Skip to main content

The Science of Sustaining Health Behavior Change: The Health Maintenance Consortium

Buy Article:

$39.00 + tax (Refund Policy)

Objective : To enhance understanding of the long-term maintenance of behavior change, as well as effective strategies for achieving sustainable health promotion and disease prevention through the Health Maintenance Consortium (HMC).

Methods : This introductory research synthesis prepared by the resource center gives context to this theme issue by providing an overview of the HMC and the articles in this journal.

Results : It explores the contributions to our conceptualization of behavior change processes and intervention strategies, the trajectory of effectiveness of behavioral and social interventions, and factors influencing the long-term maintenance of behavioral and social interventions.

Conclusions : Future directions for furthering the science of maintaining behavior change and reducing the gaps between research and practice are recommended.

Keywords: behavior change; dietary behaviors; intervention research; maintenance; physical activity; research consortia; smoking; substance abuse; translational research

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1 Regents Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, College Station, TX.

Publication date: 01 November 2010

More about this publication?
  • The American Journal of Health Behavior seeks to improve the quality of life through multidisciplinary health efforts in fostering a better understanding of the multidimensional nature of both individuals and social systems as they relate to health behaviors.

    The Journal aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of personal attributes, personality characteristics, behavior patterns, social structure, and processes on health maintenance, health restoration, and health improvement; to disseminate knowledge of holistic, multidisciplinary approaches to designing and implementing effective health programs; and to showcase health behavior analysis skills that have been proven to affect health improvement and recovery.

  • Editorial Board
  • Information for Authors
  • Submit a Paper
  • Subscribe to this Title
  • Review Board
  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
  • Access Key
  • Free content
  • Partial Free content
  • New content
  • Open access content
  • Partial Open access content
  • Subscribed content
  • Partial Subscribed content
  • Free trial content