Beliefs Underlying the Decision to Eat Breakfast: The Role of Theory-based Behavioral Analysis in the Development of Policy, Communication and Educational Interventions for Healthy Eating.

Policy, communication, and education efforts to influence any social or health outcome are more effective if based on an understanding of the underlying behaviors and their determinants. This conceptual paper outlines how behavioral theory can help design interventions for one healthy eating behavior, eating breakfast. More specifically, the paper illustrates how a prominent health behavior theory, the Reasoned Action Approach, can be used to guide formative research to identify factors underlying people's decisions.