Translating Basic Behavioral and Social Science Discoveries into Interventions to Improve Health-Related Behaviors (R01)

PA 10-707 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-063.html

Examples of Research Topics

Several Institutes within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have joined together to support this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Applications should be relevant to both the objectives of the FOA and to at least one of the participating organization's general research interests. Researchers are strongly encouraged to review the general research interests of the participating organizations and the following examples of topics of specific interest to the participating entities. Because additional research areas are welcome, prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the relevant program administrator for this FOA as listed in Section VII prior to preparing an application.

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

For the purpose of this program announcement, NCI is interested in applications that are directly related to cancer control behavioral intervention at each stage of the cancer continuum. Studies must center on developing and augmenting innovative intervention strategies rather than evaluating the effectiveness of already well-defined or proven interventions. Applications must include interdisciplinary teams of basic and applied behavioral and social science researchers to develop and refine novel interventions based on basic research findings to improve health-promoting behaviors (e.g., increase healthy diets, physical activity, or adherence to medical regimens), and/or reduce problem health behaviors (e.g., decrease smoking, sedentary behavior, or tanning behaviors) related to cancer control. The interventions to be developed will be based on basic behavioral and social science research findings from studies of individuals (e.g., studies of cognition, memory, language, perception, attitude formation and change, stress and emotion regulation, and motivation); social groups (e.g., research on the structure and dynamics of small groups such as couples and families, or social networks); institutions and organizations (e.g., worksites, schools, health care systems); and/or demographic, economic, environmental and cultural systems that have a significant role in health-related behaviors of interest. The proposed interventions may target any one or more of these levels (i.e., individuals, social groups, institutions/ organizations, environments or systems), and any age group. Populations of interest include healthy individuals, those at high risk for cancer or a cancer-related condition, and cancer survivors.

Behavioral targets of the interventions being developed may be any one or more of the behaviors thought to be important for the treatment or prevention of cancer or enhancing health-promoting behaviors thought to be related to cancer prevention and control. Broader social, organizational or systems-level interventions that involve changing aspects of the social environment (behavior of individuals within social networks), cultural environment (norms or values of worksites or schools), and/or physical environments (features of neighborhoods) may use aggregate measures of behavior as outcomes (e.g., use of walking trails, purchases of fruits and vegetables or other healthy foods...etc).

Contact:

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is the Federal Government's lead agency for research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). NCCAM defines CAM simply as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine. The mission of NCCAM is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine interventions and their roles in improving health and health care. More information can be found on NCCAM's website (www.nccam.nih.gov)

There is newly emerging evidence that Americans' CAM use is associated with a greater degree of health-seeking behavior. There are also claims and preliminary evidence of success by CAM and integrative medicine practitioners in motivating people to adopt and sustain health-seeking behavior. Examples include use of meditative and other mind/body approaches, physical activities like yoga, and approaches to healthy eating that may be grounded in traditional medical systems or incorporate a healthy food philosophy. While causal relationships have not been established, such data and claims deserve investigation, particularly given the formidable public health challenges in motivating change in health-related behaviors.

NCCAM is interested in research that will expand and translate basic behavioral and social science research on complementary medicine approaches to improving health-related behavior. More research is needed to understand the behavioral mechanisms of mind-body approaches (meditation, mindfulness based stress reduction, tai chi, qi gong, and yoga) to improving health behaviors. The role of CAM providers in motivating positive behaviors and decreasing negative behaviors has received little research focus. Basic and translational research is needed to explore the behavioral, cognitive, emotional or biological responses to CAM provider based interventions to characterize the behavioral responses.

• Translate basic research on learning, cognition, information processing, persuasive communications or message framing to develop more potent interventions for teaching children and adults about healthy behaviors and for encouraging adherence to self-monitoring, goal-setting, and other behavioral strategies that are important components of many health promotion and prevention programs.
• Use research findings from neuroimaging studies to map the neural mechanisms underlying the targeted behaviors to develop novel approaches to change behaviors.
• Translate laboratory or observational studies into new avenues for intervention or prevention by developing interventions that target executive functioning and behavioral control; interoceptive awareness and signaling for behavior; emotional and behavioral self-regulation; and behavior in response to environmental, social or emotional cues.
• Use findings on impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, delay discounting, and risk-taking behavior to better design interventions that prevent cravings, promote delayed gratification, and improve individuals' abilities to cope with stimuli eliciting unhealthy behavior.
• Develop models for adaptive learning, cognition and communication development for behavioral changes and improved adherence to be culturally appropriate and acceptable.
• Translate basic and observational research on mind-body techniques to develop interventions for behavioral changes (e.g. mindful eating for approaches in combating obesity) and improved adherence (e.g. mindful approaches to reducing potential side effects of or improving adherence to allopathic medicines).

