title: Building health behavior models to guide the development of just-in-time adaptive interventions: A pragmatic framework.
abstract: Advances in wireless devices and mobile technology offer many opportunities for delivering just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs)-suites of interventions that adapt over time to an individual's changing status and circumstances with the goal to address the individual's need for support, whenever this need arises. A major challenge confronting behavioral scientists aiming to develop a JITAI concerns the selection and integration of existing empirical, theoretical and practical evidence into a scientific model that can inform the construction of a JITAI and help identify scientific gaps. The purpose of this paper is to establish a pragmatic framework that can be used to organize existing evidence into a useful model for JITAI construction. This framework involves clarifying the conceptual purpose of a JITAI, namely, the provision of just-in-time support via adaptation, as well as describing the components of a JITAI and articulating a list of concrete questions to guide the establishment of a useful model for JITAI construction. The proposed framework includes an organizing scheme for translating the relatively static scientific models underlying many health behavior interventions into a more dynamic model that better incorporates the element of time. This framework will help to guide the next generation of empirical work to support the creation of effective JITAIs.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Inbal
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nahum-Shani
authors.affiliation: School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University.
authors.forename: Eric B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Hekler
authors.affiliation: Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spruijt-Metz
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000066949:Biobehavioral Sciences; D003142:Communication; D061345:Early Medical Intervention / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013997:Time Factors