A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Applications of the Self-Report Habit Index to Nutrition and Physical Activity Behaviours

In the paper

“Habits are behavioural patterns learned through context-dependent repetition [17][18][19][20]: repeated performance in unvarying settings reinforces context-behaviour associations such that, subsequently, encountering the context is sufficient to automatically cue the habitual response [21].”

What the sources say

• Supported

  Split into 2 atoms — 2 confirmed, 0 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

  cites [17] Lally P, van Jaarsveld E, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed? Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 2010; 40: 998–1009. source
• Supported

  Split into 2 atoms — 2 confirmed, 0 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

  cites [18] Aarts H, Paulussen T, Schaalma H. Physical exercise habit: on the conceptualization and formation of habitual health behaviours. Health Educ Res. 1997; 12: 363–74. source
• Not checked yetcites [21] Orbell S, Verplanken B. The automatic component of habit in health behavior: Habit as cue-contingent automaticity. Health Psychol. 2010; 29: 374–83. source

In the paper

“Five correlations focused on general physical activity, two on inactivity, and three on active travel.”

In the paper

“Title, keyword, and abstract screening against eligibility criteria removed five papers, and subsequent full-text screening removed a further 99 papers.”

In the paper

“Mean within-dataset sample size (N) was 294.”

In the paper

“A total of 126 potentially relevant papers were identified, including 125 unique citations generated by the database search, and Verplanken and Orbell's paper [27].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] * Verplanken B, Orbell S. Reflections on past behavior: A self-report index of habit strength. J Appl Soc Psychol. 2003; 33: 1313–1330. source

In the paper

“Four moderation tests related to activity or inactivity, three to nutrition, and two to active travel.”

In the paper

“The 21 datasets reported 23 relevant and unique bivariate habit-behaviour correlations and nine tests of the moderating effect of habit on the intention-behaviour relation (see Table 1).”

In the paper

“Of 13 diet and nutrition habit-behaviour correlations, four related to healthful and nine to unhealthful dietary habits.”

In the paper

“The 22 eligible papers were based on 21 unique datasets.”

In the paper

“De Bruijn et al. [15] observed that fruit consumption intentions correlated most strongly with behaviour where habit was weakest (r=0.32),but remained significantly correlated at moderate and strong levels of habit (both rs=0.23).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [15] * De Bruijn GJ, Kremers SPJ, De Vet E, De Nooijer J, Van Mechelen W, Brug J. Does habit strength moderate the intention-behaviour relationship in the Theory of Planned Behaviour? The case of fruit consumption. Psychol Health. 2007; 22: 899–916. source

In the paper

“With the exception of physical inactivity, all weighted correlations were robust (minimum failsafe N=308) and highly heterogeneous (minimum Q=23.21, p=0.001; minimum I 2 =74.15).”

In the paper

“All habitbehaviour correlations reported below were significant at p<0.001.”

In the paper

“Scores were below the midpoint for healthy and unhealthy eating (both ~43%)”

In the paper

“This effect was robust (failsafe N=7,011), but strong heterogeneity was observed around the mean (Q=223.01,p<0.001;I 2 =91.03).”

In the paper

“Behaviour was measured via selfreport in 19 datasets, of which 13 focused on actual behaviour over a given period and eight on typical behavioural patterns.”

In the paper

“Most samples were university-based (14 datasets).”

In the paper

“In six studies, habit, intention, and other variables derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (attitudes [subdivided into instrumental attitude and affective attitude in two studies], subjective norms, perceived behavioural control) were partialled out of the moderated multiple regression models.”

In the paper

“Four of the nine studies investigating the effect of habit on the intention-behaviour relation used cross-sectional, and five prospective, designs.”

In the paper

“Two datasets used objective behaviour measures (observed food choice in a lab setting [37, study 2; 56]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [37] * Conner M, Perugini M, O'Gorman R, Ayres K, Prestwich A. Relations between implicit and explicit measures of attitudes and measures of behaviour: Evidence of moderation by individual difference variables. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007: 33; 1727–40. source
• Not checked yetcites [56] * Brug J, de Vet E, de Nooijer J, Verplanken B. Predicting fruit consumption: Cognitions, intention, and habits. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2006; 38: 73–81. source

In the paper

“but above the midpoint for studies of physical activity or inactivity (both ~60%) and active travel (~55%).”

In the paper

“This effect was underpinned by correlations of r + ≈0.42 (fixed: r + =0.43; random: r + =0.44) for activity habits, and r + = 0.47 (both fixed and random) for inactivity habits.”

