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Increasing the public health impact of evidence-based interventions in behavioral medicine: new approaches and future directions

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Abstract

The dissemination and implementation of evidence-based behavioral medicine interventions into real world practice has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to discuss specific limitations of current behavioral medicine research within the context of the RE-AIM framework, and potential opportunities to increase public health impact by applying novel intervention designs and data collection approaches. The MOST framework has recently emerged as an alternative approach to development and evaluation that aims to optimize multicomponent behavioral and bio-behavioral interventions. SMART designs, imbedded within the MOST framework, are an approach to optimize adaptive interventions. In addition to innovative design strategies, novel data collection approaches that have the potential to improve the public-health dissemination include mHealth approaches and considering environment as a potential data source. Finally, becoming involved in advocacy via policy related work may help to improve the impact of evidence-based behavioral interventions. Innovative methods, if increasingly implemented, may have the ability to increase the public health impact of evidence-based behavioral interventions to prevent disease.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the expert contributions from members of the Scientific and Professional Liaison Council and the Evidence-Based Behavioral Medicine and Optimization of Behavioral Interventions Special Interest Groups of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois Cancer Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA

    Joanna Buscemi

  2. Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    E. Amy Janke

  3. The Methodology Center, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16801, USA

    Kari C. Kugler

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Jenna Duffecy

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Thelma J. Mielenz

  6. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, 33124, USA

    Sara M. St. George

  7. New York Physicians Against Cancer (NYPAC), New York, NY, USA

    Sherri N. Sheinfeld Gorin

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  1. Joanna Buscemi
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Correspondence to Joanna Buscemi.

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Conflict of interest

Joanna Buscemi, E. Amy Janke, Kari C. Kugler, Jenna Duffecy, Thelma J. Mielenz, Sara M. St. George and Sherri N. Sheinfeld Gorin declare that they do not have any conflict of interest.

Human and animal rights and Informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Buscemi, J., Janke, E.A., Kugler, K.C. et al. Increasing the public health impact of evidence-based interventions in behavioral medicine: new approaches and future directions. J Behav Med 40, 203–213 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-016-9773-3

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