Methods for strengthening evaluation and implementation: specifying components of behaviour change interventions

改善健康在很大程度上取决于改变行为，这是否是？生活方式？行为，例如吸烟和体育活动，？生病了？行为，例如服用处方药，或？医疗保健？行为，例如医院工作人员洗手。目前正在投资于旨在制定干预措施以改变这种行为的研究。这些干预措施通常是复杂的，但往往是非常笼统的描述，不提供有关内容的信息，例如？行为咨询？还是？压力管理？如果干预措施的内容不能得到明确的同意和理解，那么，即使一项干预措施效果很好，也很难确保我们能够在NHS中成功实施干预措施。在医学方面，我们需要精确地定义干预措施，例如药物中的化学物质、剂量和频率。如果我们想改善病人和公众的健康，我们需要同样精确地进行干预，以改变行为。这项研究将使行为科学家能够积累更多关于什么有效（以及什么无效和浪费金钱）以及干预措施如何起作用的证据。它将使卫生从业人员能够提供更有效的干预措施，并避免NHS提供有害的干预措施。这项研究的目的是制定一种科学的方法，通过定义所使用的具体技术（例如设定目标或使用奖励）来描述改变行为的干预措施。我们已经知道了100多种技术，但不清楚其中哪些是相同的，不同的或重叠的技术。这项研究将涉及来自各种背景的专家组，为从业者和研究人员使用的每种技术提供清晰可靠的定义。这包括在研究报告中报告干预措施，在系统评价中综合研究结果，并提供干预措施，例如帮助人们戒烟或卫生专业人员提供高质量的卫生保健。这项研究将提供一个网上资源，其中包括一本明确界定和商定的技术手册和一个培训工具。我们预测，这将是一个宝贵的工具，为所有那些希望制定干预措施，改变行为，以改善健康，并为卫生从业人员在国民保健服务。

Improving health depends largely on changing behaviour, whether this is ?lifestyle? behaviours, e.g. smoking and physical activity, ?illness? behaviours, e.g. taking prescribed medication, or ?health care? behaviours, e.g. hospital staff washing their hands. Money is being invested in research aimed at developing interventions to change such behaviours. These interventions are usually complex but often described in very general terms that do not give information about the content, e.g. ?behavioural counselling? or ?stress management?. If the content of interventions cannot be clearly agreed and understood, then, even if an intervention works very well, it would be very difficult to ensure that we can implement the successful intervention in the NHS. In medicine, we require interventions to be defined precisely, e.g. the chemicals in drugs, their dose and frequency. We need to be just as precise for interventions to change behaviour if we want to improve patient and public health. This research will enable behavioural scientists to accumulate more evidence about what works (as well as what does not work and is a waste of money) and how interventions work. It will enable health practitioners to deliver more effective interventions, and avoid harmful interventions being delivered by the NHS. This research aims to develop a scientific method for describing interventions to change behaviour by defining the specific techniques used (e.g. goal setting or use of rewards). We are already aware of over 100 techniques, but it is not clear which of these are the same, different or overlapping techniques. The research will involve groups of experts from a variety of backgrounds producing clear and reliable definitions for each technique for use by practitioners and researchers. This includes reporting interventions in research reports, synthesising research findings in systematic reviews, and delivering interventions, for example, to help people stop smoking or health professionals to provide high quality health care. The research will deliver a web-based resource comprising a handbook of clearly defined and agreed techniques and a training tool. We predict that this will be an invaluable tool for all those wanting to develop interventions to change behaviours to improve health, and for health practitioners working in the NHS.