Michie Susan, West Robert, Finnerty Ailbhe N, Norris Emma, Wright Alison J, Marques Marta M, Johnston Marie, Kelly Michael P, Thomas James, Hastings Janna
Centre for Behaviour Change, University College London, London, UK.
Research Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, UK.
Wellcome Open Res. 2021 Jan 6;5:123. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15902.2. eCollection 2020.
Behaviour change interventions (BCI), their contexts and evaluation methods are heterogeneous, making it difficult to synthesise evidence and make recommendations for real-world policy and practice. Ontologies provide a means for addressing this. They represent knowledge formally as entities and relationships using a common language able to cross disciplinary boundaries and topic domains. This paper reports the development of the upper level of the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology (BCIO), which provides a systematic way to characterise BCIs, their contexts and their evaluations. Development took place in four steps. (1) Entities and relationships were identified by behavioural and social science experts, based on their knowledge of evidence and theory, and their practical experience of behaviour change interventions and evaluations. (2) The outputs of the first step were critically examined by a wider group of experts, including the study ontology expert and those experienced in annotating relevant literature using the initial ontology entities. The outputs of the second step were tested by (3) feedback from three external international experts in ontologies and (4) application of the prototype upper-level BCIO to annotating published reports; this informed the final development of the upper-level BCIO. The final upper-level BCIO specifies 42 entities, including the BCI scenario, elaborated across 21 entities and 7 relationship types, and the BCI evaluation study comprising 10 entities and 9 relationship types. BCI scenario entities include the behaviour change intervention (content and delivery), outcome behaviour, mechanism of action, and its context, which includes population and setting. These entities have corresponding entities relating to the planning and reporting of interventions and their evaluations. The upper level of the BCIO provides a comprehensive and systematic framework for representing BCIs, their contexts and their evaluations.
行为改变干预措施（BCI）、其背景及评估方法具有异质性，这使得综合证据并为现实世界的政策与实践提供建议变得困难。本体论提供了一种解决这一问题的方法。它们使用一种能够跨越学科界限和主题领域的通用语言，将知识正式表示为实体和关系。本文报告了行为改变干预本体论（BCIO）上层的开发情况，该上层本体为描述BCI、其背景及其评估提供了一种系统方法。开发过程分四个步骤进行。（1）行为和社会科学专家根据他们的证据和理论知识以及行为改变干预和评估的实践经验，确定了实体和关系。（2）包括本体论专家以及那些使用初始本体实体注释相关文献的经验丰富者在内的更广泛专家群体，对第一步的成果进行了严格审查。第二步的成果通过（3）三位国际本体论外部专家的反馈以及（4）将BCIO上层原型应用于注释已发表报告进行了测试；这为BCIO上层的最终开发提供了参考。最终的BCIO上层指定了42个实体，包括BCI场景（通过21个实体和7种关系类型详细阐述）以及由10个实体和9种关系类型组成的BCI评估研究。BCI场景实体包括行为改变干预（内容和实施）、结果行为、作用机制及其背景，其中背景包括人群和环境。这些实体具有与干预及其评估的规划和报告相关的对应实体。BCIO上层为表示BCI、其背景及其评估提供了一个全面且系统的框架。
