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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E-health, Interventions

Your intervention, your way! Short appraisal interventions

by Katarzyna Cantarero, SWPS University, Poland

Subjective well-being is a function of what we were born with, situations that pop up in our lives and (luckily!) what we intentionally do. Many researchers have examined what can effectively boost our psychological functioning. Short appraisal (or affirmation) interventions can be one helpful tool in enhancing positive outcomes for people.

Research shows that short writing tasks (e.g., gratitude lists or letters) can enhance psychological well-being. In a large multi-lab study, researchers from 87 countries indicated that simple reappraisal interventions (i.e., changing how one feels about a situation or focusing on positive aspects of a situation) boosted positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Appraising an event that is potentially stressful can be helpful in drawing benefits from it. During these appraisal tasks, individuals come up with arguments about the positive side of situations they find themselves in. 

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E-health, Mental Health

Tag rådgivningen med ud af klinikken: Det lovende potentiale ved mobil teknologi

Egon Dejonckheere & Peter Kuppens, KU Leuven, Belgien.

Mange former for rådgivning og psykoterapi foregår stadig overvejende i terapirummet. Alligevel kæmper patienter, når de forlader terapirummet, med at arbejde videre med deres udfordringer, gribe mulighederne for at få det bedre og implementere det, de har lært i sessionen. Studier viser, at terapeutisk praksis kan have stor gavn af at have adgang til information om, hvad der foregår i den enkeltes dagligdag. Denne information kan identificere måder at gribe ind på og effektivt lukke kløften mellem rådgivningssessioner og det virkelige liv. Nutidens udbredelse af smartphones, aktivitetsmålere og andre mobile enheder åbner for spændende muligheder i denne henseende. Det baner vejen for, at rådgivere kan få indsigt i deres klienters daglige rutiner og hjælper klienterne med at genskabe hverdagsepisoder i terapisessioner. Brugen af ​​mobil teknologi mellem sessionerne giver terapeuter en direkte og kontinuerlig strøm af information om den enkeltes oplevelser og kan forbedre mulighederne for at påvirke disse.

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Assessment, Communication, Coping, Illness representation

Hjælp patienter med at håndtere deres sygdom: Sygdomsperception gør en forskel

Napsal: Yael Benyamini, Tel Aviv University, Israel and Evangelos C. Karademas, University of Crete, Řecko

Anna og Mary er begge raske 45-årige kvinder, der bor i en stor europæisk by. De kender begge flere mennesker, der har fået COVID-19 og hører og læser konstant om det. Anna mener, det er en meget alvorlig sygdom, og er meget bekymret for, at hvis hun pådrager sig den vil hun formentlig blive rask grundet sin alder men formentlig lide af langvarige generende symptomer. Hun arbejder hjemmefra så meget som muligt, går aldrig udenfor uden maske og venter på næste vaccinedosis.

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