Designing a mobile application for remote monitoring of depression with emphasis on behavioral activation and mobile sensing

Abstract

Introduction: Smartphones have created a practical opportunity to explore new ways to monitor, treat and study mental health and psychiatry, especially in domain of depression. Objective: the purpose of this study was to design and test a smartphone application with emphasis on sensing by mobile sensors and behavioral activation. Methods and Materials: The present study is a multidisciplinary study in the form of three objectives. First, a systematic review of 9 databases was performed to find the most frequent and most useful smart phone sensing approaches and their related sensed parameters. Then the opinions of 13 mental health experts were asked to select the sensors used in the application using a researcher-made questionnaire. In the next step, the requirements of the application were determined based on the results of both the systematic review and the opinions of the experts. Finally the application was designed and tested by using the black box performance testing method. Results: The findings of the systematic review finally included 44 studies, according to which GPS, accelerometer and telephone use had the highest frequency in the studies. After taking the opinions of mental health experts, the characteristics of staying at home, brightness of the phone screen, ambient sound, number of steps, number of calls, number of messages sent and the use of social networks were used in designing the application (i-monitor). The application was designed based on the three components of mobile sensing by smartphone, behavioral activation and PHQ-9 questionnaire. Finally, the application was tested by a medical IT specialist, a software expert and a health psychologist. Three of them confirmed the correct operation of the application and the results of testing were highly satisfactory. Conclusion: Considering three components of mobile sensing, PHQ-9 tool and behvioral activation in the current app may facilitate the process of telemonitoring the sataus of patient with depression.This application has potential in improving care for patients with depression through opening new tool for better communication between the patients and health care provide.