Deconstructing interventions: approaches to studying behavior change techniques across obesity interventions

Deborah F Tate; Leslie A Lytle; Nancy E Sherwood; Debra Haire-Joshu; Donna Matheson; Shirley M Moore; Catherine M Loria; Charlotte Pratt; Dianne S Ward; Steven H Belle; Susan Michie

doi:10.1007/s13142-015-0369-1

Deconstructing interventions: approaches to studying behavior change techniques across obesity interventions

Transl Behav Med. 2016 Jun;6(2):236-43. doi: 10.1007/s13142-015-0369-1.

Authors

Deborah F Tate^{1

2}, Leslie A Lytle³, Nancy E Sherwood⁴, Debra Haire-Joshu⁵, Donna Matheson⁶, Shirley M Moore⁷, Catherine M Loria⁸, Charlotte Pratt⁸, Dianne S Ward⁹, Steven H Belle¹⁰, Susan Michie¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. dtate@unc.edu.
² Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. dtate@unc.edu.
³ Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁴ HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research, Bloomington, MN, USA.
⁵ The Brown School, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics & Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁸ National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁹ Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
¹¹ Centre for Behaviour Change, Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Deconstructing interventions into the specific techniques that are used to change behavior represents a new frontier in behavioral intervention research. This paper considers opportunities and challenges in employing the Behavior Change Techniques Taxonomy (BCTTv1) developed by Michie and colleagues, to code the behavior change techniques (BCTs) across multiple interventions addressing obesity and capture dose received at the technique level. Numerous advantages were recognized for using a shared framework for intervention description. Coding interventions at levels of the social ecological framework beyond the individual level, separate coding for behavior change initiation vs. maintenance, fidelity of BCT delivery, accounting for BCTs mode of delivery, and tailoring BCTs, present both challenges and opportunities. Deconstructing interventions and identifying the dose required to positively impact health-related outcomes could enable important gains in intervention science.

Keywords: Intervention science; Pooled analysis; Taxonomy.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Behavior Therapy / classification*
Clinical Coding
Health Behavior
Health Promotion / methods*
Humans
Obesity / prevention & control*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding