Bart Verkuil, Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands and PEP Group, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. “What if I get infected and end up in the hospital?” “What if I can’t pay my bills in a few months?” “What effect will this lockdown have on my children’s the health?” The threat of the coronavirus is […]
By G. Graffigna, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Healthcare professionals along the whole care journey must collaborate and coordinate their efforts for healthcare systems to function effectively. In other words, medicine requires teamwork to be successful. If we agree on this principle, then –adopting a sports metaphor –the patient too should be considered a […]
By Leah Avery, Teesside University, UK. Type 2 diabetes was previously considered a progressive condition, with an inevitable need for insulin therapy, however lifestyle behavioural change research challenges this pessimistic prognosis. As prevalence of type 2 diabetes continues to increase, so does evidence supporting the important role of the food and changing what we eat […]
By Wendy Lawrence, University of Southampton The main causes of death and disease in society today are influenced by our lifestyle choices, and there is a growing focus on ways to improve health behaviours. Front-line practitioners, particularly those working in health, social and community care roles, are a key resource for supporting behavioural change. Routine […]
By Barbara Mullan, Curtin University, Australia Extent of the problem Every year, one in 10 people worldwide (approximately 600 million people) become ill after eating contaminated food, and as many as 420,000 people die. There are vast geographical differences in where these instances occur, with African, South-East Asian, and Eastern Mediterranean regions bearing the highest […]
By Felix Naughton, University of East Anglia, UK Between 25-50% of female smokers quit smoking after they discover they are pregnant. But why do the remainder continue to smoke throughout their pregnancy? Do they not know that smoking during pregnancy is harmful? They usually do. One of our UK studies, that included pregnant women both […]
By Amy O’Donnell, Newcastle University, UK Levels of drinking have fallen recently in some parts of Europe, particularly amongst young people. However, excessive alcohol consumption remains a major risk factor for poor health and early death. Providing simple brief advice to those identified as heavy drinkers can help reduce the amount of alcohol people consume, […]
By Dr Federica Picariello and Professor Rona Moss-Morris, King’s College London, the UK. Within weeks around the world, daily life dramatically changed, and uncertainty seized our future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the immediate and urgent need to slow down the spread of COVID-19 through rapid and widespread behavioural change (i.e., self-isolation, […]
By Dominika Kwasnicka, SWPS University, Poland and University of Melbourne, Australia The ultimate goal of health promotion programmes is to promote long-lasting change and health care professionals can play a role and help patients to improve their health outcomes and maintaining behaviour change. We know that health behaviour change is difficult to initiate and it […]
By Thomas L. Webb, Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, the UK How are you getting on with your goal to reduce the amount of sugar that you eat and lose 10kg? Chances are that you don’t really know – or even want to know. In situations like these, people tend to behave like […]
