Page 56 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

BIOFeeDBAck n 23

barriers to engaging in the behavior influ- field has come to be known as biobehavioral
ence intentions and subsequently behavior. research.
The common sense model of illness pro- Given the prevalence of lifestyle behav- B
poses that the individual’s own model of the iors that adversely affect health and the man-
illness influences his or her illness or treat- agement of illness, research to understand
ment-related behaviors. and modify those behaviors would benefit the
Behavioral research can be distin- individual as well as the population. There is
guished from psychosocial research, which a need for nursing research to expand into
tends to emphasize adjustment and coping the interdisciplinary arenas, particularly in
as well as predictor and moderator variables the examination of health behavior change
arising from the psychological state or the in the community, the studies within multi-
social environment of the person. Behavioral center clinical trials, and the etiological rela-
research, including cognitive–behavioral tionship between behavior and health and
studies, emphasizes behavior. In the classical illness. Further, many of the studies in nurs-
and instrumental models, observable behav- ing have been descriptive in nature or have
ior is stressed. In the cognitive–behavioral focused on the development of assessment
model, both observable and covert behaviors instruments. Few of the studies have exam-
are stressed. Within nursing, much of the ined how to intervene with behaviors that
behavioral research has addressed participa- contribute to the development or progression
tion in treatment, exercise, sexual behaviors, of illness. This research, however, would be
health promotion, breast self-examination and useful to better direct interventions with
mammography utilization, childbirth and patients.
maternal behaviors, behavioral symptoms
of dementia, self-management in chronic This paper was supported in part by a National
conditions, management of alcohol or drug Institute of Nursing research grant (5 P30
dependency, and role of biofeedback in such Nr03924) and a National Heart, lung, and Blood
behaviors as pelvic floor muscle exercise Institute grant (1 UO1Hl48992).
in incontinence and heart rate variability. Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob
Unlike psychosocial studies, factors such as
personality, coping strategies, and socioeco-
nomic status are not primary interests; how-
ever, they may be of interest in determining
reinforcers and stimulus conditions. BiofeedBack
There is an additional body of behav-
ioral research that tends to be interdisciplin-
ary in nature and is of relevance to nursing. Biofeedback is a training program in which
There are studies in the community to mod- individuals are provided with visual or audio
ify health behaviors within populations and information about their physiological state.
studies within multicenter clinical trials that The most commonly indexed physiologi-
attempt to influence the health behavior or cal states include heart rate, heart rate vari-
protocol-related behaviors of research par- ability (Hrv), respiration, blood pressure,
ticipants. Also there is a broad set of studies body temperature, peripheral sweating level
to identify the relationship between behavior (also known as galvanic skin response, elec-
and disease etiology, such as studies of the trodermal response, or skin conductance),
role of exercise on the maintenance of func- brainwave electroencephalogram (eeG), and
tion in the older adult, mechanisms of addic- muscle activity electromyography. The phys-
tion in smoking behavior, and effect of iological data are measured using noninva-
neurotransmitters on eating behaviors. This sive sensors, and the data are processed and