Using IF-THEN Plans to Increase Healthcare Professional Delivery of Behaviour Change Interventions During Routine Healthcare
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- University of Leeds
- Enrollment
- 1,008
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Delivery of health behaviour change interventions
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The aim of the present research is to test the effectiveness of an implementation intention-based intervention for increasing healthcare professional delivery of behaviour change interventions during routine healthcare.
Each participant will be randomly allocated to one of two conditions. The two conditions are: (1) a control condition, and (2) intervention (form multiple implementation intentions from a drop-down menu). The main outcome measure will be use of face coverings.
Detailed Description
Background and study aims
Public health policies are used to compel healthcare professionals to deliver health behaviour change interventions during routine practice. Making Every Contact Count, a National Health Service (NHS) policy aimed at patient-facing healthcare professionals, places prevention at the centre of every NHS patient-HCP contact. Our previous research showed decreasing levels of healthcare professional delivery of health behaviour change interventions. The investigators were also able to provide recommendations for interventions to support healthcare professionals' capabilities, opportunities and motivations in order to sustain delivery of behaviour change interventions in the long term. One key recommendation was that interventions designed to bolster people's "automatic motivation" (i.e., habits, emotions) would likely lead to increased delivery of behaviour change interventions.
Our recent qualitative research suggests enhancing healthcare professionals' capabilities to deliver behaviour change interventions could focus on providing the necessary support to capitalize on the opportunities created by new technology-based approaches to healthcare consultations in light of COVID-19. One such approach may be to support healthcare professionals in identifying patients' barriers to behaviour change, and linking them with possible enablers.
Automatic motivation may be a key intervention target, yet more research is needed to examine effective interventions targeting this. There is a long track record of research showing that implementation intentions are an effective means of changing behaviour, and that such changes in behaviour can be sustained over years. Implementation intentions help people overcome automatic motivation by making the critical situations that may elicit unwanted habits more salient, and ensuring that alternative strategies are deployed. They are best thought of as "if-then" plans: specifying an "if" ensures that triggers to unwanted habits receive greater attention and linking "ifs" with "thens" (e.g., signposting to appropriate information) ensures that the appropriate responses are automatized and replace the unwanted habit. Forming "if-then" plans thus overcome habits.
Aims
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- Double (Participant, Investigator)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Aged 18 and over, good verbal and written understanding of English A healthcare professional working in the United Kingdom's NHS
Exclusion Criteria
- •Aged under 18 years of age, poor verbal and written understanding of English Not a healthcare professional working in the United Kingdom's NHS
Arms & Interventions
Control
Participants in the control condition are presented with a table with two columns containing the same situations and solutions that participants in the experimental group see. Each situation and solution has a radio button (i.e. a tick box) next to it; participants in the control condition are asked to identify situations and solutions and place a tick next to each one they think would be useful to them. Therefore, participants in the control condition are not asked to form implementation intentions.
Intervention: Control condition (Other)
Intervention (volitional help sheet)
Participants in the experimental condition are presented with a table with two columns and nine rows. Nine situations (barriers to delivering behaviour change interventions) are presented in the left hand column and nine solutions (or appropriate responses; processes of change) are presented in the right hand column (as separate drop down menus). Participants in this condition are asked to form implementation intentions by linking critical situations with appropriate responses by choosing an appropriate response from the drop down menu for each critical situation. Participants are told they can make as many situation-solution links as they wanted.
Intervention: Volitional help sheet (Behavioral)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Delivery of health behaviour change interventions
Time Frame: Change from baseline delivery of health behaviour change interventions at 13 months
Participants will be asked to rate the extent to which they delivered behaviour change interventions during routine consultations on 0-100% scale using the item, "Of the service users you see in a typical working week, who you think would benefit, with what proportion do you Make Every Contact Count?"
Secondary Outcomes
- Capability, opportunity and motivation (based on Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour model)(Change from baseline Capability, opportunity and motivation at 13 months)
Investigators
Dr Chris Keyworth
Lecturer in Psychology
University of Leeds