The Stony Brook Health Enhancement Program: The development of an active control condition for mind-body interventions

Abstract

This article describes the development of a manualized, eight-session multiple health behavior change program which addresses sleep, exercise, nutrition, substance use, and working with one's healthcare team. Our goal was to design a structured, evidence-based program that could be facilitated by a single health professional and could act as an active, credible control for mind-body intervention studies. Psychoeducational content was adapted from the latest government and peer-reviewed guidelines. Preliminary work suggests the program is acceptable and feasible for use in patients of varying ages with heterogeneous mental and physical health problems. It is adaptable for both face-to-face and online delivery.

Keywords: health behavior; health enhancement program; mind–body; multiple health behavior change; treatment development.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1.

Individual Trajectories on Outcome Measures. This figure illustrates the individual trajectories of the six pilot participants self-reported PCL-5 (Figure 1A; top left), PHQ-9 (Figure 1B; top right), SGRQ-C (Figure 1C; bottom left), and HPLP II (Figure 1D; bottom right) scores at their baseline (T1), 1-week post-treatment (T2), 3 months post-treatment (T3), and 6 months post-treatment (T4) visits. Each individual participant (N=6) is represented by the same line type in all figures. PCL-5 = PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. PHQ-9 = Patient Health Questionnaire. SGRQ-C = St. George Respiratory Questionnaire. HPLP II = Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II.