Abstract
Theories of the behaviour change and health behaviour change interventions are often tested in a conventional between-participant randomized controlled trial design; however, behaviour change interventions aim to achieve within-participant change in participants who are likely to have heterogeneous and unique responses to the behavioural intervention. Theories of behaviour change also apply to individuals. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the N-of-1 method (also known as single-participant N-of-1 trial) that employs a within-participant design to test predictors of behavioural outcomes and to deliver personalized behaviour change interventions that help people form and maintain healthy habits. We show how this design can be used to explore behaviour change and habit formation theory and inform future interventions. We conclude by describing how technological and statistical advances create new opportunities for researchers and practitioners of N-of-1 method to explore healthy habits at the individual level.
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Notes
- 1.
I.e., a consecutive 30 min period with at least 24 min of moderate or vigorous physical activity.
- 2.
In the Stroop test, participants are shown words on their smartphone that appear in a colour of ink that is different from the word it names, and they are then instructed to name the colour in which the word appears rather than the colour named by the word.
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Kwasnicka, D., Konrad, B.M., Kronish, I.M., Davidson, K.W. (2018). Using N-of-1 Methods to Explore Habit Formation. In: Verplanken, B. (eds) The Psychology of Habit. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97529-0_13
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