Understanding and changing patterns of behaviour are key to promoting health and well-being, preventing illness and disability and efficient and equitable delivery of services. Delivering high quality healthcare depends on clinicians behaving in ways that are consistent with evidence-based recommendations.  This is not always achieved and interventions to improve clinical practice have generally had modest and variable effects.

To develop more effective interventions for both patients and clinicians, we need more systematic and detailed methods to (i) analyse problems in terms of the behaviours contributing to them, identifying ‘Who needs to do what, when, where and how?’ (ii) understanding the influences on those behaviours, and (iii) developing interventions informed by this understanding.

This talk will introduce

1. A simple model of behaviour for understanding clinician and patient behaviours in their contexts: the COM-B model
2. A linked framework for designing interventions to change behaviour: the Behaviour Change Wheel
3. A method for applying interventions to the local context: the APEASE criteria.
4. It will present a case example of applying the Behaviour Change Wheel to develop an intervention to improve long-term hearing aid use in adult auditory rehabilitation.

Learning objectives

1. Describe a model of behaviour in relation to both clinician and patient behaviours
2. Outline intervention options most suitable for particular types of behaviour
3. List criteria to consider when applying an intervention to one’s own context.