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Behavior Change for Prevention and Health Promotion

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

Most people know they should abstain from smoking, practice safe sex, moderate their drinking, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Most who have a chronic illness know that they should make certain lifestyle changes and take their medications as prescribed. Yet far fewer actually do so. What does it take to motivate individuals and populations to follow through in choosing the behaviors that help promote health and prevent or manage illness? That is the core issue that Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) investigators address in a wide range of studies to develop and refine effective interventions to lower behavioral risk factors for diseases, especially chronic ones.

This issue is critical, according to associate investigator Jennifer B. McClure, PhD: "Nearly half of the leading causes of death in our society are attributable to modifiable behaviors such as unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, using tobacco, drugs, or alcohol, and failure to get screened for cancer," she says. Helping individuals understand the relation between behavior and health, make more healthy lifestyle choices, and sustain these changes can be difficult, she acknowledges; but doing so will have a substantial positive impact on health and health care in the United States.

After teaching people to wear bike helmets, and devising the Free & Clear smoking cessation program, CHS investigators understand that interventions work best when tailored to individuals’ needs. In collaborations with researchers from the University of Washington (UW)’s Harborview Injury and Prevention Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Duke University, University of Michigan, and other institutions, CHS researchers are discovering new ways to help people take better care of themselves—often using new information technologies and innovative intervention models to facilitate behavior change.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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