Summary of key influences on behaviour

Figure 2 summarises key influences on health-related behaviours and health economic outcomes as discussed in the above sections. In Figure 2, those elements within the dark grey shading are typically included within health economic models of public health interventions, whilst those within the light grey shading are not (Bardach et al., 2019; Leao et al., 2018; Zanganeh et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2020; Kwon et al., 2022). Individual health-related behaviours span both the light and dark grey shading because they are sometimes explicitly included. There are copious amounts of information about the influences on behaviour from psychology, sociology and behavioural economics; however, understanding what evidence, theories and methods are useful (or not) for health economic modelling is not feasible within an applied research project, particularly if it is undertaken within the timeframes of a decision-making process.

Figure 2: Influences on behaviour