Abstract :
The prevalence of health related behavior varies across different socio-demographic groups. Studies also
have shown that people in different countries exhibit varying type of health behavior because of their culture. The
thoughts and feelings an individual has towards one’s health indicate his/her health related behavior. Social cognition
models are generally used to study the behavior of human beings. Protection motivation theory (PMT) is one of the
widely used models to study and analyze the health behavior. This paper reviews the applications of PMT in the field
of healthcare, like drug abuse, alcohol addiction, cigarette smoking, unsafe sex, adhering medical prescriptions for
different ailments and following healthy diet, etc. The constructs that are better suited for such applications are
analyzed and the success of PMT as a suitable model for studying health related behavior discussed. The main
purpose is to encourage researchers to study the health behavior of Indians and find ways to improve that using PMT.
Keyword :
socio-demographic groups, social cognition theory, protection motivation theory, health related behavior.