JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Psychiatry research has begun to leverage data collected from patient social media and smartphone use. Yet, information regarding the feasibility of utilizing such data in an outpatient setting, as well as information regarding the acceptability of such data in research and practice, is limited.

Objective:

This study aimed to understand outpatient willingness to have information from their social media posts and their smartphones used for clinical or research purposes.

Methods:

In this survey study, we surveyed patients (N=238) in an outpatient clinic waiting room. Willingness to share social media and passive smartphone data were summarized for the sample as a whole and broken down by sex, age, and race.

Results:

The majority of patients who had a social media account and who were receiving talk therapy treatment (74.4%) indicated that they would be willing to share their social media posts with their therapists. The percentage of patients willing to share passive smartphone data with researchers varied from 40% to 60% depending on the parameter, with sleep duration being the parameter with the highest percent of patients willing to share. A total of 30.9% of patients indicated that Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica privacy breach made them more hesitant about sharing passive smartphone data with researchers. Gender and race were associated with willingness to share smartphone data, with men and whites being most willing to share.

Conclusions:

Our results indicate that the majority of patients in an outpatient psychiatry setting would share social media and passive smartphone data, and that further research elucidating patterns of willingness to share passive data is needed.