The development and evaluation of a complex health education intervention for adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Life expectancy in adults with schizophrenia is reduced by approximately 15 years compared with others in the population. Two thirds of premature deaths result from natural causes triggered by unhealthy lifestyles and the side-effects of antipsychotic medication. There is a need to develop and evaluate health education interventions for people with this diagnosis. In this paper we describe how with reference to the UK Medical Research Council's complex interventions framework we developed and evaluated a health education intervention designed specifically for adults with schizophrenia. The study was completed in three separate but interrelated phases: (1) theoretical work was undertaken to identify the components of effective health education interventions; (2) this information was synthesized to develop the intervention; and (3) the intervention was tested in an open exploratory trial which used mixed methods to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and potential effect of the intervention. 45 service users were referred, 39 attended the groups and 65% attended at least half of the sessions. Participants reported significant increases in their consumption of fruit and vegetables and levels of physical activity. Results suggest that this model of health education is feasible and acceptable for this population and that it shows promise in supporting health-related behaviour changes.