Behavior change
Encyclopedia
Many health conditions are caused by risk behaviors, such as problem drinking, substance use, smoking, reckless driving, overeating, or unprotected sexual intercourse. The key question in health behavior research is how to predict and modify the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors. Fortunately, human beings have, in principle, control over their conduct. Health-compromising behaviors can be eliminated by self-regulatory efforts, and health-enhancing behaviors can be adopted instead, such as physical exercise, weight control, preventive nutrition, dental hygiene, condom use, or accident prevention. Health behavior change refers to the motivational, volitional, and actional processes of abandoning such health-compromising behaviors in favor of adopting and maintaining health-enhancing behaviors.
Behavior change has become a central objective of public health interventions over the last half decade, as the influence of prevention within the health services has increased. The increased influence of prevention has coincided with increased multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid in the area of human development, and the increased need for the international development community to show cost-effectiveness for allocated dollars spent.
Behavior change programs, which have evolved over time, encompass a broad range of activities and approaches, which focus on the individual, community, and environmental influences on behavior. The term Behavior Change Communication
(BCC) specifically refers to community health-seeking behavior, and was first employed in HIV and TB prevention projects. More recently, its ambit has grown to encompass any communication activity whose goal is to help individuals and communities select and practice behavior that will positively impact their health, such as immunization, cervical cancer check up, employing single-use syringes, etc.
Behavior change, a relatively recent public health-related term, should not be confused with behavior modification
, a term with specific meaning in a clinical psychiatry setting.
Behavior change programs tend to focus on a few behavioral change theories which gained ground in the 1980s. These theories share a major commonality in defining individual actions as the locus of change. Behavior change programs that are usually focused on activities that help a person or a community to reflect upon their risk behaviors and change them to reduce their risk and vulnerability are known as interventions
. See also "The Transtheoretical (Stages of Change) Model
of Behavior Change," "The Theory of Reasoned Action
," "The Health Belief Model
" and the Health Action Process Approach
.
The shifting terminology, a characteristic of this field, is a pointer to the fact that BCC is an evolving area, rather than a coherent topic. It is neither a discipline, nor a science or an art. It encompasses conflicting approaches, too little measurement of impact, a variety of theories, and approaches that some feel are too mechanistic. Theories emerging from the West reflect change ideologies rooted in rational choice, individual transformations, and the role of reason and knowledge. BCC practices emerging in developing countries illustrate the role of the community, social acceptance, emotion, and emulation in personal change.
Villagers in a Kenyan community, for example, offered this theory of behavior when asked: the experiences a person undergoes trigger emotions, positive or negative. These shape attitudes, which lead to behavioral choices. One person's behavior becomes another person's experience, and the cycle begins again.
This simple, home-grown theory has much wisdom. It suggests that if a person's experience is the key to his or her behavior, then one way to stimulate new behavior might be to expand this pool of experience. NGOs in Kenya, such as PATH, have designed ways to bring about experience-sharing through deep dialogue in groups and theater processes. In India, participatory community-driven theater among sex workers led to passionate and heartfelt dialogue. In many cases, the critical reflection triggered by these discourses has led participants to self-driven behavior changes.
One school of thought argues that BCC that focuses on "target" audiences and fixed, externally determined behavioral outcomes can violate the very principles that underlie work in the community: dignity, participation, and choice. Focusing on community involvement can lead to deep and durable changes. If BCC practitioners can support communities in understanding their risks, and helping them design behavior change solutions that will work for them, perhaps we will begin to understand where the true transformational power of BCC lies.
Behavior change has become a central objective of public health interventions over the last half decade, as the influence of prevention within the health services has increased. The increased influence of prevention has coincided with increased multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid in the area of human development, and the increased need for the international development community to show cost-effectiveness for allocated dollars spent.
Behavior change programs, which have evolved over time, encompass a broad range of activities and approaches, which focus on the individual, community, and environmental influences on behavior. The term Behavior Change Communication
Behavior Change Communication
Behavior Change Communication is a process of any intervention with individuals, communities and/or societies to develop communication strategies to promote positive behaviors which are appropriate to their settings...
