Behavioral medicine challenges in the shadow of a global pandemic

Abstract

Health behavior researchers should refocus and retool as it becomes increasingly clear that the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic surpass the direct effects of COVID-19 and include unique, drastic, and ubiquitous consequences for health behavior. The circumstances of the pandemic have created a natural experiment, allowing researchers focusing on a wide range of health behaviors and populations with the opportunity to use previously collected and future data to study: (a) changes in health behavior prepandemic and postpandemic, (b) health behavior prevalence and needs amidst the pandemic, and (c) the effects of the pandemic on short- and long-term health behavior. Our field is particularly challenged as we attempt to consider biopsychosocial, political, and environmental factors that affect health and health behavior. These realities, while daunting, should call us to action to refocus and retool our research, prevention, and intervention efforts

Translational research.

“…Regardless of the treatment intervention under study, progression through Type II steps often depends on public demand or political pressures to demonstrate that an evidence-based intervention has utility modifying a target health outcome in the real world (Brooks et al, 2021). Progression also depends on clear specification of the critical components of intervention that are necessary to yield a significant health outcome, as well as the process of how, and to what extent the intervention is utilized (Spoth et al, 2013).…”

Translational Sleep Science in Behavioral Medicine: Introduction to this Special Issue

“…Clearly, one new area of investigation is the need to study pandemic-related sleep changes, as people across the world have been forced to accommodate decreased mobility, increased social isolation, and changes to routines, roles, and social structures [33]. Also of consideration is the need to retool in order to conduct behavioral sleep science and to provide clinical services in a pandemic environment [34].…”

Scenario planning: a framework for mitigating uncertainty in implementing strategic behavioral medicine initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Behavioral medicine investigators can adapt their research priorities, objectives, and methods to respond more effectively to the changing circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 1 ]. Despite progress in understanding COVID-19, nonpharmaceutical interventions, vaccines, and treatments [ 2 ], there remains “the unsettling realization that we have little confidence in predicting how the pandemic will unfold” [ 1 ].…”