JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Even the same psychological disorders present themselves differently among individuals, underscoring the need for a personalized model approach to the study of psychopathology. Emerging adulthood is a developmental phase wherein individuals experience unique vulnerability to the development of psychopathology given their exposure to repeated stressors and their disruptions in routine, making them a population worthy of investigation.

Objective:

This prospective study aims to leverage multi-modal assessments to examine the feasibility of an individualized approach to understanding contextual factors relevant to changes in daily affect, sleep, physiology, and activities in the service of predicting changes in mental health.

Methods:

Recruited participants will be monitored for a period of time (between 3 and 12 months). Participants will download the Personicle application on their smartphone to track activities (e.g. home events, cycling) and be given wearable sensor devices to wear continuously (monitors sleep, physiology, and physical activity). They will be asked to report daily mood and complete weekly open-ended text responses as well as a battery of questionnaires every 3 months.

Results:

Our study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board and is currently undergoing data collection. Adjustments were made due to the COVID-19 pandemic to enable remote data collection and assess for COVID-19-related stress.

Conclusions:

This study will help advance the research of individualized approaches to understanding health and well-being through multi-modal systems and will demonstrate the benefit of using such approaches to study interrelations between stress, social relationships, technology and mental health.