title: The person-based approach to intervention development: application to digital health-related behavior change interventions.
abstract: This paper describes an approach that we have evolved for developing successful digital interventions to help people manage their health or illness. We refer to this as the "person-based" approach to highlight the focus on understanding and accommodating the perspectives of the people who will use the intervention. While all intervention designers seek to elicit and incorporate the views of target users in a variety of ways, the person-based approach offers a distinctive and systematic means of addressing the user experience of intended behavior change techniques in particular and can enhance the use of theory-based and evidence-based approaches to intervention development. There are two key elements to the person-based approach. The first is a developmental process involving qualitative research with a wide range of people from the target user populations, carried out at every stage of intervention development, from planning to feasibility testing and implementation. This process goes beyond assessing acceptability, usability, and satisfaction, allowing the intervention designers to build a deep understanding of the psychosocial context of users and their views of the behavioral elements of the intervention. Insights from this process can be used to anticipate and interpret intervention usage and outcomes, and most importantly to modify the intervention to make it more persuasive, feasible, and relevant to users. The second element of the person-based approach is to identify "guiding principles" that can inspire and inform the intervention development by highlighting the distinctive ways that the intervention will address key context-specific behavioral issues. This paper describes how to implement the person-based approach, illustrating the process with examples of the insights gained from our experience of carrying out over a thousand interviews with users, while developing public health and illness management interventions that have proven effective in trials involving tens of thousands of users.
authors: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom. L.Yardley@soton.ac.uk.
authors: Lucy
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3853-883X
authors: L
authors: Yardley
authors: Leanne
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9961-551X
authors: L
authors: Morrison
authors: Katherine
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5513-7571
authors: K
authors: Bradbury
authors: Ingrid
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9341-6133
authors: I
authors: Muller
mesh_terms: D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012648:Self Care
keywords: Internet; behavior change.; evaluation studies; feasibility studies; health promotion; patient education; person-based approach; professional education; qualitative research
references: J Med Internet Res. 2010;12(2):e23
references: 20581001
references: J Med Internet Res. 2010;12(4):e66
references: 21159599
references: J Med Internet Res. 2012;14(2):e45
references: 22532074
references: J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(4):e107
references: 22155673
references: Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2014;11:67
references: 24886516
references: Pediatrics. 2005 Nov;116(5):e643-7
references: 16263978
references: BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2010;10:52
references: 20849599
references: J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(6):e146
references: 24905070
references: J Med Internet Res. 2013;15(7):e146
references: 23859884
references: Health Psychol. 2009 Nov;28(6):690-701
references: 19916637
references: Health Psychol. 2008 May;27(3):379-87
references: 18624603
references: Ann Behav Med. 2003 Aug;26(1):1-7
references: 12867348
references: Lancet. 2013 Oct 5;382(9899):1175-82
references: 23915885
references: Br J Health Psychol. 2014 Nov;19(4):839-55
references: 24308806
references: J Med Internet Res. 2012;14(1):e18
references: 22357411
references: J Med Internet Res. 2013;15(4):e86
references: 23598614
references: Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2009 Oct;25(4):514-21
references: 19845981
references: Health Informatics J. 2009 Mar;15(1):27-39
references: 19218310
references: Inform Prim Care. 2012;20(4):283-8
references: 23890340
references: Psychol Serv. 2007 Aug;4(3):202-224
references: 26321884
references: J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(3):e95
references: 24681761
references: J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(4):e111
references: 22155738
references: Implement Sci. 2013;8:134
references: 24238118
references: Am Psychol. 2000 Jan;55(1):79-88
references: 11392868
references: Health Educ Res. 2006 Aug;21(4):508-17
references: 16467173
references: Implement Sci. 2011;6:42
references: 21513547
references: J Health Psychol. 2003 Jan;8(1):55-62
references: 22113900
references: JMIR Res Protoc. 2013 Jun 24;2(1):e21
references: 23796508
references: Psychol Health. 2014;29(11):1227-44
references: 24798208
references: Prim Care Respir J. 2013 Dec;22(4):449-53
references: 24227105
references: J Health Psychol. 2003 Jan;8(1):7-23
references: 22113897
references: J Med Internet Res. 2007;9(2):e15
references: 17537718
references: Gerontologist. 2006 Oct;46(5):650-60
references: 17050756
references: J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(3):e51
references: 21795237
references: NPJ Prim Care Respir Med. 2014;24:14026
references: 25030621
references: BMJ. 2008;337:a1655
references: 18824488
references: Am Psychol. 2000 Jan;55(1):68-78
references: 11392867
references: J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(2):e36
references: 24554442
references: Health Care Anal. 2012 Sep;20(3):231-49
references: 21786152
references: J Biomed Inform. 2005 Feb;38(1):1-3
references: 15694880
references: BMJ. 2015 Mar 19;350:h1258
references: 25791983
references: BMC Fam Pract. 2012;13:101
references: 23110756
references: J Pers. 1994 Mar;62(1):119-42
references: 8169757
references: Clin Obes. 2012 Oct;2(5-6):132-41
references: 25586248
references: Br J Gen Pract. 2011 May;61(586):e252-61
references: 21619749
references: J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2012 May-Jun;19(3):413-22
references: 21828224
references: Telemed J E Health. 2012 Mar;18(2):137-44
references: 22381060
references: J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(5):e124
references: 24840245
references: Clin Obes. 2011 Apr;1(2-3):110-26
references: 25585576
references: BMC Fam Pract. 2010;11:90
references: 21087469
references: J Health Psychol. 2011 Mar;16(2):353-64
references: 20929941
references: J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(3):e70
references: 24594972
references: Health Promot Int. 2007 Jun;22(2):122-8
references: 17355994