Purpose To assess changes in publications of health behavior research in leading journals across a 20-years period. Design Systematic comparative descriptive snapshot analysis of all primary research-based articles published in the 2003 and 2023 issues of five leading health behavior journals. Setting Document review. Sample Articles (n = 1207) published in the following journals in 2003 and 2023: American Journal of Health Promotion , American Journal of Preventive Medicine , Annals of Behavioral Medicine , Health Education & Behavior , and Health Psychology. Analysis T-tests and chi-squared tests were used to assess differences in publication characteristics between the 2 years. Results The number of published studies more than doubled between the two time points. Significant changes were seen between the health behavior of interest, methodology, setting, and the use of large data sets. Conclusions Compared to 2003, there were twice as many articles published in 2023. Sample sizes were larger, but cross-sectional studies still predominated. Theoretical frameworks have greatly expanded, and there were no clear preferred theories. Critical Limitations Papers were only abstracted from five journals across 2 years. Comparisons of other journals and other volumes may yield different results.
Maddock et al. (Tue,) studied this question.