Planning to be routine: automaticity as a mediator of the planning-behaviour relationship in healthcare professionals

Authors

  • S. Potthoff
  • F. Sniehotta
  • M. Elovainio
  • J. Presseau

Abstract

Background: Clinicians often have strong intentions to provide evidence-based care to people with type 2 diabetes. Intentions are an important predictor of behaviour, but do not guarantee enactment. Action planning (AP) and coping planning (CP) can help with intention enactment by creating cue-response links that promote automaticity. This study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between AP or CP and clinician behaviour operates indirectly through measures of automaticity. Methods: Prospective correlational design with six nested sub-studies. Physicians and nurses (n = 427 from 99 UK practices) completed measures of AP, CP, and automaticity at baseline and self-reported their enactment of guideline-recommended advising, prescribing and examining behaviours 12 months later. We used bootstrapped mediation analyses. Findings: Eleven of the 12 analyses showed either a full or partial mediation effect. AP operated indirectly on behaviour via automaticity for five of the six behaviours and CP for all six clinician behaviours. Discussion: The mechanism of automaticity creation inherent to planning was supported across six different behaviours and suggests that planning may be an effective strategy for promoting habitual behaviour in clinicians.

Published

2015-12-31

Issue

Section

Oral presentations