What predicts the initial interest and uptake of health behaviours? An exploratory study to understand commitment and early success through a simple behaviour.

Abstract

Extant models of health behaviour change often overlook stages in which individuals decide to partake in interventions. The current study aimed to identify behavioural and psychological factors that could capture a person's readiness to change a health behaviour and whether these could predict progression through stages of commitment. Rather than explicitly advertising a health behaviour intervention, we invited individuals to partake in a general health behaviour survey using a paid advertising campaign on Facebook (Phase 1). Interested participants completed questionnaires assessing habitual water intake, other health behaviours and several behavioural and psychological variables. Those who met the eligibility criteria for low daily water intake (N = 977) were invited to participate in a behaviour change challenge to increase water intake over 4 weeks (Phase 2). Additional online surveys were completed at baseline, week 2, and week 4 of the challenge with water intake assessed again at week 4. Participants were categorised into 7 groups based on expressed interest in participating, reasons for not wanting to participate, perceived current success with water intake, and their level of improvement during the challenge. Factor analysis of the behavioural and psychological variables identified four latent factors. We labelled these factors as Good Resources, Health Orientation, Driven Type, and Positive Energy. Through general linear modelling, we observed that the first three of these factors was associated with interest and whether participants increased their water intake. Assessment based on these factors could be useful for personalising health behaviour interventions to target individuals based on their readiness to change health behaviours.