(BCC) specifically refers to community health-seeking behavior, and was first employed in HIV and TB prevention projects. More recently, its ambit has grown to encompass any communication activity whose goal is to help individuals and communities select and practice behavior that will positively impact their health, such as immunization, cervical cancer check up, employing single-use syringes, etc.
Behavior change, a relatively recent public health-related term, should not be confused with behavior modification
Behavior modification
Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of...
, a term with specific meaning in a clinical psychiatry setting.
Behavior change programs tend to focus on a few behavioral change theories which gained ground in the 1980s. These theories share a major commonality in defining individual actions as the locus of change. Behavior change programs that are usually focused on activities that help a person or a community to reflect upon their risk behaviors and change them to reduce their risk and vulnerability are known as interventions
Intervention (counseling)
An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
. See also "The Transtheoretical (Stages of Change) Model
Transtheoretical Model
The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change assesses an individual's readiness to act on a new healthier behavior, and provides strategies, or processes of change to guide the individual through the stages of change to action and maintenance....
of Behavior Change," "The Theory of Reasoned Action
Theory of reasoned action
The theory of reasoned action , developed by Martin Fishbein and , derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behavior...
," "The Health Belief Model
Health Belief Model
The health belief model is a health behavior change and psychological model developed by Irwin M. Rosenstock in 1966 for studying and promoting the uptake of health services. The model was furthered by Becker and colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s...
" and the Health Action Process Approach
Health Action Process Approach
Health behavior change refers to a replacement of health-compromising behaviors by health-enhancing behaviors . To describe, predict, and explain such processes, theories or models are being developed...
.
Criticism
It is one of the characteristics of Behavior Change Communication, or BCC that its practitioners keep coining new terms to describe their approach—recent ones include Strategic Behavioral Communication (SBC); Information, Education, Communication (IEC); and Communication for Social Change (CSC). True, some of these terms are more about behavior and change than others, but all do share the belief that through communication of some kind, individuals and communities can somehow be persuaded to behave in ways that will make their lives safer and healthier.The shifting terminology, a characteristic of this field, is a pointer to the fact that BCC is an evolving area, rather than a coherent topic. It is neither a discipline, nor a science or an art. It encompasses conflicting approaches, too little measurement of impact, a variety of theories, and approaches that some feel are too mechanistic. Theories emerging from the West reflect change ideologies rooted in rational choice, individual transformations, and the role of reason and knowledge. BCC practices emerging in developing countries illustrate the role of the community, social acceptance, emotion, and emulation in personal change.
Villagers in a Kenyan community, for example, offered this theory of behavior when asked: the experiences a person undergoes trigger emotions, positive or negative. These shape attitudes, which lead to behavioral choices. One person's behavior becomes another person's experience, and the cycle begins again.
This simple, home-grown theory has much wisdom. It suggests that if a person's experience is the key to his or her behavior, then one way to stimulate new behavior might be to expand this pool of experience. NGOs in Kenya, such as PATH, have designed ways to bring about experience-sharing through deep dialogue in groups and theater processes. In India, participatory community-driven theater among sex workers led to passionate and heartfelt dialogue. In many cases, the critical reflection triggered by these discourses has led participants to self-driven behavior changes.
One school of thought argues that BCC that focuses on "target" audiences and fixed, externally determined behavioral outcomes can violate the very principles that underlie work in the community: dignity, participation, and choice. Focusing on community involvement can lead to deep and durable changes. If BCC practitioners can support communities in understanding their risks, and helping them design behavior change solutions that will work for them, perhaps we will begin to understand where the true transformational power of BCC lies.
External links
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU∙CCP) specializes in health-related BCC programs, primarily in developing countries. It includes programs in reproductive health and family planning, tuberculosis, malaria, clean water and sanitation, and HIV/AIDS.
- Private Sector Partnerships USAID project focused on increasing the private sector's role in providing high-quality health products and services in developing countries.
- Sara Del Valle: Effects of Behavioral Changes in a Smallpox Attack Model An article demonstrating the impact of behavioral changes on disease spread.
- Research on the psychology of online behavior change campaigns: Online Interventions for Social Marketing Health Behavior Change Campaigns