Perceived Risk and Self-Efficacy as Motivators: Understanding Individuals' Long-Term Use of Health Information

Using Witte's (1992) extended parallel process model, this study identifies 4 groups of individuals according to their perceived risk and self‐efficacy: responsive (high perceived risk, high efficacy), proactive (low perceived risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high perceived risk, low efficacy), and indifference (low perceived risk, low efficacy). Membership in these groups is hypothesized to influence motivation to think about cardiovascular diseases (CVD), use of CVD‐related information, and knowledge acquisition. In the cross‐sectional data waves, there was a significant interaction between risk perception and self‐efficacy on individuals' (a) motivation to think about CVD issues, (b) use of health information, and (c) knowledge acquisition. This study also found similar results longitudinally over a 2‐year and a 6‐year period.