Objective Assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with QbMobile: A Smartphone Application for Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Digital mental health
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Psychometric testing

Background:

• Digital mental health interventions are increasingly used for clinical assessment.
• QbMobile is a smartphone application designed for objective assessment of ADHD symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if QbMobile can objectively quantify symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention.
• To determine if QbMobile can reveal significant clinical differences between ADHD and normative populations.

Main Methods:

• Data collected from observational studies in Europe and the US (ages 6-60).
• Participants performed a tapping task on a smartphone while their physical activity was captured.
• A pooled dataset was used to validate QbMobile output parameters, calculating a Total Score.

Main Results:

• The ADHD cohort (n=63) had a significantly higher mean Total Score (83.0) than the normative population (n=354, 48.9) (p<0.001).
• Significant differences were found in movement, activity, impulsivity, and inattention scores between groups (p<0.001).
• Overall sensitivity was 0.86 and specificity was 0.75, with lower specificity in children.

Conclusions:

• QbMobile effectively generates objective measurements that distinguish between ADHD and normative groups.
• The application shows potential as an accessible tool for streamlining ADHD diagnosis and treatment evaluation.
• Further validation studies are recommended for diverse populations.