From Accelerometers to Androids: Design and Analytic Issues in Mobile Phone--Based Health Studies

• Activity Number: 198
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Warren Comulada*+
• Companies: UCLA Center for Community Health
• Keywords: mHealth ; mobile phone ; longitudinal study ; self-monitoring ; behavioral intervention

Abstract

Using mobile phones for self-monitoring of health behaviors and intervention delivery is a cornerstone of future population health. While advances in mobile technology (e.g., in the ability to detect motion and location) and the proliferation of mobile phone--based research are moving us toward that goal, many challenges remain. Statisticians are often at the forefront of these challenges in operationalizing health-related measures for mobile assessment, protecting sensitive electronic data, crafting IRB-friendly data protocols, and analyzing mobile data that often consist of many data points due to daily assessment across numerous measures. In addition, there is often interest in examining agreement between mobile data and retrospective recall or biomarker data; longitudinal analyses are complicated further. In this roundtable, I will discuss my experiences in dealing with these issues across several mobile studies, including a pilot that assessed mood, diet, and exercise in young mothers and a pilot that assessed sexual behavior and drug use in HIV-positive individuals. I look forward to discussing these issues with other researchers interested in mobile technologies.