Contact:

Wendy Weber, ND, PhD, MPH
Program Officer
Division of Extramural Research
National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine
National Institutes of Health
6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 401
Bethesda, MD 20892-5475 (for express delivery use 20817)
301.402.1272; fax: 301.480.1587
Email: weberwj@mail.nih.gov

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute supports research concerning the behavioral, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors related to the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood and sleep diseases and disorders. As stated in the NHLBI Strategic Plan (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/strategicplan/documents/SP_CV_508_11-30-09.pdf), studies relevant to the mission and goals of NHLBI include those that "complement bench discoveries and clinical trial results with focused behavioral and social research to (a) develop and evaluate new approaches to implement proven preventive and lifestyle interventions, (b) develop and evaluate policy, environmental, and other approaches for use in community settings to encourage and support lifestyle changes, and (c) develop and evaluate interventions to improve patient, provider, and healthcare system behavior and performance in order to enhance quality of care and health outcomes."

NHLBI is particularly interested in supporting studies that use findings from basic behavioral and social science research to improve health behaviors and psychosocial risk factors related to cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep diseases and disorders. Behavioral and psychosocial targets of interest include any of the following: smoking and smoking cessation; obesity-related behaviors (sedentary lifestyles and obesity-promoting diets); dietary patterns that have been shown to increase risk for cardiac disease; non-adherence to medical and behavioral treatments for heart, lung, blood and sleep diseases and disorders; behaviors involved in recognizing, interpreting, and seeking prompt and appropriate care for symptoms of cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep diseases and disorders; social, environmental and systems-level factors involved in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep diseases and disorders, including factors involved in family, neighborhood, workplace, and community settings, and in the patient-provider relationship and clinical care settings; and psychosocial risk factors such as social isolation or lack of social support, stress, and depression or depressive symptoms.

Examples of topics of interest include the following (these are illustrative only, and are not meant to be exhaustive):

• Applications of findings from research on learning, cognition, information processing, persuasive communications and message framing to enable the development of more potent interventions for teaching children and adults about healthy behaviors related to cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep health.
• Use of modeling techniques (e.g., network analyses and systems dynamics approaches) aimed at examining the behavior of complex social and behavioral systems to better understand how an individual's social relationships influence engagement in healthy behaviors related cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep health, and to determine how and with whom to intervene in a person's social network to best encourage healthy lifestyle behaviors.
• Investigations involving new paradigms of science (e.g., chaos theory, non-linear models) that address the unpredictability of behavior to identify conditions that foster motivation for behavior change and develop strategies that maximize chances for non-linear, non-rational change, such as occurs in certain natural phenomena (e.g., "tipping points" in disease and social epidemics).
• Development of approaches derived from engineering models (e.g., control engineering systems) aimed at transforming environmental systems over time to promote desirable behavior or outcomes to structure systems such as neighborhoods, worksites, schools and homes to promote healthy, as opposed to unhealthy, behaviors.
• Use of recent research concerning genetic predispositions to smoking and obesity-related behaviors to enable development of novel intervention approaches or to enhance existing approaches to stopping or reducing smoking, increasing physical activity, reducing sedentariness and improving dietary behaviors.
• Application of findings from new interdisciplinary areas of science such as behavioral economics and neuroeconomics to develop and test the most potent forms, frequency and duration of rewards and reinforcements for encouraging and discouraging cardiovascular, lung, blood and sleep health-related behaviors.
• Use of findings from basic behavioral science to develop more precise and targeted reward and reinforcement schedules for use in smoking cessation, dietary, sedentariness, physical activity and adherence-related intervention programs, and the testing of economic incentives, tax structures, food labeling and other policies to encourage industry, local governments, and community organizations to alter environments and market products that promote healthy food choices and physical activity.
• Use of data from imaging techniques that map the brain regions and neural processes underlying addictive and appetitive behaviors, together with investigations of impulsivity, emotional dysregulation and risk-taking behavior, to better design interventions that prevent cravings, promote delayed gratification, and improve individuals' abilities to cope with relapse-eliciting stimuli, such as smoking or food ads or presence of unhealthy foods in the social environment.

Contact:

Susan M. Czajkowski, Ph.D.
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
6701 Rockledge Dr
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-435-0406
Email: czajkows@mail.nih.gov

