Precaution Adoption Process Model

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Experimental Evidence for
Stages of Health Behavior Change:
The Precaution Adoption Process Model
Applied to Home Radon Testing
By Neil D. Weinstein, Judith E. Lyon, Peter M. Sandman, and Cara L. Cuite
Health Psychology, 1998, Vol 17. No. 5, pp. 445-453.

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Hypotheses generated by the precaution adoption process model, a stage model of health behavior, were tested in the context of home radon testing. The specific idea tested was that the barriers impeding progress toward protective action change from stage to stage. An intervention describing a high risk of radon problems in study area homes was designed to encourage homeowners in the model 's undecided stage to decide to test, and a low-effort, how-to-test intervention was designed to encourage homeowners in the decided -to-act stage to order test kits. Interventions were delivered in a factorial design that created conditions matched or mismatched to the recipient 's stage (N = 1,897). Both movement to a stage closer to testing and purchase of radon test kits were assessed. As predicted, the risk treatment was relatively more effective in getting undecided people to decide to test than in getting decided-to-act people to order a test. Also supporting predictions, the low-effort intervention proved relatively more effective in getting decided-to-act people to order tests than in getting undecided people to decide to test.

Index

The Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM)
Examining the PAPM in the Context of Home Radon Testing
Method
Overview of Study Design Site Selection Participation Criteria Materials Procedure
Results
Study Sample Manipulation Checks and Preintervention Differences Between Stages Predicting Progress Toward Action Predicting Test Orders Calculations of Two-Stage Transitions
Discussion
Predictions of the Precaution Adoption Process Model The

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