AbstractFood production accounts for one‐third of greenhouse gas emissions; the Farm to Fork strategy aims to make food systems more sustainable and healthier to curb the rising global surface temperature. It includes several actions targeting consumer behavior, including increasing the availability of sustainable and healthy products and mandatory nutritional labeling. The actions address relevant psychological mechanisms; however, the outlined actions are vague and based on only a small number of behavioral determinants that may limit effectiveness. The implementation may furthermore benefit from concepts of implementation science to increase acceptability and feasibility to reach its ambitious goals.
Abstract. More people than ever are living longer with chronic conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Behavior change for effective self-management can improve health outcomes and quality of life in people living with such chronic illnesses. The science of developing behavior change interventions with impact for patients aims to optimize the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of interventions and rigorous evaluation of outcomes and processes of behavior change. The development of new services and technologies offers opportunities to enhance the scope of delivery of interventions to support behavior change and self-management at scale. Herein, we review key contemporary approaches to intervention development, provide a critical overview, and integrate these approaches into a pragmatic, user-friendly framework to rigorously guide decision-making in behavior change intervention development. Moreover, we highlight novel emerging methods for rapid and agile intervention development. On-going progress in the science of intervention development is needed to remain in step with such new developments and to continue to leverage behavioral science's capacity to contribute to optimizing interventions, modify behavior, and facilitate self-management in individuals living with chronic illness.
Patrícia R Pinto,1–3 Teresa McIntyre,4,5 Ramón Ferrero,6 Vera Araújo-Soares,3,7 Armando Almeida1,2 1Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal; 2Life and Health Sciences Research Institute/3Bs, PT Government Associate, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal; 3Health Psychology Group, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK; 4Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics, 5Department of Psychology, University of Houston, TX, USA; 6Alto Ave Hospital Center, Orthopedics Unit, Guimarães, Portugal; 7Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK Abstract: This study compares the incidence, nature, and impact of persistent post-surgical pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) and investigates differences between these procedures, with the focus on potential presurgical and post-surgical issues that could be related to the distinct persistent post-surgical pain outcomes between these two groups. A consecutive sample of 92 patients was assessed prospectively 24 hours before, 48 hours, and 4–6 months after surgery. The data show that TKA patients had a higher likelihood of developing persistent post-surgical pain, of reporting higher pain levels, and of using more neuropathic descriptors when classifying their pain. In addition, TKA patients more often reported interference from pain on functional domains, including general activity, walking ability, and normal work. Demographic factors, like gender and age, along with presurgical clinical factors like disease onset, existence of medical comorbidities, and other pain problems, may have contributed to these differences, whereas baseline psychologic factors and functionality levels did not seem to exert an influence. Heightened acute post-surgical pain experience among TKA patients could also be related to distinct outcomes for persistent post-surgical pain. Future prospective studies should therefore collect TKA and THA samples wherein patients are homogeneous for demographic and presurgical clinical issues. Overall, these findings contribute to a small but growing body of literature documenting persistent post-surgical pain after major arthroplasty, conducted in different countries and across different health care settings. Keywords: total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty, persistent post-surgical pain, demographic factors, clinical factors, psychologic factors
Patrícia R Pinto,1,2 Teresa McIntyre,3 Vera Araújo-Soares,4 Patrício Costa,1,2,5 Ramón Ferrero,6 Armando Almeida1,2 1Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, 2ICVS/3B's – PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal; 3Department of Psychology, Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX, USA; 4Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; 5Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 6Orthopedics Unit, Alto Ave Hospital Center, Guimarães, Portugal Background: Acute pain is an expected result after surgery. Nevertheless, when not appropriately controlled, acute pain has a very negative impact on individual clinical outcomes, impairing healing and recovery, and has clear consequences on health care system costs. Augmenting knowledge on predictors and potentially modifiable determinants of acute postsurgical pain can facilitate early identification of and intervention in patients at risk. However, only a few studies have examined and compared acute pain after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The aim of this study was to compare THA and TKA in acute postsurgical pain intensity and its predictors.Methods: A consecutive sample of 124 patients with osteoarthritis (64 undergoing THA and 60 TKA) was assessed 24 hours before (T1) and 48 hours after (T2) surgery. Demographic, clinical, and psychological factors were assessed at T1, and acute postsurgical pain experience was examined at T2. Additionally, the same hierarchical regression analysis was performed separately for each arthroplasty type.Results: TKA patients reported higher levels of acute postsurgical pain compared with THA (t=8.490, p=0.004, d=0.527, 95% confidence interval, 0.196–0.878). In the final THA predictive model, presurgical pain was the only variable approaching significant results (t[57]=1.746, β=0.254, p=0.086). In the final TKA predictive model, optimism was the only predictor of pain (t[51]=–2.518, β=–0.339, p=0.015), with emotional representation (t[51]=1.895, β=0.254, p=0.064) presenting a trend toward significance.Conclusion: The current study is the first examining THA and TKA differences on acute postsurgical pain intensity and its predictors using a multivariate approach. Results from this study could prove useful for the design of distinct interventions targeting acute postsurgical pain management depending on whether the site of arthroplasty is the hip or the knee. Finally, the current results also support the argument that these two surgeries, at least with regard to acute pain, should be approached separately. Keywords: acute post-surgical pain, total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty, psychological factors, multivariate analyses, presurgical psychological intervention
In: Sainsbury , K , Cleland , C L , Evans , E H , Adamson , A J , Batterham , A , Dombrowski , S U , Gellert , P , Hill , M , Kwasnicka , D , Scott , D , Sniehotta , F , White , M & Araújo-Soares , V 2016 , ' Supporting the transition from weight loss to maintenance: development and optimisation of a face-to-face behavioural intervention component. ' , Health psychology and behavioral medicine , pp. - . https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2016.1269233
After weight loss, most individuals regain lost weight. Interventions to support the transition from successful loss to weight loss maintenance (WLM), regardless of the method of prior weight loss, are needed. The aims of this study were to (1) develop a face-to-face behavioural intervention session to support overweight and obese individuals who have recently lost a clinically significant amount of weight in the transition to WLM; (2) to assess the single-session intervention for acceptability and feasibility prior to its use in a larger, 12-month, multi-component trial; and (3) to optimise the intervention session for future use based on participant feedback. Participants with a Body Mass Index of ≥25 kg/m(2) prior to a ≥5% weight loss in the previous 12 months were recruited via the local government authority and community-based advertisements. Each attended the one-hour session with a trained facilitator, which focused on setting maintenance-relevant weight, eating, and physical activity goals. Semi-structured interviews were carried out immediately post-session to obtain feedback on the acceptability of this intervention component. Data were used to generate recommendations for changes to the session, which were discussed by the team, and used to optimise the session. Seventeen participants (13 female; median WL = 13%) were recruited. All participants evaluated the intervention session positively; 11 participants suggested improvements including reducing information provision in favour of greater focus on identifying and coping with barriers, and the inclusion of practical examples. The systematic refinement and optimisation process resulted in an acceptable and feasible face-to-face behavioural intervention session (described here), which will be tested as part of a multi-component intervention. We anticipate the session could be used to supplement existing support including online services, and has the potential to benefit people who have lost a clinically significant amount of weight to achieve WLM over the long term.