UK Society for Behavioural Medicine 6th Annual Scientific Meeting
in association with the National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI)
Annual Scientific Meeting
ORAL & POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM
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the 6th annual Scientific Meeting of the UKSBM
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Preferred presentation format (please tick one)
Oral:
Poster:
Title: The BCT (Behaviour Change Technique) Taxonomy Project: Developing a nomenclature
for behaviour change interventions
Authors, contact details and affiliations (Please note that we require all of this information if
abstracts are to be published in proceedings of the conference. Please underline the presenting
author, e.g. Johnson MJ):
S MICHIE, University College London
M JOHNSTON, Aberdeen University
C ABRAHAM, Sussex University
J FRANCIS, Aberdeen University
W HARDEMAN, Cambridge University
M ECCLES, Newcastle University
D DIXON, Strathclyde University.
Abstract
The abstract should be up to 300 words in Arial 11 pt. Please use the following headings:
Background:
To date, there has been no shared language for describing the content, especially the ‘active
ingredients’ of behavior change interventions; by contrast, biomedical interventions are precisely
specified. This limits the possibility of replicating effective interventions, synthesising evidence,
and understanding the causal mechanisms underlying behavior change.
Objectives:
1. To develop a reliable method of specifying behavior change techniques (BCTs), link them to
relevant theory and specify the behaviors necessary to implement them.
2. To lay a foundation for
University of Leeds, 14-15 December 2010
UK Society for Behavioural Medicine 6th Annual Scientific Meeting
in association with the National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI)
Annual Scientific Meeting
a. a comprehensive methodology that can be applied to many different types of complex
interventions, including organisational and community interventions
b. a fully developed, hierarchically organised taxonomy of BCTs
3. To achieve multidisciplinary and international acceptance and use to allow for its continuous
development.
Methods:
In several stages, we have generated lists of BCT labels based on a) systematic reviews of
behavior change interventions b) systematic text-book search c) expert brainstorming. We have
generated definitions a) from textbooks, b) from dictionaries (including APA Dictionary of
Psychology) and c) by reframing to specify the behavioral competencies required of the person
implementing the BCT.
Results:
Two judges had 74.7% agreement on definitions extracted from textbooks for 53 BCTs. When
judging links between BCTs and theoretical constructs, four judges had 71.7% agreement (385
judgements, based on 35 BCTs and 11 theoretical constructs). To date, we have agreed
behavioral specification for 89 BCTs relevant to changing health behaviors.
Conclusions:
This is an early stage in the process and we have recently acquired Medical Research Council
support to develop an international collaboration to refine and develop a BCT nomenclature,
based on extensive Delphi, consensus and judgement processes, and then to test the value of
the developed system in increasing the reliability of a) coding of published interventions and b)
reporting of interventions.
University of Leeds, 14-15 December 2010