Incorporating prototyping and iteration into intervention development: a case study of a dining hall-based intervention.

BACKGROUND Previous research from the fields of computer science and engineering highlight the importance of an iterative design process (IDP) to create more creative and effective solutions. OBJECTIVE This study describes IDP as a new method for developing health behavior interventions and evaluates the effectiveness of a dining hall-based intervention developed using IDP on college students' eating behavior and values. PARTICIPANTS participants were 458 students (52.6% female, age = 19.6 ± 1.5 years [M ± SD]). METHODS The intervention was developed via an IDP parallel process. A cluster-randomized controlled study compared differences in eating behavior among students in 4 university dining halls (2 intervention, 2 control). RESULTS The final intervention was a multicomponent, point-of-selection marketing campaign. Students in the intervention dining halls consumed significantly less junk food and high-fat meat and increased their perceived importance of eating a healthful diet relative to the control group. CONCLUSION IDP may be valuable for the development of behavior change interventions.