What are internet-delivered interventions, why use them? Lucy Yardley Centre for Applications of Health Psychology (CAHP) LifeGuide:

Q: What are behavioural interventions? A: Packages of advice and support for behaviour change eat a healthy diet cope with illness learn parenting skills use less energy at home work more efficiently

Traditional methods of delivering behavioural interventions a) face-to-face, e.g. teacher, therapist, manager expert, personalised effective but resource intensive b) print format, e.g. leaflet generic, no support cheap but low impact

Core components of effective behavioural interventions 1. Delivering advice, ‘tailored’; use ‘diagnostic’ questions to select relevant advice from extensive expert resources 2. Providing longitudinal support, e.g. plans, reminders progress monitoring progress-relevant feedback social support (therapist, peers)

7 What opportunities does the Internet offer for behaviour change interventions? For policy-makers – cost-effective delivery (for meta- analysis of effectiveness see Webb, Joseph, Yardley & Michie, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2010, 12, 4) For lay people – convenient 24/7 access to personalised advice for all problems from worldwide resources For professionals – detailed longitudinal monitoring, automation of routine services For scientists – potential to collect detailed longitudinal data on large samples

What challenges are posed by delivering interventions via the Internet? The human challenge – creating Internet interventions that lay people and professionals find accessible, engaging, trustworthy, useful The technological challenge – generating flexible and accessible methods of creating web-based interventions 8