There is an application for everything. Leaving the house, without their smartphones, makes the majority of people feel naked. Checking restaurants reviews, maps, cabs, movies, and about everything, using the mobile devices is something people can’t live without.
Our phones can say who we are, by checking the music we listen to, the places we visit, the browsing history and all the apps we use. But what does spending too much time on smartphones, mean?
According to a new study, published on Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, depression can be detected from a smartphone sensor data, by tracking the number of minutes a person uses his smartphone, as well as the daily locations.
Depressed People Don’t Have Energy to Be Active
When they are depressed, people tend to stay at home, having no motivation to go out. Many people use their mobile devices to avoid thinking about the things that disturb them, their feeling and relationships.
This kind of behavior is easily associated with depression. Therefore, the more time people spend on his mobile device, the more depressed they are.
Depressed Individuals Spend about 68 Minutes on Their Smartphones, Daily
The study was conducted by Northwestern University, and the researchers analyzed the GPS locations and phone usage for 28 individuals over two weeks. The sensor tracked GPS locations every five minutes.
Also, before the app started tracking them, all volunteers were asked to take a standard questionnaire. Psychologists used their answers to measure the level of depression.
According to their results, the volunteers showed signs of depression strongly connected to the time spent on their phones.
In seems that depressed individuals tend to spend an average of 68 minutes on their mobile phones while non-depressed people only use their devices for about 17 minutes.
Detecting Depressive People without Asking Questions
The study’s accuracy is quite promising for future diagnosing. With smartphones, both the type of depressive symptoms and the severity of those symptoms could be detected without having to ask people any questions.
Even if the study shows an important step in detecting early depression, researchers stated that they only tracked the time people spent on their phones, as well as the locations they used the device from. However, what the volunteers were doing, whether they were playing certain games, talking to friends or browsing the Internet was not monitored.
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How Can Smartphones Detect Depression?
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