Intervening to Change Health Behaviors: A Review of Research on Behavior Change Techniques

This article reviews the research on behavior change techniques used in health interventions to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent diseases. It discusses the importance of identifying specific behavior change techniques that are effective in interventions and the use of full factorial designs and meta-analysis to do so. The article also highlights the significance of self-monitoring as a behavior change technique and the need for interventions to consider factors such as empathy and active listening. Finally, it suggests the development of programs that provide skills, create awareness, and offer knowledge about health matters to reduce risk-taking behaviors.

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Review and critique what research on behavior change techniques has told us about
intervening to change health behaviors
Behavioral changes play a vital responsibility in individual patient's health life for instance
practices such as smoking, extremely poor dietary, having no exercise and sexual behavior risk-
taking which results to various diseases. Interventions to change behavior in the health sector
have a tremendous effect on new patterns of diseases (Diepeveen, Ling, Suhrcke, Roland, &
Marteau, 2013).
The behavior change techniques is typically a preventive approach which mainly takes into
account lifestyles conducts that affect health. It ensures the persuasion of people adopting
healthy lifestyles, to utilize preventive health delivery services and also to be responsible for the
own personal health (Pincock, Bernstein, Warthman & Holst, 2012).
It is seen that hen a certain intervention have several distinct behavior change it is not clear
whether the particular core behavior change technique played a role in specific changes in
constructs or behaviour.This would have been just in the case where fully factorial design was
utilized
Employing the full factorial designs and processes like use of ANOVA enables one to
acknowledge which specific conduct change technique is significant for the impacts of
interventions (Newnham-Kanas, Morrow,& Irwin,2010). It also enables us to identify which
BCT interacts or contributes to larger effects. Identifying the highly efficient behavior change for
several various main domains or contexts is done using meta-analysis method
It is evident that behavior can be changed through use of the following:
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Providing information like purchasing product data and climate changes help psychologist to
change conduct
This is done through utilization of the following methods
o On behavior health link
o On consequences
o About others approval
o Prompt intention formation
o Prompt barrier identification
o Offering basic encouragement
o Setting of various graded activities
o Issuing important instruction to prepare groups
Utilization of demonstrative aspect or model of certain specific behavior such as through
pictures, training, class learning and videos improvement (Michie & Prestwich, 2010)
These intervention should help people to raise their confidence for example being given praise
and rewards that increase their efforts to behavior change. Their self-esteem will increase when
offered with contingent rewards incentives and goals through continued persuasion.IT also
encourages individuals to make informed decision making process accompanied by a clear plan
Changing behavior enables doctors to help patients in avoiding unhealthy practices and illness. It
enables them to understand and appreciate doctor’s role and identify the correct amount of
dosage to continue with their overall treatment. Through appreciating themselves it will make it
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easy for doctors to handle the patients and their cases (Miller & Heather, 2013). The intervention
on behavior change will increase positive development making them pull through their illness.
In this case. Self-monitoring is seen as the most significant behavior changing technique.
Prompting self-talk is however seen as the least helpful. The latter contributes highly to
promotion of healthy eating habits and also continued body physical exercises.
In general the techniques include;
Motivational interviewing
Implementation intentions
Incentives
These are highly appealing to health cares and various policy makers as are effective and with
full potential
Some of the behavior intervention factors that should be considered include;
A therapist can show empathy, warmth in order to accept the condition of a person suffering
from instance of addiction (Pincock, Bernstein, Warthman & Holst, 2012).
He should also be an active listener so as to understand the patient better and make the patient
appreciate himself and be determined to change
The therapist should not use practices of confrontation
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In the case study the participants who were the students were taken through school based
intervention which was very helpful in reducing their addiction to practices such as televisions
and social media which is harmful to their health
Behavioral change interventions may likewise have diverse helpful therapeutic methodologies,
for example (CBT), or be conveyed by research experts utilizing a specific health
communication style.
In existing health care services, various conduct change interventions are for a scope of social
results: counteracting and halting individuals participating in destructive or risk It also aims at
advancing successful utilization of human services interventions (e.g., enhancing drug
adherence), and advancing compelling self-administration of sicknesses (e.g., observing blood
glucose) (Pincock, Bernstein, Warthman & Holst, 2012). Interventions with objectives of
changing health proficient behavior practices can include: guaranteeing that those working in
social health care environments pursue utilize proof. Health experts can adopt this positive
behavior and get used to them in order to advise and carry them on patients to lower health
effects
How this might inform the development of an effective intervention for risk behaviors.
It is mainly reflected in the enactment of vital policies and interventions to diminish risk conduct.
Restricted subsidizing for aversion interventions shows that it reduces health risk effectively thus
emphasizing on the significance of synchronized prevention abilities and efforts. Time
limitations, for instance in schools, likewise make facilitated intercession for different dangers
appealing (Sheeran, Klein, & Rothman, 2017). Moreover, it is vague how discrete intercessions
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may communicate in situations where they are not composed both hypothetically and for all
intents and purposes, raising the likelihood that awkward development of interventions could be
insufficient or result to inappropriate harm.
A methodical endeavor to recognize powerful developed programs for different risk is significant
informing the advancement of future interventions by showing which mixes of hazard conduct
can be focused in composed methodologies. The healthy future intervention usually acquires a
positive youth advancement point of view, which depends on the conviction that effective
grown-up does not contribute to risk practices. This indicates that these will help in the
development of vital health skills to individuals. For instance motivational interviewing ensures
that people are motivated to change unhealthy practices through being trained and motivate to
change their behaviour, aquire self-esteem hence lower the disease risk.
The development of behavior techniques center around the future can successfully diminish
unsafe sexual practices, substance use, and inclusion in brutality. These affirmations infer the
requirement for a sequenced conduct change process that initially distinguishes and organizes
chance related practices to change, at that point consecutively intercedes on the prioritized
patient's behaviors (Tremblay,Colley, Saunders,Healy, & Owen, 2010).On account of a person
who has a liquor issue and smokes cigarettes, a standard HRA would express that smoking, all
things considered, adds to a far more noteworthy misfortune in future than his or her liquor
problem. The development of epidemiological hazard figuring's is clueless by logical
contemplations of the conduct change process.
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Thus programs that provide skills, create awareness and offer knowledge about health matters for
example to the youth should be developed in order to enable them to adopt appropriate behaviors
that reduce risk-taking conducts.
Research indicates that developing incentives, implementation intention is successful as behavior
change intervention. An example of important interventions is telecounseling. Implementation
intention and workplace are important aspects for the development of effective interventions for
risk behaviors.
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References
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