The Role of Behavioural Science in Improving Public Health

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 1475

Special Issue Editor

NIHR North West London Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC), Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI), Imperial College London, London, UK
Interests: behaviour change; predictors of health-related behaviours; cancer screening; medication adherence; improving patient safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Several public health challenges are caused by unhealthy behaviour, or lack of engagement with health behaviours. Examples of these behaviours are lack of healthy eating or exercise, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor mediation adherence, or lack of engagement with preventative healthcare (e.g., cancer screening and vaccination). These behaviours affect quality of life, health outcomes, and health inequalities.

Using behavioural science can help to effectively change behaviours affecting public health. This Special Issue is inviting manuscripts which describe the application of behavioural science to public health challenges.  Disciplinary approaches may include health psychology, decision making, user-centred design, and behavioural economics, or others as relevant.  Methodological approaches can include qualitative or quantitative work to understand potentially modifiable determinants of health-related behaviour, such as the barriers and facilitators that affect whether a behaviour is performed, as well as  work to design and test interventions to change behaviour in order to improve health of populations or segments of populations.

There is particular interest in papers applying theories and frameworks to inform the understanding of determinants of behaviours relevant to public health, and the design of interventions to change behaviour.

Dr. Gaby Judah
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • behavioural science
  • health behaviour change
  • behavioural determinants
  • behavioural interventions
  • public health
  • health psychology

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 267 KiB  
Article
Users’ Experience of Public Cancer Screening Services: Qualitative Research Findings and Implications for Public Health System
by Maria Florencia González Leone, Anna Rosa Donizzetti, Marcella Bianchi, Daniela Lemmo, Maria Luisa Martino, Maria Francesca Freda and Daniela Caso
Behav. Sci. 2024, 14(2), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14020139 - 16 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 887
Abstract
Following the One Health approach, designing multidimensional strategies to orient healthcare in promoting health and preventive processes has become paramount. In particular, in the prevention domain, cancer screening attendance is still unsatisfactory in many populations and requires specific consideration. To this end, following [...] Read more.
Following the One Health approach, designing multidimensional strategies to orient healthcare in promoting health and preventive processes has become paramount. In particular, in the prevention domain, cancer screening attendance is still unsatisfactory in many populations and requires specific consideration. To this end, following a research-intervention logic, this study aims to investigate the experiences and meanings that users of public cancer screening services associate with prevention, particularly participation in the screenings. The experiences of 103 users (96 females; Mage = 54.0; SD = 1.24) of public cancer screening programs in the Campania region (Italy) were collected through interviews. The data collected were analysed following the Grounded Theory Methodology, supported by the software Atlas.ti 8.0. The text material was organised into eight macro-categories: Health and Body; Relationship with Cancer and Diseases; Health Facilities and Health Providers; The Affective Determinants of Cancer Screening Participation; Partners and Children; Physical Sensations and Emotions in the Course of Action; Protective Actions; Promotion and Dissemination. The core category was named Family and Familiarity. Respondents perceived prevention as an act of care for the family and themselves. Our findings support a shift from the idea of taking care of personal health as an individual matter toward considering it as a community issue, according to which resistance to act is overcome for and through the presence of loved ones. The results of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the perspectives of southern Italian users on participation in cancer screening, and provide important insights to guide future actions to promote these public programmes based primarily on the emerging theme of family and familiarity related to screening programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Behavioural Science in Improving Public Health)
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