User profiles of an electronic mental health tool for ecological momentary assessment: MEmind

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is gaining importance in psychiatry. This article assesses the characteristics of patients who used a new electronic EMA tool: the MEmind Wellness Tracker. Over one year, 13811 adult outpatients in our Psychiatry Department were asked to use MEmind. We collected information about socio-demographic data, psychiatric diagnoses, illness severity, stressful life events and suicidal thoughts/behavior. We compared active users (N=2838) and non-active users (N=10,973) of MEmind and performed a Random Forest analysis to assess which variables could predict its use. Univariate analyses revealed that MEmind-users were younger (42.2 +/- 13.5 years versus 48.5 +/- 16.3 years; chi 2 = 18.85; P < 0.001) and more frequently diagnosed with anxiety related disorders (57.9% versus 46.7%; chi 2=105.92; P=0.000) than non-active users. They were more likely to report thoughts about death and suicide (up to 24% of active users expressed wish for death) and had experienced more stressful life events than non-active users (57% versus 48.5%; chi 2 = 64.65; P < 0.001). In the Random Forest analysis, 31 variables showed mean decrease accuracy values higher than zero with a 95% confidence interval (CI), including sex, age, suicidal thoughts, life threatening events and several diagnoses. In the light of these results, strategies to improve EMA and e-Mental Health adherence are discussed.

experience sampling methods; health records; internet; random forest analysis; smartphone; suicide; major depressive disorder; bulimia-nervosa; internet; validity; mood; life; classification; interventions; questionnaire; reliability

User profiles of an electronic mental health tool for ecological momentary assessment: MEmind Articles