A research programme in lifestyle and health: methodological and theoretical considerations

Traditionally, research in health behaviour has been dominated by research ideologies and methods which developed in the health sciences and the social sciences. To a great extent these subjects have followed "classical" research designs propounded by the natural sciences. The result has been a marked dependency on survey research, quasi-experimental designs, case-control studies and other "static" designs. This research has been characterised by brief periods of intensive "data-collection", followed by long periods of analysis and report writing. These research endeavours often constitute an extensive, elaborate, and usually accurate picture of health attitudes, opinions and behaviours at the point of data collection. But they are simply "snapshots" of a group, culture, nation, etc. at one moment in time. This research is not "dynamic" and it is not surprising that despite the considerable amount of health behaviour research which exists, we still know relatively little about the process and dynamics of health behaviour change. Fortunately there is increasing concern, both theoretical and methodological, with the problem of behavioural change over time. On balance, the theoretical arguments are not well developed, however the methodological techniques for exploring continuous data are becoming available. This paper presents one model for an emerging research programme in lifestyle and health which attempts to address some of the theoretical and methodological issues discussed.