The NIH Science of Behavior Change Program: Looking Toward the Future

Behav Ther. 2023 Jul;54(4):714-718. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2023.03.006. Epub 2023 Mar 30.

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health established the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program to promote basic research on the initiation, personalization, and maintenance of health behavior change. The SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center now leads and supports activities to maximize the creativity, productivity, scientific rigor, and dissemination of the experimental medicine approach and experimental design resources. Here, we highlight those resources, including the Checklist for Investigating Mechanisms in Behavior-change Research (CLIMBR) guidelines introduced in this special section. We describe the ways in which SOBC can be applied across a range of domains and contexts, and end by considering ways to extend SOBC's perspective and reach, so as to best promote behavior change linked with health, quality of life, and well-being.

Keywords: behavioral medicine; experimental design; health behavior; intervention.

MeSH terms

  • Biomedical Research*
  • Cognition
  • Health Behavior
  • Humans
  • Quality of Life*
  • Research Design