agile science and teaching behavior change

Eric Hekler, PhDSchool of Nutrition and Health Promotion

Arizona State University

May 16, 2012

Teaching Behavior Change:

The baby steps for making effective behavioral interventions

Photo from Flickr - San Diego Shooter

We want interventions that are: Evidence-based

Cost-effective

Tailored

Easy to disseminate

Promote maintenance

Flickr – Metrix X

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Conceive of a study

Gather Pilot Data

Submit Grant

Receive Funding

Conduct the study

Submit publications for review

500,000th AppAccepted on App Store

Flickr - San Diego Shooter

Making=Learning

Flickr – Caro Wallis

Empathizing=Understanding

Option 1

Option 2

Control

Testing=Knowing

vs.

vs.

Test by Sarah Kiser, Catherine Roland, Jesse Venzina

The Class

Designing Behavior Change Interventions

Grad class evidence-informed interventions

Syllabushttp://bit.ly/ASUhealthdesignclass

See students workhttp://www.slideshare.net/DesigningHealth/

http://bit.ly/ASUhealthdesignclass


http://www.slideshare.net/DesigningHealth/


Class Projects Timeline

SMS Intervention

wk1 wk4 wk6

DIY Health Study

Group Project Starts

wk18

Foc

usM

etho

dsW

ho?

Develop an SMS health behavior Intervention.

Use theory to make yourself healthier.

Use previous work, theory, and UX Design to iterate on a health intervention.

Family & Friends

Self Targeted User Group

Pre/PostComparison

Baseline – Intervention – Baseline Study

Iterate at least 3 timesTest with A vs B experiments

Making

Intervention: “Genuinely smile at one stranger a day. If you already smile at people, make it a big toothy grin.”

Procedure: Morning SMS,

Evening Measurement SMS.

Amy Luginbill’s SMS project

Empathizing Trigger

Make guitar easily accessible Put guitar in plain sight

Simple Had to play one chord

Positive Reinforcement Color calendar

Before Intervention

During Intervention

AvgerageIncrease

Guitar 7% 40% 33% Serena Loeb’s DIY

Amy Luginbill; Samantha Quagliano; Sepideh Zohreh

S=StopM=MoveI= I statement; I can do it!L=Love (positivity)E=Exhale

SMS: “If you are stressed today, try one of the following options, Deep breathing, Stretching, get up move around.”

MOBILE CAR MAID SERVICES

GREEN CLEAN

Prototype 1: S.M.I.L.E.

Prototype 2:Facial Wave

Prototype 3:SMS Intervention

Prototype 4:De-stress your car

Pivot

Testing

Testing

Exp. P1 Exp. P2 Exp. P3 Exp. P4 Con. P1 Con. P2

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

PrePost

Str

es

s L

ev

el

(0-1

0)

Summary

Current evaluation methods are too slow Behavioral theories cannot fully explain

mHealth data To realize the potential of mHealth technology

Start from a wide array of ideas to learn HOW mHealth technologies work.

utilize “baby steps” for rapid iteration of making, empathizing & testing


Do as quickly as possible

Pick a reference: theory, user, or previous work Explore multiple ideas Make something Identify assumptions

“What else is true?” Test assumptions with a “crummy trial” Repeat


Agile Science – beta

Explore time-effective funding channels

Emphasize time-effectiveness of methods

Create, test, & iterate MVPs

Use a variety of dissemination channels

Use business to disseminate

Thanks to my fantastic students

Sarah Kiser

Serena Loeb

Amy Luginbill

Nathanael Meckes

Samantha Quagliano

Catherine Roland

Jesse Sandvik

Brooke Schohl

Jesse Venzina

Sepideh Zohreh


Thank you for your attention!

Eric Hekler

Designing Health Lab @ASU

Twitter: @ehekler

[email protected]

Syllabus: http://bit.ly/ASUhealthdesignclass

See students work: http://www.slideshare.net/DesigningHealth/


mailto:[email protected]






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