{"doi":"10.2196/22844","title":"Evaluation of Changes in Depression, Anxiety, and Social Anxiety Using Smartphone Sensor Features: Longitudinal Cohort Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The assessment of behaviors related to mental health typically relies on self-report data. Networked sensors embedded in smartphones can measure some behaviors objectively and continuously, with no ongoing effort. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate whether changes in phone sensor-derived behavioral features were associated with subsequent changes in mental health symptoms. METHODS: This longitudinal cohort study examined continuously collected phone sensor data and symptom severity data, collected every 3 weeks, over 16 weeks. The participants were recruited through national research registries. Primary outcomes included depression (8-item Patient Health Questionnaire), generalized anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale), and social anxiety (Social Phobia Inventory) severity. Participants were adults who owned Android smartphones. Participants clustered into 4 groups: multiple comorbidities, depression and generalized anxiety, depression and social anxiety, and minimal symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 282 participants were aged 19-69 years (mean 38.9, SD 11.9 years), and the majority were female (223/282, 79.1%) and White participants (226/282, 80.1%). Among the multiple comorbidities group, depression changes were preceded by changes in GPS features (Time: r=-0.23, P=.02; Locations: r=-0.36, P<.001), exercise duration (r=0.39; P=.03) and use of active apps (r=-0.31; P<.001). Among the depression and anxiety groups, changes in depression were preceded by changes in GPS features for Locations (r=-0.20; P=.03) and Transitions (r=-0.21; P=.03). Depression changes were not related to subsequent sensor-derived features. The minimal symptoms group showed no significant relationships. There were no associations between sensor-based features and anxiety and minimal associations between sensor-based features and social anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in sensor-derived behavioral features are associated with subsequent depression changes, but not vice versa, suggesting a directional relationship in which changes in sensed behaviors are associated with subsequent changes in symptoms.","journal":"Journal of Medical Internet Research","year":2021,"id":151007,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":87,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9583,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":641955,"name":"Tony Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-3707-3989","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235163,"name":"Konrad P. Körding","orcid":"0000-0001-8408-4499","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15862,"name":"Lyle Ungar","orcid":"0000-0003-2047-1443","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337075,"name":"Susan M. Kaiser","orcid":"0000-0002-5749-2072","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":423806,"name":"Chris Karr","orcid":"0000-0003-1828-4497","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":238202,"name":"David C. Mohr","orcid":"0000-0002-5443-7596","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":641954,"name":"Jonah Meyerhoff","orcid":"0000-0001-5149-7959","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":48,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:43:11.293086Z","pmid":"34477562","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}