Facilitating Health Behavior Change: Practical Examples for Healthcare Providers

Lifestyle choices are one of the most impactful factors in health. Positive habits (called health behaviors) effectively improve overall health.

Health behavior change is how people shift to consistent beneficial habits, improving patient outcomes by increasing quality of life and longevity. According to a systematic review published in Preventive Medicine, practicing healthy behaviors lowers the risk of mortality from several causes.

Similar research in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine concludes that improving daily habits lowers one’s risk of cardiovascular disease, while a study in the Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice highlights a reduction in stress through healthy habit adherence. Given the many health benefits of avoiding risk behaviors, physicians should encourage health behavior change through evidence-based approaches.

As the front line of defense against public health issues, healthcare providers can directly impact health promotion and improve adherence to lifestyle changes. Today’s advanced technology simplifies physician-patient communication and is an important addition to interventions.

The best interventions encourage shifts in habits through tailored approaches that incorporate technology that reduces practical barriers to communication and monitoring. Progress updates from multi-modality interventions are easy to keep organized with the right technological support.

Providers should learn more about these tools and how better communication may improve accountability and patient outcomes.

Understanding Health Behavior Change

Behavioral medicine offers a couple of key theories about health behavior change. These theories should inform healthcare providers on the best approach for individual patients. They also provide context for patients initially lacking motivation and offer insight into the most common barriers people face. 

As a provider, you have direct contact with patients and are in the best position to understand their motivations and limitations.

Theoretical Models

There are two popular health behavior change theories physicians should be aware of. First, the transtheoretical model (stages of change) suggests that there are distinct stages to human behavioral shifts. Under this model, people follow five simple phases toward behavior change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.

The feasibility of behavior change interventions will depend on a patient’s motivation stage. For example, a patient in pre-contemplation is in denial that their behavior is problematic and may require consciousness-raising therapy before behavior change interventions can be effective.

Another theory within the health psychology framework is the health belief model. A 2014 study in Health Communication states that health behavior change messaging is most effective when it targets a person’s perceived barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and threats.

These theories emphasize the importance of a patient’s readiness and motivation to change. Encouraging health behavior change should involve an assessment of patients’ motivation phase and address their perception of the behavior, its consequences, and their ability to change it.

Common Barriers to Change

There are many barriers to health behavior change. People struggle with environmental factors, such as limited time and resources. Sometimes, they are negatively influenced by their social circles (for example, friends and family who won’t quit smoking). Psychological barriers such as low self-esteem also play a role.

Determining the perceived severity of these barriers is key to tailoring interventions. Physicians should be mindful that cultural factors can influence how social networks hinder or help with behavior change, according to research in Patient Education and Counseling.

Strategies for Facilitating Health Behavior Change

Physicians can offer support for health behavior change through a few methods. Each of these approaches should include a foundation of non-judgment and compassion. Resistant patients may respond best to physicians who listen to their concerns openly and suggest flexible solutions.

Above all, you should foster a sense of self-efficacy and capability in your patients. These approaches should include empathetic encouragement and be tailored to patients’ unique situations for the best results. 

SMART Goal Setting

SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goal setting is an effective way to design achievable health goals. These goals encourage small changes with clear, actionable steps and defined timelines. For example, someone who aims to run a 5K might set a SMART goal of running half a mile every other day for the next two weeks before increasing to a mile every other day for the following two weeks, and so on.

It’s helpful to follow up with these goals to see whether they need to be adjusted, perhaps to be more realistic or to use a different timeline. 

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a counseling technique that addresses people’s insecurities and indecisiveness to reveal the motivation necessary to lead behavior change.

There are a few factors involved in the process of encouraging behavior change. First, healthcare providers should express empathy and nonjudgmental curiosity about the problem. This leads to discrepancy development, where providers help patients see that their behavior is not aligned with their values.

Providers should “roll with resistance” by avoiding arguing and offering support. The final consideration is offering optimism and encouraging self-efficacy. Social and behavioral sciences link self-efficacy to more effective behavior interventions, according to the Handbook of Concepts in Health, Health Behavior, and Environmental Health.

Self-Monitoring Techniques

Healthcare providers can recommend self-monitoring techniques to encourage patients to be more aware of their own behavior. Tools that may assist this process include journals, mobile apps, and wearable devices such as fitness watches.

These techniques can be customized to specific habit changes and can involve some accountability through follow-up visits.

Problem-Solving Skills

Developing robust problem-solving skills is key to health education. Barriers to significant lifestyle changes will always exist, and patients must understand how to identify and address them.