In the paper

“Correlations did not differ by study quality, sample, design, whether actual or typical behaviour was measured, or whether behaviour was self-reported or objective (maximum Q B =2.31, p=0.13).”

In the paper

“Neither study design (Q B =0.18, p=0.68) nor sample (Q B =0.82, p=0.66) explained variation in mean scores.”

In the paper

“Fourteen datasets used prospective designs, and seven were cross-sectional.”

In the paper

“The average weighted correlation between habit and behaviour across all studies was estimated at r + =0.44 using a fixed model (p<0.001), and r + =0.46 using a random effects model (p<0.001),indicating a moderate to strong effect (see Table 2).”

In the paper

“Habit measures showed satisfactory alphas within all datasets (minimum α=0.84).”

In the paper

“Two studies controlled for intention and habit only.”

In the paper

“We found considerable between-study variation in mean habit scores and in habit-behaviour correlations, but subgroup analyses could not reliably attribute heterogeneity to methodological characteristics.”

In the paper

“Chatzisarantis and Hagger ([59] studies 1 and 2) showed that intentions to engage in vigorous physical activity or active sports became less associated with behaviour as habit strength increased, but beta weights were not provided to illustrate this effect.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [59] * Chatzisarantis NLD, Hagger MS. Mindfulness and the intention-behavior relationship within the Theory of Planned Behavior. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007; 33: 663–76. source

In the paper

“Weighted mean habit-behaviour correlations were typically medium to large in size, and active travel correlations were strongest.”

In the paper

“The SRHI-behaviour correlation (r= 0.86) was attenuated using the abbreviated index (r=0.80),and marginally lower mean scores were observed (expressed as percentages of maximum scores, M=69.67 vs 67.50, respectively), but reliability and habit×intention interaction coefficients were identical.”

In the paper

“Two studies which used objective measures posted lower habit-behaviour correlations, suggesting that self-reports of action may inflate true effects.”

In the paper

“Habit scores varied by around twenty percentage points between behaviours, with significantly higher scores observed for physical activity than nutritional behaviour.”

In the paper

“Health behaviour models typically neglect habitual action.”

In the paper

“The SRHI offers a standardised and reliable measure to assess habitual action and so permits evidence synthesis across behaviours and populations [28].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [28] Verplanken B, Myrbakk V, Rudi E. The measurement of habit. In: Betsch T, Haberstroh S, eds. The routines of decision making. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2005: 231–47.

In the paper

“Approaches to behaviour change have traditionally been based on reasoned action models [7].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [7] Conner M, Norman P. Predicting health behaviour: A social cognition approach. In: Conner M & Norman P, eds. Predicting health behaviour: Research and practice with social cognition models. 2nd ed. Buckingham: Open University Press; 2005: 1–27.

In the paper

“For example, the Theory of Planned Behaviour [8] and the Health Action Process Approach [9] posit that behaviour follows directly from a conscious decision to act, which summarises beliefs around the favourability and controllability of action.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [8] Ajzen I. The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Dec. 1991; 50: 179–211. source
• Not checked yetcites [9] Schwarzer R. Modeling health behavior change: How to predict and modify the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors. Appl Psychol—Int Rev. 2008; 57: 1–29.

In the paper

“Recent work has pointed to habit as a key automaticity-based determinant of action [15][16][17].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [15] * De Bruijn GJ, Kremers SPJ, De Vet E, De Nooijer J, Van Mechelen W, Brug J. Does habit strength moderate the intention-behaviour relationship in the Theory of Planned Behaviour? The case of fruit consumption. Psychol Health. 2007; 22: 899–916. source
• Not checked yetcites [16] Kremers SPJ, De Bruijn GJ, Visscher TLS, van Mechelen W, de Vries NK, Brug J. Environmental influences on energy balance-related behaviors: A dual-process view. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2006; 3: 9. source
• Not checked yetcites [17] Lally P, van Jaarsveld E, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed? Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 2010; 40: 998–1009. source

In the paper

“These models portray behaviour as the outcome of conscious deliberation and emphasise concepts such as intentions, attitudes, and self-efficacy.”

