Exploring how health behaviours are supported and changed in people with severe mental illness: A qualitative study of a cardiovascular risk reducing intervention in Primary Care in England
Suzan Hassan, Jamie Ross, Louise Marston, Alexandra Burton, David Osborn, Kate Walters
Objectives: This study explored how health behaviours were supported and changed in people with severe mental illness by primary health care professionals trained in delivering behaviour change techniques (BCTs) within a cardiovascular disease risk reducing intervention. Design: Secondary qualitative analysis of 30 staff and patient interviews. Methods: We mapped coded data to the BCT Taxonomy (version 1) to identify BCT application. Thematic analysis was conducted to explore the barriers and facilitators of supporting and changing health behaviours. Themes were then interpreted using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour model to gain greater explanation behind the processes. Results: Twenty BCTs were identified. Staff and patients perceived that health behaviours were commonly affected by both automatic and reflective motivation, sometimes in turn affected by psychological capability, social, and physical opportunity. Staff and patients suggested that motivation was enhanced by both patient and staff ability to observe health benefits, in some cases patients’ health knowledge, mental health status, and social support networks. It was suggested that engaging in/sustaining healthy behaviours was influenced by physical opportunities to engrain behaviours into routine. Conclusions: According to staff and patients, health behaviour change in this population was driven by complex processes. It was suggested that capability, opportunity, and motivation were in some cases enhanced by BCTs, but variable. Behaviour change may be optimized by individualized behavioural assessments, identifying drivers of behaviour and applying a range of BCTs may help to target individual needs. Patient peer‐led approaches, techniques to encourage awareness of visible success, and normalizing health behaviours may increase behaviour change.