Smartphone app to investigate the relationship between social connectivity and mental health
Open accessAbstract
Interpersonal relationships are necessary for successful daily functioning and wellbeing. Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of social connectivity for mental health, both through direct peer-to-peer influence and by the location of individuals within their social network. Passive monitoring using smartphones provides an advanced tool to map social networks based on the proximity between individuals. This study investigates the feasibility of using a smartphone app to measure and assess the relationship between social network metrics and mental health. The app collected Bluetooth and mental health data in 63 participants. Social networks of proximity were estimated from Bluetooth data and 95% of the edges were scanned at least every 30 minutes. The majority of participants found this method of data collection acceptable and reported that they would be likely to participate in future studies using this app. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using a smartphone app that participants can install on their own phone to investigate the relationship between social connectivity and mental health.
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Studies on depression and behaviors/statuses relied on participant self-report, which is susceptible to recall bias and typically does not capture dynamic information.
“Although these findings have been replicated in different populations, these studies relied on participant self-report, which is susceptible to recall bias and typically does not capture dynamic information [5].”
Boonstra et al illustrated the feasibility of collecting nearby Bluetooth device information for the depression recognition task, but they did not provide further findings.
“Boonstra et al illustrated the feasibility of collecting nearby Bluetooth device information for the depression recognition task, but they did not provide further findings [5].”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
From Treatment to Healing:Envisioning a Decolonial Digital Mental Health
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- Authors
- Boonstra, T. W., Werner-Seidler, A., O'Dea, B., Larsen, M. E., & Christensen, H.
- Affiliations
- Black Dog Institute (AU)
- ORCID
- Boonstra, Tjeerd W.
- Venue
- 2017 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2017-07
- Volume
- 2017
- Pages
- 287-290
- ISSN
- 2375-7477 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2592377768
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 3.46
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Health and Medical Research Council (1042580)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
- Keywords
- social connectedness, mental health, mobile application, social network mapping, interpersonal relationships, passive monitoring, feasibility, participant acceptability, social network metrics
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Data Collection, Humans, Mental Health, Mobile Applications
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