Communication

Understanding what influences organ donation

By Dr Lee Shepherd, Northumbria University, UK and Professor Ronan E. O’Carroll, University of Stirling, UK and Professor Eamonn Ferguson, University of Nottingham, UK

There are numerous stories of how deceased organ transplantation has offered a lifeline for people. Indeed, each deceased organ donor can change the lives of up to nine people. However, there are too few organs available for transplantation. This shortage results in large waiting lists and people dying before they receive an organ. Therefore, we need to understand what factors influence the likelihood that someone will donate their organs when they die.

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Dyadic interventions, Goal setting, Physical activity, Social Support

“Fancy a wee walk?” – Dyadic behaviour change support for walking after stroke

By Stephan Dombrowski, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Walking away from death

Walking is one of the most basic forms of human movement and is associated with a plethora of health benefits. Evidence suggests that those who walk more, are less likely to die prematurely, suggesting that it is possible to walk away from death (at least for a while).

Walking and stroke

Walking as a form of physical activity behaviour is particularly helpful for individuals with stroke, a leading cause of adult disability. Regular physical activity post stroke can reduce the risk of a stroke reoccurring, help with recovery and improve overall functioning, health, and wellbeing. However, people with stroke spend around 75% of waking hours sitting, more than their age-matched peers. Yet, walking is one of the most attainable forms of PA post stroke – 95% of individuals can walk 11 weeks following a stroke. In addition, walking is a preferred form of physical activity for people with stroke who consider it accessible, enjoyable and often sociable. The key question is how to support people with stroke to walk more? (more…)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Covid, Health Psychology, Mental Health, Public Health

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A promising approach for those living with Long-COVID

By Amy Barradell, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

If I were to say to you, Long-Covid, what would that mean to you?

A sub-set of people that contracted Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), have continued to experience debilitating symptoms for more than 4 weeks following their acute infection. They commonly report both physical (e.g., breathlessness, fatigue) and psychological (e.g., anxiety, cognitive impairments) symptoms. Those experiencing these symptoms call it ‘Long-COVID’.

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Behavioural theory

Bringing behaviour change techniques into practice: Making use of available tools

By Marta Moreira Marques, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal

Behaviour change techniques are the building blocks of behavior change interventions. Whether you are trying to help someone increase their physical activity, stop smoking or better adhere to a medication regimen, behavior change techniques are the tools you have at your disposal. Common behavior change techniques include things like goal-setting, self-monitoring, providing information about a behaviour and managing emotions.

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Communication

Effective risk communication is about more than behaviour change: let’s talk about personal risk appraisals

By Victoria Woof and David French, Manchester Centre for Health Psychology, University of Manchester, UK

Traditionally in medicine and health psychology, healthcare professionals have provided patients with their personalised disease risks with the aim of preventing disease. Where risk communication facilitates changes to health behaviour, it can potentially reduce the development of disease and find diseases at treatable stages. For instance communicating the risk of cardiovascular disease to promote the uptake of physical exercise and improved diet to reduce risk. However, there are other possible aims and outcomes to consider when delivering information about disease risk. Further, the goals of healthcare professionals and patients or members of the public may not always be aligned. Several related goals of risk communication have been identified, including facilitating informed choices and producing appropriate affective responses, as well as motivating behaviour change.

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Motivation, Planning, Stress

Hold fast i arbejdsglæden ved hjælp af jobformning    

af Janne Kaltiainen og Jari Hakanen, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland

Hvilke dele af mit arbejde finder jeg motiverende, engagerende og bedst for min trivsel? Hvad kan jeg gøre for at få flere af disse ting i mit arbejdsliv? Efter at være begyndt at føle sig stresset, ked af det og “i et hjulspor” jobmæssigt, begyndte en sygeplejerske med en lang karriere og stærk faglig ekspertise at stille sig selv disse spørgsmål. Svarene på spørgsmålene førte til, at hun begyndte at vejlede nogle af sine yngre kolleger, hvilket hjalp hende til at føle sig mere kompetent i sit arbejde og mere forbundet med sine kolleger, og til igen at finde mening i sine daglige rutiner. Denne lille ændring af den måde, hun udførte sit arbejde på, forbedrede hendes trivsel på arbejde, og vigtigst af alt skadede den ikke hospitalets overordnede drift og effektivitet. Tværtimod følte hendes kolleger sig bedre støttet gennem dette mentorskab, og den generelle atmosfære på arbejdet blev forbedret.