Physicians should encourage patients to break the process down into simple steps as follows:

• Identify the problem: Patients should describe in detail the situation that deters them from health-enhancing behaviors. For example, a patient may state that due to a demanding job and childcare responsibilities, they don’t feel they have time for physical activity.
• Understand areas for flexibility: Physicians can suggest a few areas where the patient can do something differently. For instance, the patient can consider waking up earlier, walking to frequently visited destinations instead of driving, or squeezing in 10-minute exercises on work breaks.
• Come up with a specific plan: Physicians encourage patients to try new routine ideas and be open-minded about the discomfort of changing behavior.

It’s vital to encourage patients to avoid an all-or-nothing mindset and to try to stick to the plan, even partially, when problems arise. Practicing some healthy behaviors is more beneficial than doing nothing.

Health Behavior Change Examples

The most common health behavior changes relate to rampant public health issues such as heart disease and early mortality. According to research published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, lifestyle choices have a significant impact on these concerns.

Adopting Healthy Eating Habits

Healthy eating habits are one of the most impactful behavior changes someone can implement. A poor diet puts patients at risk for obesity, chronic disease, and mental health issues. Physicians can suggest a few strategies to help their patients eat healthier.

First, suggest meal planning as a method for eating more balanced meals throughout the week. Shopping and preparing ahead of time as much as possible simplifies cooking during a busy work schedule. Removing the decision-making process simplifies one’s daily routine and makes sticking to a pre-determined meal plan easier.

Patients should also try to eat mindfully without distractions such as TV, which allows for better awareness of the body’s natural fullness and hunger cues.

Healthcare professionals should suggest small swaps rather than total diet overhauls, which are likely unsustainable. For instance, suggest trading a daily soda for natural juice or herbal tea. Other swaps include using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and choosing whole-grain or lentil pasta options on spaghetti night.

Increasing Physical Activity

Another critical facet of health is physical activity, which supports a long and healthy life and offers mental health benefits.

Healthcare providers can encourage these changes by suggesting simple routine changes that improve health. For instance, patients can take the stairs or take regular walk breaks throughout the day.

More structured routines might benefit patients who need tailored support, including those on weight loss journeys and those with limited mobility or previous injuries that require low-impact solutions.

Smoking Cessation

Eliminating tobacco use is critical in preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and coronary heart disease, according to a study in the Journal of Thoracic Disease. Intervention components involve behavioral or pharmacological methods and sometimes a combination of both. Some of the most effective behavioral options physicians can recommend are cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing.

Pharmacological solutions include nicotine replacement therapy, usually in the form of patches, gums, and lozenges. These products curb cravings, making the withdrawal process more manageable, and are most effective when combined with behavioral therapies.

Follow-up visits throughout the cessation journey are important to preventing relapse because they provide external accountability.

Role of Healthcare Providers in Supporting Behavior Change

As discussed, according to behavioral medicine theories, the most effective interventions provide patients with information and motivation to encourage healthy behavior change. Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to provide those tools to patients struggling with unhealthy habits. Providers should consider a couple of key factors when attempting behavioral interventions:

Building a Supportive Environment

Physicians should prioritize creating a nonjudgmental and encouraging atmosphere for patients. Patients will be better motivated to make lasting changes when their confidence and self-efficacy are encouraged.

Including family members and caregivers in this process may allow for better emotional support and accountability. A trusted accountability partner may provide extra motivation that makes achieving goals easier.

Utilizing Technology and Resources

Modern technology provides physicians and patients with flexible tools to monitor and support progress. Whether the goal is self-monitoring or remote observation by a healthcare provider, online portals, smartwatches, and mobile apps are user-friendly options that enable timely communication.

Utilize Weave’s mobile app for effective communication and make health behavior changes easier.

Encourage Lasting Behavior Change

Physicians should design their habit interventions with the stages of change and health belief models in mind. The most effective approaches to behavioral change incorporate nonjudgmental care centered around SMART goal setting, motivational interviewing, self-monitoring techniques, and fostering problem-solving skills.

Lifestyle improvements such as healthier diets and smoking cessation decrease the risk of dangerous health conditions and improve patients’ quality of life. Physicians should encourage these changes by suggesting small steps to create slow and steady progress. Technology that enhances patient-physician communication and monitoring is a valuable resource in this process.

Consider using Weave, a mobile app that streamlines communication, to simplify support and progress updates. Weave does the heavy lifting for patient-physician communication so you can let your patients focus on positive lifestyle changes.

Healthcare providers can improve patient outcomes by staying supportive, tailoring interventions to their patients, and using flexible communication tools.

To see how Weave can enhance your practice’s patient communication and support health behavior change, get a demo today.

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