The SAMS: Smartphone Addiction Management System and verification

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Mental Health Technology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Pathological smartphone use presents a significant mental health challenge.
• Traditional assessment methods (surveys, interviews) have limitations in continuous monitoring and objectivity.
• Information and Communications Technology (ICT) offers potential for improved assessment and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Smartphone Addiction Management System (SAMS) for objective assessment and intervention of smartphone addiction.
• To evaluate the reliability and efficacy of the SAMS system through comparison with traditional survey methods and field trials.

Main Methods:

• Development of SAMS, comprising an Android application for data collection (app usage, GPS, internet access) and a web server for data analysis and intervention.
• Conducting a comparative study with 14 adult users (19-50 years) using SAMS data and the Korean Smartphone Addiction Scale (K-SAS) survey.
• Performing field trials to verify data accuracy and system reliability over a minimum of two weeks.

Main Results:

• The SAMS system accurately recorded time, location, and internet access data, demonstrating reliable operation over two weeks.
• A strong positive correlation was found between the daily count of smartphone application usage and K-SAS scores (CC=0.62).
• Daily smartphone usage time showed a weak correlation with K-SAS scores (CC=0.07), particularly for potentially addicted users (p=0.047 vs p=0.507 for non-addicts).

Conclusions:

• The SAMS provides a reliable and objective method for assessing smartphone addiction.
• Daily smartphone application usage count is a more significant indicator of addiction than total usage time.
• SAMS offers a promising technological solution to overcome limitations in traditional smartphone addiction assessment and intervention.