Practical problems and positive experiences with ecological momentary assessment: reflections from people who use...

Background: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is an increasingly popular and feasible form of data collection, but it can be intensive and intrusive. Especially for at-risk, vulnerable populations like people who use drugs (PWUD), poor experiences with EMA may exacerbate existing chronic struggles while decreasing response rates. However, little research queries participants' experiences with EMA studies.Objectives: We explore participants' positive and negative experiences with EMA, identifying what they liked about the study, the problems they experienced, and suggested solutions to these problems.Methods: Results come from semi-structured interviews from 26 PWUD (6 women; 20 men) in Nebraska who participated in a two-week EMA pilot study on drug use with a study-provided smartphone. Participant responses were recorded by interviewers into open-text fields in Qualtrics. Data were analyzed with an iterative open coding procedure.Results: We found that many participants enjoyed the study and seamlessly incorporated the phone into their daily lives. There were a number of negative study aspects identified, however, as many participants experienced functional issues (e.g., running out of high-speed data, trouble keeping the phone charged, not able to answer questions within the two-hour timeframe) that detracted from their experience, especially if they were homeless.Conclusion: Our findings provide methodological considerations for studies with EMA components among at-risk, vulnerable populations, like PWUD. These suggestions are targeted toward the continued ethical collection of high-quality data in clinical and non-clinical settings.