1990; McGettigan et al. 1997; Bracchi et al. 2005; Figueiras et al. 2006; Bäckström and Mjörndal 2006; Smits et al. 2008). Since it was not possible
to change either the social security arrangements for occupational diseases or the registry system itself and since there were no means to supply financial incentives or accreditation points to reporting OPs, we chose to focus on attention, information and feedback to improve reporting behaviour. The key objective of the intervention is behavioural change: potential reporters should start reporting and should report more often. Programs aimed at changing (health) behaviour are often based on psychological models and theories such as the health belief model, the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behaviour. In these models, a person is considered to make decisions on a rational basis: PF-6463922 concentration people will change their behaviour as soon as they are convinced that
they can execute the change and that they will benefit from it. A psychological model that looks upon behavioural change as a process in time, influenced by many factors, is the stages of change model or Trans Theoretical Model (TTM). Since the aimed ODs reporting behaviour has to be maintained for a long selleck time and is influenced by many determinants, this model may provide a suitable theoretical base for the hypotheses of this study. TTM, introduced in the early 1980s (Prochaska and Diclemente 1984), distinguishes between several stages of behaviour. The first stage being precontemplation, in which there is no awareness of a problem and an individual does not consider a change in behaviour in the next 6 months. The second stage is contemplation, in which the individual does consider a change in behaviour, followed by a preparative stage, in which the individual makes cognitive preparations for a change in behaviour. In the action stage, the individual initiates a change in behaviour, and in the maintenance
stage he or she performs the behaviour for a longer period of time. Also relapse can occur. Each stage is influenced by its own relevant stage-specific factors, clonidine like decisional balance that reflects the weighing of the importance of pro’s and con’s of a behaviour (precontemplation) or self-efficacy that reflects the situation-specific confidence people have in coping with a behaviour related situation (contemplation). Stage-specific interventions should match these stage-specific factors in order to produce progress through the stages. (Dijkstra et al. 1998, 2006; find more Gebhardt and Maes 2001; de Vet et al. 2005, 2007). Our first hypothesis is that supplying OPs, identified as precontemplators or contemplators, with personally addressed, stage-matched information on why and how to report occupational diseases, will persuade more OPs to report (more) occupational diseases to the national registry.