Developing Lifestyle Medicine Tools From Psychological Theories

Health behavior modification is perhaps the single most important and fundamental concept in lifestyle medicine. Understanding the psychological theories that explain “why” people act as they do when initiating a health behavior change can be the key factor in determining program success or program failure. Application of these theories into clinical practice is both important and challenging. Presented in this article are examples of practical applications that one lifestyle medicine program has made with the psychological theories of the health belief model, the social cognitive theory, and the transtheoretical model.