Health interventions

Question 1

what are the components of basic to applied research

Answer 1

• feasibility + piloting - testing procedures. estimating recruitment, and retention, determining sample size
• evaluation - assessing effectiveness, understanding change process, and assessing cost-effectiveness
• implementation - dissemination, surveillance, and monitoring, long-term follow-up
• development - identifying the evidence base, identify or developing theory, modelling process and outcomes
  (basic research is why things happen)

Question 2

Who promotes health/translational psychology

Answer 2

• provincial government/organizations try and sell you stuff
• university researchers want to promote health (applied research)

Question 3

what are the targets of health intervention

Answer 3

• macro/environmental factors
• social influences
• individual lifestyle factors

Question 4

what is the behavior change approach (individual lifestyle factors)

Answer 4

aim to change individuals and behaviors through the provision of information about risks and benefits
- based on the assumption that humans are rational decision makers

Question 5

example of behavioral change approach

Answer 5

Tips from Former Smokers (TIPS) campaign showed real-life health consequences of tobacco use and provided evidence-based resources
- specific evidence about how to quit and emotional pull to videos but focused on changing individual behaviors

Question 6

limitations and critiques of behavioral change approach

Answer 6

1. only addresses lifestyle factors (individual behaviors)
2. experts rather than community members
3. providing information only useful where knowledge is lacking
4. assumes behaviors are decided-on

Question 7

what is the role of habit (targeting time of discontinuity)

Answer 7

• you don’t make decisions when you are doing the same thing every day
• correlational study - when people recently moved they made changes to behavior (e.g., not driving as much because its not good for the environment)

Question 8

what are the types of intervention

Answer 8

• behavior change approach
• protection motivation theory
• social norm interventions
• community development model

Question 9

what is the protection motivation theory (appeals to fear/individual lifestyle factors)

Answer 9

• use fear to get individuals to change behavior (fear is effective)
• meta-analysis has found mixed results (positive, null and negative effects)
• fear is generally motivating

Question 10

what is the social norm intervention (social influence approach)

Answer 10

• may include feedback, comparing oneself to others; receiving information on social norms
• e.g., if you see family exercising, you can shift your social influence

Question 11

what is the community development model (macro/environment factors)

Answer 11

• addressing socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health
• individuals act collectively to change their environment rather than themselves
• the core part is that it is happening from grassroots initiatives (fixing problems in the neighbourhood)

Question 12

what is liberation psychology

Answer 12

approach to psychology (created in 1970s) focused on the interests of the poor and oppressed (observing the world but did not do much about it)

Question 13

example of community developmental model

Answer 13

• the barber shop was passing information about cardiovascular health (people had established trust with barber shops so this was their way of giving information out to the public)
• this has also been done for mental health (through barber shops)

Question 14

limitations/critiques of community development model

Answer 14

1. vulnerable to lack of public funding/resistance from dominant social groups
2. possibility of professionalization creep
3. strong commitment and emotional involvement can lead to burn-out
4. interventions may be poorly controlled, difficult to test

Question 15

what is bonding social capital

Answer 15

within-group social capital

Question 16

what is bridging social capital

Answer 16

linking with outside bodies with the power and resources to enable mutually interesting benefits to accrue

Question 17

what are examples of structural factors

Answer 17

• accessibility
• saliency/attention
• injunctive norm
• descriptive norm
• barriers/costs

Question 18

sexual health background info

Answer 18

• teenage pregnancy is associated with a range of subsequent adverse social and health outcomes (optimism bias - teens don’t believe they will get pregnant)
• associations remain after adjusting for pre-existing social, economic, and health problems

Question 19

sex education - behavior change approach

Answer 19

• providing information about risks of unprotected sex and benefits of protection is a good place to start
• aggressive poster make children of teen pregnancies feel bad (shame and blame campaign)

Question 20

media influences (social norm/influence)

Answer 20

• 16 and pregnant led to more searches and tweets regarding birth control/abortion
• might have contributed to 5.7% reduction in teen births in the 18 months

Question 21

what are some social determinants of teen pregnancy

Answer 21

poor school ethos (values/culture of school), school disaffection, truancy, and poor employment prospects are associated with an increased risk of teenage pregnancy

Question 22

targeting social determinants - vocational readiness

Answer 22

• more likely to finish high school, more likely to go onto further/higher education and were less likely to become pregnant

Question 23

targeting structural factors - condom availability

Answer 23

• across cultures, condom acquisition is significantly more embarrassing than using it
• interventions (condom distribution programs) - lead to an increase in condom use and a reduction of risky sexual behavior in target populations

Question 24

what is outcome evaluation

Answer 24

assessment of change in outcomes due to the intervention

Question 25

what is process evaluation

Answer 25

understanding how and why the intervention worked

Question 26

what is efficacy

Answer 26

in theory (under ideal conditions)

Question 27

what is effectiveness

Answer 27

in practice (under real world conditions)

Question 28

consider the outcome (example - condoms)

Answer 28

• knowledge about condoms/birth control (effected your knowledge about sex ed)
• how do we feel about condoms/do we believe in them
• change people’s intention (do you plan to use condoms?)
• behavior (behavior intention gap – someone’s behavior is influenced by their intention)
• health outcome – did you have a baby?

Question 29

what is the RE-AIM framework

Answer 29

• reach: who participates? (number, representativeness) do people opt out?
• effectiveness/efficacy: impact on important outcomes (including outcomes that are unintended)
• adoption: in how many settings will this be implemented?
• implementation: consistency of delivery? time and cost? scalability?
• maintenance: will it become part of routine practice? outcomes after 6+months?