Title: What Is “Meaningful Change” When Working with Transtheoretical Model (TTM)?
Abstract: The TTM is the most popular research and practical model in the field of health education and promotion. It assumes that people move through five stages when a behavior change occurs. According to the evidences, it is expected that an individual at the fourth change stage has made a meaningful change in the past six months. There is no consensus on definition of the “meaningful change” in various research reports. The main reason is the imprecise description of the research method. Some shortcomings are: First, it is not specified which alterations will be considered as significant changes in the study, prior to conducting the research. For instance, what is the criterion for promotion of fruit and vegetable consumption behavior among the housewives? Would it be eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, or increase of the meals consumed number? Second, it is not determined how various behavioral changes in different participants would be interpreted. Will be different levels of change categorized between two levels of preparation and action? In the above example, the behavior of the women who were consuming one serving of fruit and vegetables per day has increased to 3 daily servings consumption a few months after the educational intervention; it is a meaningful change but is not optimal; i.e. the ideal behavior has not been fully adopted. Or, in a study to increase the DecayMissingFilled (DMF) index through brushing behavior promotion, may someone claim that a meaningful change has occurred in brushing behavior of the students who never used to brush their teeth and now brush at least twice a day? Is it right? Is not it important to focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of the
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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