Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle: Psychological Interventions for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases and the Role of the Health Ecosystem

With a sustainable lifestyle change based on sufficient exercise and a balanced diet, many chronic diseases (obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome) can be alleviated, cured or their onset prevented. Those affected from chronic diseases find it difficult to change their lifestyle permanently.

Intervention programs are often not geared towards sustainable behavioral change and take too little account of the individual’s motivational factors. As a result, those affected revert to old patterns after a while. The applied research project ＂Sustainable Lifestyle Change＂, which is the subject of this book, deals with the question of how ＂sticking to＂ a healthy lifestyle can be supported from the perspective of motivational psychology and service orientation.

This specialist book is aimed at people in the healthcare sector (health psychologists, doctors, nutritionists, etc.) as well as applied researchers and explains how affected people can be supportedin ＂sticking to＂ a healthy lifestyle. There are gaps in research and practice regarding this so-called maintenance phase of a healthy lifestyle, which this book closes: What measures successfully support those affected from chronic diseases in making sustainable lifestyle changes? What is the role of motivation and motivational orientation in maintaining a healthy lifestyle? What does the maintenance phase look like and what is the customer journey of those affected? What is the role of those affected and other stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem in long-term lifestyle change? The findings are synthesized in a toolbox with recommendations for practitioners.

Prof. Dr. Adrienne Schäfer is a lecturer and project manager at the Lucerne School of Business with a focus on service management. She is project leader of the research project ＂Sustainable Lifestyle Change＂.

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Schaffner is a professor of Business Psychology at the School of Applied Psychology at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW with a focus on consumer behavior, behavior change interventions and sustainability. She is co-project leader of the research project ＂Sustainable Lifestyle Change＂.

Karina von dem Berge is a senior research associate at the Competence Center Service and Operations Management at the Lucerne School of Business and a doctoral candidate at the Cranfield School of Management.

Nora Studer is a researcher at the School of Applied Psychology at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW. She specializes in consumer decisions and sustainability.

Dr. Nico van der Heiden holds a doctorate in political science, is a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and co-director of the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) Management in the Social and Healthcare Sector and the CAS Health Communication.

Prof. Anja Zimmermann is head of the Competence Center Service and Operations Management at the Lucerne School of Business, lecturer and program director of the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) Services Marketing and Management.