An alternative goal-setting technique for addictive behaviour interventions: The Chronos Approach

Psychological interventions for addictive behaviours (i.e., alcohol, smoking, gambling) typically focus on reducing the frequency of that target behaviour. Individuals generally set a "count goal" and then monitor the frequency of these behaviours via a process of counting/recording (i.e., number of alcoholic drinks, number of dollars gambled). We argue that this approach, although a key feature of interventions, presents a range of challenges, including: confusion regarding what constitutes a count; remembering to keep count; and remembering to stop at a certain count. We argue that these inherent features of "count goals" may serve to undermine treatment effectiveness for addictive behaviours and potentially other behaviour change interventions. Furthermore, given counting of specific behaviours occurs frequently within digital interventions (e.g., steps, cigarettes, drinks), these issues may be further exacerbated within mHealth (interventions delivered through mobile digital devices). In this article, we offer an alternative to setting "count goals" as part of a behavioural intervention. This approach directly limits a problem behaviour by constraining the time period, and rate of that behaviour, with no requirement to count or record the frequency of the behaviour-we refer to this as the "Chronos Approach." We suggest that this approach lends itself particularly well to mHealth interventions, whereby daily reminders and timed alerts can be easily programmed into a smartphone. We discuss the advantages of this method and illustrate how it can be effectively incorporated into mHealth behaviour interventions, providing a specific example of an alcohol reduction smartphone app wherein the Chronos Approach has been implemented.