In the paper

“The measure has been found to conform to theoretical predictions by correlating with behavioural frequency, and moderating the intention-behaviour relation [29,30].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [29] * Gardner B. Modelling motivation and habit in stable travel mode contexts. Transport Res F – Traf. 2009; 12: 68–76. source
• Not checked yetcites [30] * Kremers SPJ, Brug J. Habit strength of physical activity and sedentary behavior among children and adolescents. Pediatr Exerc Sci. 2008; 20: 5–17. source

In the paper

“a multiplicative combination of performance frequency ('how often do you do behavior X?') and cue stability ('when you do behavior X, how often is cue Y present?') appears to offer a useful habit index, but depends upon prior identification of relevant cues [25,26].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [25] Ouellette JA, Wood W. Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behavior predicts future behavior. Psychol Bull. 1998; 124: 54–74. source
• Not checked yetcites [26] Wood W, Tam L, Witt MG. Changing circumstances, disrupting habits. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2005: 88, 918–33. source

In the paper

“Dual-process theories suggest that behaviour can be initiated through two competing pathways: a deliberative route, which entails prior thought and cognitive effort (as depicted by reasoned action accounts), and an automatic route, which is characterised by environmentally cued responses which proceed in the absence of effort, volitional control, and awareness [13,14].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [13] Bargh JA. The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, intention, efficiency, and control in social cognition. In: Wyer RS, Srull TK, eds. Handbook of social cognition. Vol. 1. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1996: 1–40.
• Not checked yetcites [14] Strack F, Deutsch R. Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behaviour. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2004; 8: 220–47. source

In the paper

“The measure may thereby fail to detect, for example, habits prompted by temporal cues where only location cue stability is measured, making integration of evidence across behaviours and contexts problematic.”

In the paper

“Where habit or behaviour was measured on multiple occasions, habit data were taken from the earliest timepoint, and behaviour data from the earliest follow-up timepoint, so as to observe the causal sequence of habit-behaviour relationships [22].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [22] Triandis H. Interpersonal behavior. Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole; 1977.

In the paper

“Potential between-study sources of bias were assessed by coding for four methodological variables pertaining to study design (whether cross-sectional or prospective), behaviour measure (self-report or objective; actual or typical behaviour), and sample (university-based, school-based or general adult population).”

In the paper

“If unwanted habitual health-risk behaviours proceed without forethought, then shifts in motivation may fail to change behaviour [33].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Verplanken B, Wood W. Interventions to break and create consumer habits. J Public Policy Mark. 2006; 25: 90–103. source

In the paper

“Estimation of typical strength of habits for specific health behaviours would be informative for intervention design, because behaviour change interventions may be most effective when tailored to habit strength of the focal behaviour [33].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Verplanken B, Wood W. Interventions to break and create consumer habits. J Public Policy Mark. 2006; 25: 90–103. source

In the paper

“Assuming the availability of 15 datasets, each with a mean within-study N of 80, and statistical significance set at 0.05, power to detect a small effect (r=0.10 [46]) using a fixed-effects model was 0.97.Assuming also high between-study heterogeneity, power to detect a small effect using random effects procedures was 0.80.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [45] Hedges LV, Pigott TD. The power of statistical tests in meta-analysis. Psychol Methods. 2001; 3: 203–217. source
• Not checked yetcites [46] Cohen J. A power primer. Psychol Bull. 1992; 112: 155–159. source

In the paper

“Thirty five percent of datasets (including published and unpublished material) were second-coded by an independent coder (PL), with 97% agreement found.”

In the paper

“On these bases, we created a dichotomous indicator of study quality for analysis of correlations, which treated studies as low quality where they were (a) cross-sectional and based on (b) selfreported and (c) typical behaviour, and all other studies as acceptable quality.”

In the paper

“A second reviewer (PL) independently filtered 20% of papers at both screening stages, and 100% agreement was found between reviewers.”

In the paper

“Additionally, forming habits for health-promoting behaviours may prevent relapse and aid maintenance of behaviour change beyond the duration of an intervention [33,35].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Verplanken B, Wood W. Interventions to break and create consumer habits. J Public Policy Mark. 2006; 25: 90–103. source
• Not checked yetcites [35] Rothman AJ, Sheeran P, Wood W. Reflective and automatic processes in the initiation and maintenance of dietary change. Ann Behav Med. 2009; 38 (S1):S4–S17 source

In the paper

“Publication bias was assessed by calculating Rosenthal's failsafe N, which estimates the number of studies needed to reduce weighted habit-behaviour correlations to statistical non-significance (p>0.05[53]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [53] Rosenthal R. Meta-analytic procedures for social research. London: Sage; 1984.

