Korean longitudinal study on digitally optimized mental healthcare: a cohort profile

The Korean Longitudinal Study on Digitally Optimized Mental Healthcare is an innovative multicenter trial-ready cohort study. It aims to develop a digitally integrated mental healthcare platform that integrates robots, artificial intelligence, and local community services. A total of 3,100 participants, including 1,000 from the previous Chungnam Province cohort and 700 each from Chungnam, Gangwon, and Daegu, will be recruited between December 2024 and the end of 2027. Sociodemographic factors and physical health data are collected at enrollment using questionnaires. Every four months, formal tools are used to conduct psychiatric diagnoses and determine participants' mental health condition, such as depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, suicidality, stress, insomnia, loneliness, quality of life, and disability. We assessed smartphone overdependence at regular intervals. Passive data on phone usage, life patterns, and health monitoring from a smart band are collected in real time. Weekly ecological momentary assessments monitor daily life and mood and detect risk situations early. A subset of 500 participants engages in a Living Lab, collecting multi-modal data through robots and sleep radar sensors while evaluating the usability of and satisfaction with these devices. This study will show how tailored digital applications and web-based platforms can facilitate personalized self-help interventions, enhance expert-user interaction, and promote active user engagement. This approach can potentially reduce stigma and improve public awareness of mental healthcare by shifting from a treatment-centered model to a community-based prevention framework.