The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93 Hierarchically Clustered Techniques: Building an International Consensus for the Reporting of Behavior Change Interventions

TLDR

CONSORT guidelines demand precise reporting of behavior‑change interventions, highlighting the need for rigorous methods to characterize their active content. This study aims to create an extensive, consensually agreed, hierarchically structured taxonomy of 93 behavior‑change techniques (BCTs). Using a Delphi‑type exercise, 14 experts rated labels and definitions of 124 BCTs from six classification systems, 18 experts grouped them by active ingredients, and inter‑rater agreement on 85 intervention descriptions produced 93 BCTs clustered into 16 groups. The resulting taxonomy of 93 BCTs clustered into 16 groups, with 23 of the 26 most frequent BCTs achieving adjusted kappas ≥0.60, offering a step change for specifying interventions and indicating the need for further development.

Abstract

CONSORT guidelines call for precise reporting of behavior change interventions: we need rigorous methods of characterizing active content of interventions with precision and specificity.The objective of this study is to develop an extensive, consensually agreed hierarchically structured taxonomy of techniques [behavior change techniques (BCTs)] used in behavior change interventions.In a Delphi-type exercise, 14 experts rated labels and definitions of 124 BCTs from six published classification systems. Another 18 experts grouped BCTs according to similarity of active ingredients in an open-sort task. Inter-rater agreement amongst six researchers coding 85 intervention descriptions by BCTs was assessed.This resulted in 93 BCTs clustered into 16 groups. Of the 26 BCTs occurring at least five times, 23 had adjusted kappas of 0.60 or above."BCT taxonomy v1," an extensive taxonomy of 93 consensually agreed, distinct BCTs, offers a step change as a method for specifying interventions, but we anticipate further development and evaluation based on international, interdisciplinary consensus.