In the paper

“Applications of the SRHI have shown dietary behaviours, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours to have a habitual component for many people, with habit predicting behaviour over and above reasoned concepts such as intentions, behavioural control, attitudes, and social norms [29][30][31][32].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [29] * Gardner B. Modelling motivation and habit in stable travel mode contexts. Transport Res F – Traf. 2009; 12: 68–76. source
• Not checked yetcites [30] * Kremers SPJ, Brug J. Habit strength of physical activity and sedentary behavior among children and adolescents. Pediatr Exerc Sci. 2008; 20: 5–17. source
• Not checked yetcites [31] * De Bruijn GJ. Understanding college students' fruit consumption. Integrating habit strength in the theory of planned behaviour. Appetite. 2010; 54: 16–22. source

In the paper

“No differences were found: correlation coefficients varied by a maximum of 0.015 and subgroup analyses yielded stable results across all treatments.”

In the paper

“the small number of available studies (k=2) is likely to have underpowered heterogeneity analyses [56], and precluded calculation of failsafe Ns.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [56] * Brug J, de Vet E, de Nooijer J, Verplanken B. Predicting fruit consumption: Cognitions, intention, and habits. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2006; 38: 73–81. source

In the paper

“Additionally, all studies in which habit interacted with intention focused on intentionconcordant habits and many reported strong habit-intention correlations (e.g.[29]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [29] * Gardner B. Modelling motivation and habit in stable travel mode contexts. Transport Res F – Traf. 2009; 12: 68–76. source

In the paper

“A more comprehensive model of nutrition and activity behaviour may also require a temporal element, so as to acknowledge that frequent performance of reasoned action leads to habit formation [17,20].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Lally P, van Jaarsveld E, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed? Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 2010; 40: 998–1009. source
• Not checked yetcites [20] Lally P, Wardle J, Gardner B. Experiences of habit formation: A qualitative study. Psychol Health Med (in press)

In the paper

“The failure of intention to translate into action where habit is strong suggests that motivation change, while likely to be necessary for behaviour change, will not change unhealthful ('bad') habits, and so the cue-response association underpinning habitual action must be disrupted [33].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Verplanken B, Wood W. Interventions to break and create consumer habits. J Public Policy Mark. 2006; 25: 90–103. source

In the paper

“The predictive and explanatory utility of these models may be increased by incorporating habit as a determinant of action situated on a parallel, cue-driven pathway to behaviour and a variable which can bypass deliberation and obstruct the translation of intention into action [14,62].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [14] Strack F, Deutsch R. Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behaviour. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2004; 8: 220–47. source
• Not checked yetcites [62] Verplanken B, Aarts H, van Knippenberg A. Habit, information acquisition and the process of making travel mode choices. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 1997; 27: 539–560. source

In the paper

“This fails to acknowledge the expected temporal sequence between habit and behaviour [62], and is also conceptually problematic given that, at least in early stages of habit formation, repeated action strengthens habit [17].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [62] Verplanken B, Aarts H, van Knippenberg A. Habit, information acquisition and the process of making travel mode choices. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 1997; 27: 539–560. source
• Not checked yetcites [17] Lally P, van Jaarsveld E, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed? Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 2010; 40: 998–1009. source

In the paper

“Many of the studies used cross-sectional designs, and so modelled habit as a predictor of past behaviour.”

In the paper

“A more comprehensive understanding of nutrition and activity behaviours, and how they might be changed, will be achieved by integrating habitual responses to contextual cues into theoretical accounts of behaviour.”

In the paper

“Some SRHI items relate to behavioural frequency (e.g.'[Behaviour X…] is something I do frequently', 'is something I have been doing for a long time'), and so are likely to inflate the habit-behaviour correlation.”

In the paper

“Some researchers have removed frequency items when applying the SRHI, with no apparent losses in reliability [17,29].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Lally P, van Jaarsveld E, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed? Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J of Soc Psychol. 2010; 40: 998–1009. source
• Not checked yetcites [29] * Gardner B. Modelling motivation and habit in stable travel mode contexts. Transport Res F – Traf. 2009; 12: 68–76. source

In the paper

“Alternatively, between-study variation in habit strength may be attributable to covariates pertaining to the populations studied.”

In the paper

“Active travel habits, for example, were predominantly documented in the Netherlands, where bicycling is the main mode of transport for short journeys [65], which may make bicycle habit formation more likely.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [65] Statistics Netherlands. Kernresultaten mobiliteit [Main Results Mobility]. 7th ed. Statistics Netherlands: Voorburg; 2002, pp12-13.

In the paper

“Various subscales have been proposed, and we synthesised evidence using the 12-item SRHI for the purpose of between-study consistency.”

In the paper

“Concerns have been raised around the validity of the SRHI for modelling habit-behaviour correlations [31].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [31] * De Bruijn GJ. Understanding college students' fruit consumption. Integrating habit strength in the theory of planned behaviour. Appetite. 2010; 54: 16–22. source