INTERVENTION DEVELOPMENT, TESTING, AND TRAINING - U-TuRN: Translational Research Network

Team 2 facilitates the development and utilization of effective behavior change interventions and techniques in various translational research applications coordinated through the Network. Their work is directed by several guiding research questions, including:

How can we effectively use behavior change tools (e.g., Motivational Interviewing, mHealth, and habit development strategies) to guide adoption and long-term adherence to healthy behaviors?
How can we develop effective intervention programming that incorporates multiple levels of influence including intrapersonal factors and the psychosocial and community environments?
How can we assess behavior change as well as critical moderators and mediators of change to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of behavior change interventions and the key mechanisms that drive success?

Team 2 is led by Dr. Alison Phillips and Dr. Jacob Meyer. For more information or to get involved, contact uturn_team2@iastate.edu for more information

Acculturation, Food Security, and Gender among Immigrants

The main purpose of this project is to assess the level of acculturation of various groups in the same area (Des Moines) and their levels of food security. This information will provide us with ways to provide culturally appropriate messages to individuals that enable them to live healthy lives.

Clinical Health Coaching

This project helps advance understanding and applications of motivational interviewing (MI), a conversational tool used to help guide individuals towards a behavior change goal. More specifically, this project integrates the MI technique in health care settings, schools, and workplaces to enhance motivation o engage in self-monitoring of health-related behaviors and enhance health outcomes.

Mental Health and Well-Being

This project focuses on the translations of interventions methods and approaches for the treatment of depression and the promotion of positive mental health. Specific projects include the integration of exercise into psychotherapeutic treatment and resistance training as an intervention to enhance brain blood flow in depression.

Clinical Integration of the FNPA Tool for Pediatric Weight Management

Family Nutrition and Physical Activity (FNPA) Screening Tool The FNPA tool is a validated assessment tool for pediatric obesity prevention. It provides a feasible and effective way to initiate primary prevention of childhood obesity by promoting intervention on family behaviors and environments before unhealthy behaviors manifest in overweight and obesity. There are currently more than…

Physical Activity and Habit Formation

Physical Activity and Habit Formation The project will test two habit-formation interventions (combined with motivational interviewing) that differ in the nature of habit being formed. This project will inform community efforts to get sedentary adults or those needing more activity (cancer patients, the elderly, etc) to most effectively develop new activity habits that will be…

Wellness Works

Wellness Works Wellness Works is an outreach program coordinated by the Physical Activity and Health Promotion Lab in the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University. The Wellness Works program coordinates a variety of projects test intervention strategies and methods for building capacity for worksite wellness programs The primary programming strategy used in Wellness Works is service learning….