The development of computer-generated tailored interventions

Tailoring information to individual characteristics of a person is a promis ing line of development of self-help interventions. This article presents a three-phase methodology for developing computer-generated tailored interve ntions. The first phase of the development concerns the formulation of inte rvention objectives on the basis of analyses of the cognitive determinants of behavior. The second phase concerns the core of the development of a tai lored intervention. For each objective, a so-called tailoring matrix is dev eloped which specifies the individual characteristics to which the message will be adapted to. The tailoring matrices are the basis of the tailored me ssages and the tailoring questionnaire which will assess the individual cha racteristics. In the third phase, all the separately written messages must be integrated to one coherent intervention text and the lay-out is designed . This methodology may result in largely different tailored interventions d epending on the theoretical framework used, the adaptation of the messages and the inclusion of feedback. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All r ights reserved.