The effectiveness of motivational interviewing for health behaviour change in primary care settings: a systematic review

Abstract

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a patient-centred approach to behaviour change that was originally developed in the addiction field but has increasingly been applied to public health settings with a focus on health promotion. The purpose of this review was to examine the evidence base for MI interventions in primary care settings with non-clinical populations to achieve behaviour change for physical activity, dietary behaviours and/or alcohol intake. We also sought to explore the specific behaviour change techniques included in MI interventions within primary care. Electronic databases were searched for relevant articles and 33 papers met inclusion criteria and were included. Approximately 50% of the included studies (n = 18) demonstrated positive effects in relation to health behaviour change. The efficacy of MI approaches is unclear given the inconsistency of MI descriptions and intervention components. Furthermore, research designs that do not isolate the effects of MI make it difficult to determine the effectiveness of such approaches. We offer a number of recommendations for researchers and practitioners seeking to include MI within behaviour change interventions to help improve the quality of the research and the effectiveness of MI-based interventions within primary care settings.

Behaviour change techniques: the development and evaluation of a taxonomic method for reporting and describing behaviour change interventions (a suite of five studies involving consensus methods, randomised controlled trials and analysis of qualitative data)

“…'behavioural counselling' may involve 'educating patients' or 'feedback, self-monitoring, and reinforcement'). 43 This may lead to uncertainty, confusion and difficulties in determining the efficacy of specific change approaches; for example, Morton et al 44 had considerable difficulty in identifying the necessary components of motivational interviewing and as a result found it difficult to synthesise evidence of efficacy. Further, behavioural medicine researchers and practitioners have reported low confidence in their ability to replicate highly effective behavioural interventions for type 2 diabetes mellitus prevention.…”

From Theory-Inspired to Theory-Based Interventions: A Protocol for Developing and Testing a Methodology for Linking Behaviour Change Techniques to Theoretical Mechanisms of Action

“…BCTTv1 has also been used by systematic reviewers to identify BCTs within intervention papers, in order to facilitate intervention comparison and evaluate technique efficacy (e.g. [42][43][44][45][46][47]). This is in line with recent guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) which recommends that research should investigate which BCTs are effective in promoting the initiation and maintenance of behaviour change [9].…”

The Impact Of Psychological Characteristics On The Effectiveness Of Motivational Interviewing Based Psychological Counseling

“…Thus, personality traits at the beginning of cardiac rehabilitation cannot be measured because the results could provide information about patients' readiness to participate in psychological intervention. Moreover, Morton et al (2015) advices that practitioner should assess patient's readiness to change and apply the most salient techniques for each patient. This information could be helpful for choosing appropriate psychological intervention during rehabilitation.…”

“…There are no doubts that patients' motivation to change unhealthy lifestyle is one of the main factors for successful rehabilitation (Pietrabissa et al, 2013). Prior work (e.g., Jusinskaite et al, 2014;Knight et al, 2006;Lundahl et al, 2010;Lundahl et al, 2013;Martins & McNeil, 2009;Morton et al, 2015;Petroliene & Sinkariova, 2013;Sinkariova et al, 2015;Thompson et al, 2011) suggests that motivational interviewing based psychological counseling (Miller & Rollnick, 2013) is an effective way to change unhealthy behavior. This is because it helps to increase patients' motivation, self-efficacy, and readiness to change.…”

“…This is because it helps to increase patients' motivation, self-efficacy, and readiness to change. Some studies emphasized that greater attention should be given to the underlying processes that influence behavioral outcomes (Martins & McNeil, 2009;Gaube & Kern, 2015;Morton et al, 2015). However, what patients would benefit most from motivational interviewing and how self-efficacy differs according to personal characteristics is unclear (Thompson et al, 2011).…”