spend too much time fiddling with your smartphone may be an indicator of depression , according to a new study put out in theJournal of Medical cyberspace Research(a issue whose articles are , wayward to expectation , not all about the hazards of WebMD ) . Northwestern University and Michigan State University researcher found they could identify mass with depression just by tracking their mobile sound usage , with an 87 percentage accuracy rate .
A group of 40 multitude inscribe from Craigslist used an app that monitored their location and phone exercise ( base on how much time the telephone ’s screen was on ) for two weeks . They also completed a questionnaire that evaluated them for symptoms of slump . At the end of the two - week period , the researchers set up that headphone usage and GPS data were better indicators of a subject ’s depression than a everyday survey that postulate the player to order their sorrow level .
Depressed topic spent an norm of 68 transactions per day on their earpiece , while non - depressed individuals pass 17 minute per day using their sound on fair . Depressed people ( half the sample distribution ) also spent clip in fewer locations , staying at house more .
There are many caveats that come along with these results . The study did n’t take into account whether the participants used their phones for study , and did n’t examine anyone under the historic period of 19 ( both groups of heavy phone user ) . Nor did it supervise whether people were using the phones to talk to their friends and kinsfolk or just playing Candy Crush . Plus , the sample was quite modest . Due to insufficient data point ( like participants who forgot to charge their phone ) , only 20 women and eight men were included in the terminal sample .
So just being on your telephone a lot might not automatically mean you ’re depressed . But it might be a warning mark , one that ’s well-situated for psychologist to implement since an app is non - invasive and , for most people , always within reach .
" People are likely , when on their phones , to avoid thinking about things that are troubling , painful opinion or hard relationships , " study co - writer David Mohr of Northwestern explains in apress release . " It ’s an avoidance behavior we see in imprint . "
