basic concepts and recent issues. Handbook of Research on International. 2012. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781001042
Benitez J, Henseler J, Castillo A, Schuberth F. (2020) How to perform and report an impactful
analysis using partial least squares: guidelines for confirmatory and explanatory IS research. Information & Management. 2020; 57:103168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2019. 05.003
Wang T, Wang H, Zeng Y, Cai X, Xie L. Health beliefs associated with preventive behaviors
against noncommunicable diseases. Patient education and counseling. 2022; 105(1):173-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.05.024
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Abul Kalam Azad, Md Mahbub-ul Alam, Shamme Akter, Md. Hafiz Iqbal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
IJPHR applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to articles and other works we publish. If you submit your paper for publication by IJPHR, you agree to have the CC BY license applied to your work. Under this Open Access license, you as the author agree that anyone can reuse your article in whole or part for any purpose, for free, even for commercial purposes. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse the content as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This facilitates freedom in re-use and also ensures that IJPHR content can be mined without barriers for the needs of research.
