Health interventions Flashcards
what are the components of basic to applied research
- 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)
Who promotes health/translational psychology
- provincial government/organizations try and sell you stuff
- university researchers want to promote health (applied research)
what are the targets of health intervention
- macro/environmental factors
- social influences
- individual lifestyle factors
what is the behavior change approach (individual lifestyle factors)
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
example of behavioral change approach
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
limitations and critiques of behavioral change approach
- only addresses lifestyle factors (individual behaviors)
- experts rather than community members
- providing information only useful where knowledge is lacking
- assumes behaviors are decided-on
what is the role of habit (targeting time of discontinuity)
- 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)
what are the types of intervention
- behavior change approach
- protection motivation theory
- social norm interventions
- community development model
what is the protection motivation theory (appeals to fear/individual lifestyle factors)
- 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
what is the social norm intervention (social influence approach)
- 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
what is the community development model (macro/environment factors)
- 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)
what is liberation psychology
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)
example of community developmental model
- 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)
limitations/critiques of community development model
- vulnerable to lack of public funding/resistance from dominant social groups
- possibility of professionalization creep
- strong commitment and emotional involvement can lead to burn-out
- interventions may be poorly controlled, difficult to test
what is bonding social capital
within-group social capital
what is bridging social capital
linking with outside bodies with the power and resources to enable mutually interesting benefits to accrue
what are examples of structural factors
- accessibility
- saliency/attention
- injunctive norm
- descriptive norm
- barriers/costs
sexual health background info
- 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
sex education - behavior change approach
- 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)
media influences (social norm/influence)
- 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
what are some social determinants of teen pregnancy
poor school ethos (values/culture of school), school disaffection, truancy, and poor employment prospects are associated with an increased risk of teenage pregnancy
targeting social determinants - vocational readiness
- more likely to finish high school, more likely to go onto further/higher education and were less likely to become pregnant
targeting structural factors - condom availability
- 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
what is outcome evaluation
assessment of change in outcomes due to the intervention
