Determinants of intention and influencing factors of periodic health examination among residents of rural Shandong:belief model-based analysis

Objective To investigate the behavioral intention of periodic health examination and its main influencing factors among residents in rural areas of Shandong province by constructing an eight-dimension health belief model and to provide evidences for improving the use of periodic health examination in rural residents.Methods A total of 818 rural residents were selected to undertake a cross-sectional face-to-face questionnaire survey and qualitative interviews among rural residents in three areas of Shandong province.Demographic characteristics,behavioral intention of periodic health examination,and scores for the eight-dimension health belief model were measured.Multiple linear regression methods were adopted to identify the determinants of behavioral intention of periodic health examination.Results The average score of behavioral intention was 4.43±0.80,and scores for health belief based on the eight-dimension model were 21.45±2.89 for self-efficacy,21.43±5.04 for health knowledge,49.07±9.70 for social support,21.64±3.87 for perceived susceptibility,10.61±4.98 for perceived severity,13.82±1.51 for perceived benefits,10.15±3.10 for perceived barriers,and 20.96±5.08 for cues to action,respectively.Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that participants with lower family annual income,lower health knowledge,lower self-efficacy,more perceived barriers,less perceived benefits and perceived weaker susceptibility had poor behavioral intention of periodic health examination.Among them,perceived barriers was the most important determinant.Conclusion Governmental investment in clinical prevention services needs to be increased.Meanwhile,government agencies should focus on popularizing knowledge on periodic health examination to encourage rural residents overcoming the perceived barriers and developing the habit of periodic health examination.