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Public Health, Stakeholders

Building collaboration between behavioural research and practice to improve health

By Katherine Brown, University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

The content of this blog post is in part drawn from my experiences working in a split role between a university and a local government public health department, with the opportunity to apply my research, intervention development and evaluation skills in practice.

Whether you’re commissioning, managing, designing or delivering health services, chances are there’s at least one behaviour that you need your service users to change for the service to successfully achieve its targets. This is because, regardless of the disease(s) your service targets, or whether these are communicable (e.g., flu, Covid-19, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections) or non-communicable (e.g., heart disease, COPD, type 2 diabetes, obesity), the way people behave contributes to the overall disease burden. This is not to say people should be blamed for their ill-health and considered to be solely responsible for their own health and wellbeing. Quite the opposite! A person’s health status is also the consequence of genetic, biological, social and environmental determinants. Consideration of these factors is key for health improvement and protection.

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Communication, Implementation

Tabt (og genfundet) i oversættelsen: Effektiv kommunikation med patienterne

Af Zuzana Dankulincova, Pavol Jozef Safarik Universitet, Slovakia

Mens de fleste forskere er klar over, at formidling af undersøgelsesresultater er en del af deres etiske ansvar overfor forskningsdeltagere (og de fleste ønsker, at deres forskningsresultater skal have tydelige kliniske implikationer), så kan overgangen fra viden om evidens til udbredt implementering tage lang tid. Videnskabelig evidens anvendes ikke altid i praksis; når den gør, sker det oftest hverken konsekvent eller systematisk. Hvorfor ikke? Alene antallet af forskningsstudier, interventioner og anbefalinger, der skal følges, kan være overvældende for sundhedsprofessionelle. Når du gennemgår evidens og anbefalinger, skal du tænke på, hvor relevant evidensen er for dit fagområde. Er konteksten beskrevet i anbefalingerne sammenlignelig med din? Har du det, du skal bruge for at implementere anbefalingerne, eller mangler du de nødvendige ressourcer og kompetencer? Har dine patienter, hvad de skal bruge for at implementere anbefalingerne? Selv den mest veldesignede og lovende intervention vil være ineffektiv, hvis ikke den er tilpasset dine patienter og omgivelser. For eksempel kan det være problematisk at anbefale en e-sundhedsløsning til personer uden smartphones eller computere, eller til personer med lav digital forståelse.

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Self-regulation, Stress

​​Make or break: the importance of breaks in healthcare

By Julia Allan, Aberdeen University, Scotland

Modern life is hectic. We live in an increasingly ‘switched on’ digital world where periods of true respite from work are rare. Many people regularly work for lengthy periods and this is particularly the case for health professionals working in frontline healthcare services. In the healthcare context, working hours and demands are typically high, shifts routinely exceed the 8 hours of a ‘normal’ working day, and work demands can be relentless in nature. If a continuous series of patients require urgent care, health professionals are obligated to provide it, regardless of how busy they have been, or how long they have been working. As a result of these high demands, missed breaks are extremely common in healthcare settings – for example, it is reported that  1 in 10 nurses never take a proper break and 1 in 3 rarely or never take meal breaks during shifts.

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Automaticity, Behavioural theory, E-health, Habit, Motivation

Linking the Elephant to the Rider: The Role of Motivation

By António Labisa Palmeira, CIDEFES – Universidade Lusófona, Portugal; ISBNPA Executive Director

Long-term motivation for health-related behaviors can come from different sources. Behavioral scientists are still trying to work out how these sources fit together. For example, I go running nearly every day and have done so for 30+ years. How and why have I maintained this pattern? Daniel Kahnemann would suggest that dual motivational systems are at play: a system 1 that deals with instincts and emotions, and a system 2 that is deliberative and conscious. He might argue that system 2 prompts me to run because I am aware of the health benefits of exercise. On the other hand, Ed Deci might suggest that I am intrinsically motivated to run and do it because it aligns with my values and self and because I enjoy it.

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