Final Class Project Personal Health Intervention and Diary (25 Points) For your final class project you will use information from your course assignments, conduct additional research, and create a personal health diary. The diary will include background research on health behaviors that are related to your personal health goals, description of an intervention strategy that you implemented towards reaching your goals, and a critical evaluation of your approach and suggestions for how your approach could be strengthened/improved in the future for greater effectiveness. In your intervention approach, you must implement evidence-based strategies for successful health goal pursuit, stemming from health behavior theories discussed in class. Specific Instructions: 1. Provide background to health behaviors related to your personal health goals. This should include: providing prevalence (or incidence) statistics for the health behaviors, their importance for health, public health recommendations related to the health behaviors, and your self-evaluation of your status in relation to the public health guidelines. You should also identify the salient influences on the behaviors (determinants, mediators, moderators) – that is, factors that could be targeted by an intervention. You are expected to cite references throughout and build an effective rationale for why you are attempting to improve these health outcomes/behaviors. In essence, this amounts to conducting “needs assessment”. HOW SHOULD I DO THIS? DO YOUR RESEARCH: use scientific articles/data/national statistics • Review published studies • Research behavior theories – Must understand the problem (i.e., understand theory of behavior you are planning to target) – Research empirical evidence - what have others found about causes and solutions? • Consider professional experience • Consider community and environmental influences beyond those related to the individual factors. This section should provide a broad background to the health behaviors you are attempting to change. 2. Describe your intervention approach. How will/did you change your behavior so you can reach your goals? Describe your decision making process in designing an intervention for yourself, including the selection of a health behavior theory, behavior change methods and their translation into intervention strategies that you used. What is it that you did to reach your goals and why? HOW SHOULD I DO THIS? Here is where you need to specify which theoretical framerwork(s) you are using and why, and specify the key intervening variables (the factors your intervention attempts to change in order to reach your personal health goals). These steps must be informed by your "needs assessment" from previous step. You must clearly describe your goals, key intervening variables (determinants), and the specific methods and strategies you used. You may find Intervention Mapping useful here. Creating a proximal objectives matrix will help you identify proximal objectives for your intervention and your intervening variables, and will make it easier to select appropriate intervention methods and strategies. You must use Michie´s CALO-RE taxonomy to select your methods. 3. Describe the process of your intervention, how you implemented the intervention and monitored your progress. Include the results of your intervention. How successful were you in reaching your goals? 4. Critically evaluate your approach towards reaching your health goals. What aspects of what you did worked well and which have not? Why? What could be done differently to make your attempts more successful. In this final, critical step, please refer to information from lectures, readings, and scientific articles so you can support your statements. I will be looking for evidence that you can effectively synthesize the information you learned in the course and apply it to evaluate your approach. 5. Write a summary paper addressing points 1-4. Be sure to adhere to the page limit. There is no need to write a novel – rather focus on succinctly expressing your ideas in a clear and non-repetitive manner. I encourage the use of headings, subheadings, tables or figures. Format: The written project should be 5-10 pages double-spaced with 1 inch margins and 11 or 12 point font. Due date: The final project must be submitted by midnight on May 25. Submit your paper on IS. Evaluation criteria: Criteria Weight Scope (all elements answered with sufficient detail) 10 points Thoughtfulness (clear links between “what” and “why”) 8 points Clarity and quality of writing 5 points Grammar, spelling, format 2 point Total 25 points Criteria Assigned Point Value Scope [8-10 points] All elements answered in sufficient detail [5-7 points] One element missing or insufficient detail in some [2-4 points] >1 element missing and insufficient detail provided [0-1 points] Most (3+) elements missing; none or insufficient detail provided Thoughtfulness [7-8 points] “What” is to be done is clearly linked to “why” across all elements [4-6 points] “What” is to be done is linked with “why” only for some elements [0-3 points] Does not describe or describes insufficiently “what” is to be done and “why” Clarity and quality of writing [4-5 points] Thoughts are presented clearly; exemplary organization of ideas with cohesive flow [0-3 points] Thoughts not clearly presented; disorganized ideas with poor flow Grammar, spelling, format [2 point] No grammatical or spelling errors; Adheres to specified format and length [0-1 points] Grammatical or spelling errors; does not adhere to specified format and length Total 10 points