Facilitating assessment of symptoms and behaviors using a smartphone application to identify at-risk sailors

During deployments, Navy personnel have reported concerning levels of mental health symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation. Upstream efforts are needed to identify and mitigate symptoms, thereby, reducing the risk of suicide. Based on recent advances, research suggests that phone-based applications can be used to identify those at risk and facilitate treatment engagement. Toward this end, using a randomized controlled trial design, members of this study team: (a) evaluated the feasibility (application download/use and technical challenges) and acceptability (satisfaction) of the Cogito Companion phone application among a cohort of Naval personnel; (b) longitudinally characterized time to risk identification by cohort (Cogito/Active Control); and (c) identified patterns of symptoms (distress, depressive, posttraumatic, suicide-related thoughts, and mental and physical health functioning) over time and by study group. Two hundred seventy-nine Active Duty Navy personnel were enrolled and randomized, with 139 participants being randomized to Cogito and 140 to the Active Control arm. Findings suggested that those in the Cogito group were outreached more quickly than those in the Active Control group, highlighting the potential utility of employing technology to identify those at risk. However, there were significant feasibility issues in terms of implementing Cogito among Naval personnel on Active Duty. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the proportion of serial self-report measures completed between those randomized to Cogito versus the Active Control, highlighting that, at present, implementing serial self-report measures may be a more feasible strategy to identify those at potential risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).