Smartphone app to investigate the relationship between social connectivity and mental health

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a smartphone app can feasibly and acceptably collect proximity data to explore the link between social connectivity and mental health in real-world settings.

Contribution

It introduces a practical smartphone app for passive social network monitoring and assesses its feasibility and participant acceptability.

Findings

Bluetooth data reliably estimates social proximity.

Most participants found the app acceptable for data collection.

High frequency of social network scans achieved.

Abstract

Interpersonal relationships are necessary for successful daily functioning and wellbeing. Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of social connectivity for mental health, both through direct peer-to-peer influence and by the location of individuals within their social network. Passive monitoring using smartphones provides an advanced tool to map social networks based on the proximity between individuals. This study investigates the feasibility of using a smartphone app to measure and assess the relationship between social network metrics and mental health. The app collected Bluetooth and mental health data in 63 participants. Social networks of proximity were estimated from Bluetooth data and 95% of the edges were scanned at least every 30 minutes. The majority of participants found this method of data collection acceptable and reported that they would be likely to participate in future studies using this app. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using a smartphone app that participants can install on their own phone to investigate the relationship between social connectivity and mental health.