Interventions to change health behaviours: evidence-based or evidence-inspired?

By Susan Michie, C. Abraham. 2004

835 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This critical review assesses whether evaluation studies can answer three key questions about behaviour change interventions: ‘Do they work? How well do they work? How do they work?’ Reviews of intervention evaluations are examined, particularly those addressing decreasing unprotected sexual intercourse and smoking. Selection of outcome measures and calculation of effect sizes are discussed. The article also considers the extent to which evaluation reports specify (i) discrete intervention techniques and (ii) psychological mechanisms that account for observed behavioural change. It is concluded that intervention descriptions are often not specific about the techniques employed and that there is no clear correspondence between theoretical inspiration and adoption of particular change techniques. The review calls for experimental testing of specific theory-based techniques, separately and in combination.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, General Health Professions

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6d49fe5f0383b828cc6401b7d95c3c0d0a3be1d6

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In Applied Psychology

In General Health Professions

Citations in the corpus

Developing and evaluating complex interventions: the new Medical Research Council guidance (2008, positive): “It is therefore important to understand the whole range of effects and how they vary, for example, among recipients or between sites. A second key question in evaluating complex interventions is how the intervention works: what are the active ingredients and how are they exerting their effect? Answe”
From Theory to Intervention: Mapping Theoretically Derived Behavioural Determinants to Behaviour Change Techniques (2008, background): “Unlike “theory-inspired” interventions, theory-based interventions use an explicit causal pathway (Michie & Abraham, 2004) and enable the intervention developer to avoid implicit causal assumptions which may lack evidence or even have been invalidated (Johnston, 1995).”
Current issues and new direction in Psychology and Health : Advancing the science of behavior change (2007, background): “As Michie and Abraham (2004) pointed out, even this mediating construct analysis (e.g., that attitudechange-intervention [I] changed behavior [Y] by changing attitude [X]) is too often omitted.”
Current issues and future directions in Psychology and Health : Towards a cumulative science of behaviour change: Do current conduct and reporting of behavioural interventions fall short of best practice? (2007, background): “It has been proposed that a thorough process evaluation is needed to understand the mechanisms of change in complex interventions (Michie & Abraham, 2004).”
Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. (2006, background): “This means that even if an intervention is successful in modifying behavior, we have no insight into whether behavior change was the result of intention change (Michie & Abraham, 2004).”
Factors associated with uptake of vaccination against pandemic influenza: a systematic review. (2011, background): “In order for studies to increase understanding as to how interventions work and, therefore, inform the development of more effective interventions, it is important to develop and evaluate them within a theoretical framework (Michie and Abraham 2004).”
Effects of an implementation intention-based intervention on fruit consumption (2007, background): “Although attempts have been made to target this age group, atheoretical public health campaigns have achieved only limited success, implying that well-controlled interventions based explicitly on psychological models of health behaviour are required to more effectively promote behaviour change (eg, ”
Predicting smoking reduction among adolescents using an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (2006, result): “The results of the present study have a number of practical implications for interventions to encourage smokers to reduce or quit smoking in terms of the predictive power of the extended TPB model (cf Hardeman et al, 2002 ; Michie & Abraham, 2004 ).”
Social psychological factors in lifestyle change and their relevance to policy (2007, background): “Yet, health promotion has tended to develop independently of available research and may be regarded as “evidence-inspired,” rather than evidence-based (Michie & Abraham, 2004).”
An Experimental Test of the Theory of Planned Behavior (2009, background): “Effective behavioral interventions addressing today’s key health challenges should be based on tested scientific theory, rather than on researchers’ and practitioners’ common sense and intuition (Campbell et al., 2000; Rothman, 2004; Michie & Abraham, 2004 ).”
The Theory of Planned Behavior and Exercise: Evidence for the Mediating and Moderating Roles of Planning on Intention-Behavior Relationships (2005, background): “The TPB provides a good basis for developing theory-based interventions to change exercise intentions (cf. Michie & Abraham, 2004).”