Open AccessEcological momentary assessment of mood and movement with bipolar disorder over time: Participant recruitment and efficacy of study methods
Author(s) -
O’Rourke Norm,
Sixsmith Andrew
Publication year - 2021
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.1895
Subject(s) - mood , bipolar disorder , mania , depression (economics) , psychology , cognition , quality of life (healthcare) , psychiatry , clinical psychology , ecological validity , ambulatory , medicine , psychotherapist , economics , macroeconomics
Objectives Mobile technology and ambulatory research tools enable the study of human experience in vivo, when and where it occurs. This includes cognitive processes that cannot be directly measured or observed (e.g., emotion) but can be reported in the moment when prompted. Methods For the Bipolar Affective Disorder and older Adults (BADAS) Study, 50 participants were randomly prompted twice daily to complete brief smartphone questionnaires. This included the Bipolar Disorder Symptom Scale which was developed to briefly measure symptoms of both depression (cognitive and somatic) and hypo/mania (affrontive symptoms and elation/loss of insight). Participants could also submit voluntary or unsolicited app responses anytime; all were time‐ and GPS‐stamped. Herein, we describe BADAS study methods that enabled effective recruitment, adherence and retention. Results We collected 9600 app responses over 2 year, for an average response rate of 1.4×/day. Over an average of 145 consecutive days (range 2–435 days), BADAS participants reported depression and hypo/mania symptom levels (a.m. and p.m.), sleep quality (a.m.), medication adherence (a.m.) and any significant events of the day (p.m.). They received $1/day for the first 90 days after submitting both a.m. and p.m. questionnaires. Conclusion BADAS study methods demonstrates the utility of ecological momentary assessment in longitudinal psychiatric research.