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development conducts and supports research on all stages of human development, from preconception to adulthood, to better understand and improve the health of children, adults, families, and communities. NICHD is interested in translational research that will adapt findings from basic behavioral and/or social science research to develop behavioral interventions directed at improving health-related behaviors such as adequate physical activity and nutrition, learning and learning disabilities, and preventing or reducing health-risking behaviors including tobacco, alcohol, and/or drug abuse, and unprotected sexual activity. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged to submit applications proposing behavioral interventions aimed at individuals, social groups, institutions, organizations, environments, or systems. Populations of interest include the following: children who are healthy; children with diseases such as diabetes, asthma, obesity, etc.; children with disorders of sleeping, eating, or learning; children with disabilities of an intellectual, developmental, or physical nature; healthy or disabled parents, pregnant women, and other caregivers whose actions influence the behavior of children. Health-related behavioral interventions aimed at pregnant women, parents, grandparents, other caregivers, social networks, and immigrants are of interest if they relate to the health of fetuses, children, adolescents, or families. Behavioral interventions for children and adults in need of medical rehabilitation are also of interest.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Research findings on executive function (i.e. cognition, behavioral self-regulation, information processing, and learning), persuasive communication, and message framing may be used in the development of more effective interventions for healthy children, children with diseases, disorders, or disabilities, pregnant women, and caregivers. These interventions will be instrumental in promoting healthy lifestyles, preventing diseases as well as childhood precursors of adult diseases, and promoting adherence to medical and behavioral treatments and/or recommendations.
• Research findings on impulsivity, emotion regulation, and risk-taking behaviors may be used to inform interventions designed to reduce or eliminate harmful or unhealthy behaviors.
• Research findings from neuroscience, imaging studies, and genetic & epigenetic studies on the brain/behavior connection may be utilized in the development of health-related interventions and prevention efforts.
• Mobile technologies may be used in the assessment of health-related behaviors and to motivate behavior change.
• Systems science, modeling techniques, and engineering models may be used in the development of systems-level interventions including environmental changes to promote healthy behaviors. Interventions that address social, economic, and environmental barriers to physical activity and healthy nutrition are welcome.
• Behavioral economics and neuroeconomics research findings may be used in the development of more effective interventions and prevention strategies to facilitate healthier lifestyles in populations of interest to NICHD.

The roles of parents and other caregivers, peers, social networks, and the media (print and electronic) on health seeking behaviors (medical care, preventive medicine, and immunizations) and risk taking behaviors (substance use and sexual activity) in children and adolescents are of interest.

Contact:

Lynne Haverkos, MD, MPH
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
6100 Executive Blvd
Rockville, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-435-6881
Email: LH179R@nih.gov

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is interested in supporting research to develop and refine novel behavioral interventions to improve outcomes relevant to the diseases of interest to the NIDDK (http://www2.niddk.nih.gov/) such as type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic kidney disease. The interventions to be developed should be innovative and have the potential to have a significant effect on clinical outcomes such as glycemic control or weight. Although these R01s will involve pre-efficacy trials, interventions with potential for sustainability outside of a research context (future dissemination and implementation) are strongly encouraged. As noted in the FOA, intervention content and/or delivery methods should be informed by the existing body of clinical and behavioral research and emerging basic behavioral or social science findings.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Approaches to improve adherence to medical recommendations. For example, improved adherence to blood glucose monitoring, medication management, and lifestyle recommendations in patients with diabetes. Topics of interest include improved adherence in high risk individuals (e.g., critical life periods, underserved populations, individuals with low health literacy/numeracy) and enhanced use of existing or emerging technologies for diabetes management (e.g., blood glucose monitors, continuous glucose monitors, and insulin pumps).
• Approaches to prevent excess weight gain, improve efficacy of existing weight loss approaches, and/or improve the maintenance of weight loss. Of particular interest is weight management approaches for young children, families, women prior to, during, and after pregnancy, and individuals at higher risk for obesity related comorbities. Weight management approaches that capitalize on mobile health technologies, social networks, worksites, community settings, or health care delivery are also encouraged.

Contact:

Christine Hunter, Ph.D., ABPP
National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
6707 Democracy Blvd
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-594-4728
Email: hunterchristine@niddk.nih.gov

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

NIAAA encourages translational research that will improve prevention and treatment interventions targeting high risk alcohol use and alcohol dependence. NIAAA will support projects in which basic and applied researchers collaborate in creating novel interventions that target alcohol-specific problems, utilizing methods, processes, and theories of their respective disciplines.

Areas of NIAAA alcohol research interests include but are not limited to the following:

• Utilize new discoveries in basic behavioral science to guide development of innovative alcohol-related, effective personalized behavioral therapies
• Identify and model basic and behavioral processes that mediate alcohol-related behaviors or outcomes of alcohol-related interventions
• Utilize basic science on adolescent and young adult social/biological/behavioral developmental stages to create innovative developmentally appropriate interventions

Contact:

Cherry Lowman, Ph.D.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
5635 Fishers Ln
Rockville, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-443-0637
Email: clowman@niddk.nih.gov

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse supports innovative research that tests the feasibility, efficacy or effectiveness of interventions to prevent and reduce the initiation of drug use, progression to abuse, and drug dependence and to treat substance abuse disorders. Priority is given to interventions that 1) target modifiable risk factors and enhance protective factors; 2) use a life-course developmental perspective; 3) are guided by theoretically and empirically supported models; 4) target universal, selective or indicated populations, including tiered strategies; 5) target substance use and other related and comorbid outcomes; and 6) reduce health disparities in underrepresented racial and ethnic populations. With this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) NIDA intends to foster research that will apply findings from the basic biological (e.g. neurobiological), psychological (e.g. emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and developmental) and social (e.g. social learning, peer network, and communications) sciences for developing and testing innovative drug abuse prevention interventions or treatment approaches. Collaboration between basic and applied investigators or between clinical and health services investigators working towards a common goal are especially encouraged as they may produce new perspectives, insights and approaches to improving drug abuse prevention and treatment.

Contact:

Belinda Sims
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Prevention Research Branch
6001 Executive Blvd
Rockville, MD 20892
Telephone: (301) 402-1533
Email: ls75t@nih.gov