Laforge R G, Velicer W F, Richmond R L, Owen N
Cancer Prevention Research Center University of Rhode Island, Kingston 02881, USA.
Prev Med. 1999 Jan;28(1):61-74. doi: 10.1006/pmed.1998.0384.
A key variable for the design of individual and public health interventions is the Stage of Change. The five stages of readiness to change are Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. The distribution of individuals across the stages of change can provide a valuable tool for designing health interventions.
The pattern of distribution across the stages of change for five behavioral risk factors is presented from five independent surveys, two from the United States and three from Australia. The five risk factors are smoking, low fat diet, regular exercise, reducing stress, and losing weight. Identical single-item questionnaire items for staging health behaviors were used in all surveys.
The stage distributions for the five risk factors were similar across the five independent samples. In general, the pattern of stage distributions was stable across health risk factors, gender, country, and sample.
Single-item survey measures of stage of change that are readily applicable to population studies appear to provide important information about the population characteristics of readiness to change behavioral risk factors. The stability of these distributions suggests that interventions matched by stage may have broad applicability.
个体及公共卫生干预措施设计的一个关键变量是改变阶段。改变的准备阶段有五个，分别是前意向阶段、意向阶段、准备阶段、行动阶段和维持阶段。个体在这些改变阶段的分布可为卫生干预措施的设计提供一个有价值的工具。
五项独立调查呈现了五个行为危险因素在改变阶段的分布模式，其中两项来自美国，三项来自澳大利亚。这五个危险因素分别是吸烟、低脂饮食、定期锻炼、减轻压力和减肥。所有调查均使用相同的单项目问卷来划分健康行为阶段。
五个独立样本中五个危险因素的阶段分布相似。总体而言，阶段分布模式在健康危险因素、性别、国家和样本之间是稳定的。
易于应用于人群研究的单项目改变阶段调查测量似乎能提供有关改变行为危险因素准备情况的人群特征的重要信息。这些分布的稳定性表明，按阶段匹配的干预措施可能具有广泛的适用性。
