Open AccessUser profiles of an electronic mental health tool for ecological momentary assessment: MEmind
Author(s) -
Barrigón María Luisa,
Berrouiguet Sofian,
Carballo Juan José,
BonalGiménez Covadonga,
FernándezNavarro Pablo,
Pfang Bernadette,
DelgadoGómez David,
Courtet Philippe,
Aroca Fuensanta,
LopezCastroman Jorge,
ArtésRodríguez Antonio,
BacaGarcía Enrique
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of methods in psychiatric research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1557-0657
pISSN - 1049-8931
DOI - 10.1002/mpr.1554
Subject(s) - mental health , anxiety , medical diagnosis , psychiatry , confidence interval , univariate analysis , medicine , psychology , demography , multivariate analysis , pathology , sociology
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; χ 2 = 18.85; P < 0.001) and more frequently diagnosed with anxiety related disorders (57.9% versus 46.7%; χ 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%; χ 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.