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Increased Time SPNT at Home Predicted Next-Week Suicidal Thoughts or Behaviors in High-Tens, Suggesting Smartphone GPS Date May Aid Suicide Prevention.
More time spent at home, compred with an adolescent’s usual pattern, was associated with increeded risk for suicidal thoughs and behaviors among high-risk youths over the next week, according to a study published in Jama Network Open.
Researchers Captured Adolescents’ Geolocation Metrics Through an App Installed on Their Smartphones.
“Acquiring Passive Sensor Data Through Personal Smartphones Holds Promise to Monitor Risk and To Deliver Timely Interventions, Ownership of These Devices Is Nearly Ubiques,” Wrote Author Author Randy P. Aerbach, PhDand Colleagues.
The Case Series Study Included 186 High-Risk Adolescents, AGED 13 to 18 Years, with a current affective or substance use disorder. Participants Were Recrured from the Greater New York City and Pittsburgh Communities, with recruitment oversampling for suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors.
The Effortless Assessment Research System App Ussed the Global Positioning System (GPS) To Continously Record Geolocation Metrics Over the Course of 6 Months. In Addition, The App Assessed Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors Through a Weekly User Prompt. IF Participants Reported Frequent Suicide Ideation, Suicide Plan, or Suicide Attempt, The Clinical Staff Made Contact to Assess Safety and Bridge to Emergency Services when necessary.
Researchers then Investigated Date to See WHETHER ANY GEOLOCATION Features, Such As Entropy, Homestay, or Distance Traveled, Were Associated with Next-WEEK SUICIDE Events or Ideation in Teens.
“Increased Homestay on a Given Week, but not entropy or distance traveled, Was Associated with a near 2-Fold Greater Risk in the Occurence of Suicidal Events in the Subsequent Week,” They Reported. “Analyses Also Corroborated the Association Between Homestay and Suicidal Events in the Same Week, Suggesting Temporal Specity in That Homestay 2 or More Weeks Prior Was Not Associated with Suicidal Events.”
Leave-Future-Out Validation Approach, However, Found Only Modest Accuracy for the Homestay Model. The Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve Was 0.64.
“Although Accuracy was modest, These Findings Offings A Novel Starting Point for Suicide Prevention Research,” Researchers Wrote, “Particularly As Smartphone Sensor Data May Have the Identify Who is at Risk Who Also Providing An Opportunity to Deliver Clinical Tools when Risk Is Risk Is Greatest. ”
