Dorien Brouwer

83 Changes in determinants of health-related behavior over time PART 1 about potential determinants such as difference between smokers and non-smokers. This study has also some limitations. First, we studied patients for a relatively short period of time. Patients are often rehabilitating longer than three months, which can cause further changes over time. Second, not all patients completed questionnaires at six weeks (n=35). Furthermore, social desirability bias during questionnaire completion may also have played a role as self-efficacy is high in these patients given our earlier study that showed that most patients do not actually change their behavior, due to the intention-behavior gap. [11, 30, 34] In summary, at present it is unclear how and at which moment patients can be best supported in health-related behavior change after TIA or ischemic stroke. Fear, self-efficacy an response-efficacy play a role in this behavior change process. We found that response efficacy and self-efficacy remain high after three months, and fear decreased significantly after six weeks. Therefore, the optimal timing of supporting patients in health-related behavior change after TIA or ischemic stroke seems to be directly after the stroke or TIA.