ABSTRACT
Key battles for the science of health behavior change lie ahead. How do we identify and characterize the factors that impact health behavior change success? Focus of previous research has centered on behavior change techniques and issues and difficulties around disentangling the impact of different behavior change techniques within complex interventions. We highlight a range of other factors that can impact success including, but not limited to, mode of delivery, fidelity, study personnel, comparison group features and risk of bias, and critique the role that taxonomies can play in characterizing study features. How can health behavior change be achieved on the world stage? We address this with particular reference to the role of culture and health inequality risks and also consider long-term, multiple behavior change. How can progress within health behavior change be accelerated? We highlight the need for better theories, techniques, methods, measures and reporting and highlight the potential value in multidisciplinary collaborations with experts in biology, neuroscience and computer and information sciences.
