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Updated: Oct 21, 2025
An Application for Pairing with Wearable Devices to Monitor Personal Health Status
Published on: February 3, 2022
Evaluation of Changes in Depression, Anxiety, and Social Anxiety Using Smartphone Sensor Features: Longitudinal
Jonah Meyerhoff1, Tony Liu2, Konrad P Kording3,4
1Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States.
Background:
The assessment of behaviors related to mental health typically relies on self-report data. Networked sensors embedded in smartphones can measure some behaviors objectively and continuously, with no ongoing effort.
Objective:
This study aims to evaluate whether changes in phone sensor-derived behavioral features were associated with subsequent changes in mental health symptoms.
Methods:
This longitudinal cohort study examined continuously collected phone sensor data and symptom severity data, collected every 3 weeks, over 16 weeks. The participants were recruited through national research registries. Primary outcomes included depression (8-item Patient Health Questionnaire), generalized anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale), and social anxiety (Social Phobia Inventory) severity. Participants were adults who owned Android smartphones. Participants clustered into 4 groups: multiple comorbidities, depression and generalized anxiety, depression and social anxiety, and minimal symptoms.
Results:
A total of 282 participants were aged 19-69 years (mean 38.9, SD 11.9 years), and the majority were female (223/282, 79.1%) and White participants (226/282, 80.1%). Among the multiple comorbidities group, depression changes were preceded by changes in GPS features (Time: r=-0.23, P=.02; Locations: r=-0.36, P<.001), exercise duration (r=0.39; P=.03) and use of active apps (r=-0.31; P<.001). Among the depression and anxiety groups, changes in depression were preceded by changes in GPS features for Locations (r=-0.20; P=.03) and Transitions (r=-0.21; P=.03). Depression changes were not related to subsequent sensor-derived features. The minimal symptoms group showed no significant relationships. There were no associations between sensor-based features and anxiety and minimal associations between sensor-based features and social anxiety.
Conclusions:
Changes in sensor-derived behavioral features are associated with subsequent depression changes, but not vice versa, suggesting a directional relationship in which changes in sensed behaviors are associated with subsequent changes in symptoms.
