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Any Artificial Intelligence Tool Use Experience and Depression-Anxiety Symptom Profiles Among Rural University
Keren Zhou1, Yi Zhang2, Yuxin Yang3
1School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325000, People's Republic of China.
Purpose:
Associations of artificial intelligence (AI) tool use with concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms among rural university students remain uncertain. We explored associations of any AI tool use experience with depression-anxiety symptom profiles.
Methods:
This cross-sectional survey included 1529 students with rural household registration from three universities in Zhejiang, China. GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores informed latent profile analysis; five conceptually ordered multinomial models compared profile membership with the low-symptom profile.
Results:
The profiles comprised low symptoms (n=896; 58.6%), anxiety-predominant symptoms (n=587; 38.4%), and depression-predominant symptoms (n=46; 3.0%). In the reported fully adjusted model, AI use experience was associated with lower odds of anxiety-predominant membership (OR=0.764, 95% CI 0.654-0.893) and depression-predominant membership (OR=0.239, 95% CI 0.101-0.566) compared with low-symptom membership.
Conclusion:
AI use experience and symptom patterns were associated in this exploratory sample. These observations warrant longitudinal assessment with more detailed measures of AI engagement.