Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based App for the Longitudinal Assessment of Anxiety in Daily Life

Lydia Fortea; Miquel Tortella-Feliu; Asier Juaneda-Seguí; Víctor De la Peña-Arteaga; Pamela Chavarría-Elizondo; Laia Prat-Torres; Carles Soriano-Mas; Sean P. Lane; Joaquim Radua; Miquel A. Fullana

doi:10.1177/10731911211065166

Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based App for the Longitudinal Assessment of Anxiety in Daily Life

Lydia Fortea, Miquel Tortella-Feliu, Asier Juaneda-Seguí, Víctor De la Peña-Arteaga, Pamela Chavarría-Elizondo, Laia Prat-Torres, Carles Soriano-Mas, Sean P. Lane, Joaquim Radua, Miquel A. Fullana^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Current methods to assess human anxiety often ignore that anxiety is a dynamic process and have limitations such as high recall bias and low generalizability to real life. Smartphone apps using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may overcome such limitations. We developed a smartphone app for the longitudinal evaluation of anxiety symptoms using EMA. We assessed the feasibility (retention and compliance) and psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the app over 6 months in a sample of 99 participants with different levels of anxiety. The EMA-based smartphone app was highly feasible. It showed excellent within-person and between-person reliability, high convergent and moderate discriminant validity, and significant incremental validity. Assessing anxiety longitudinally using a smartphone and following EMA principles is feasible and can be reliable and valid. Studies combining EMA-based anxiety longitudinal assessments with other assessment methods deserve further research and may offer novel insights into human anxiety.

Original language	English
Journal	Assessment
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911211065166
Publication status	Accepted in press - 30 Dec 2021

Keywords

anxiety
app
ecological momentary assessment
psychometrics
smartphone

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10.1177/10731911211065166

Cite this

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title = "Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based App for the Longitudinal Assessment of Anxiety in Daily Life",

abstract = "Current methods to assess human anxiety often ignore that anxiety is a dynamic process and have limitations such as high recall bias and low generalizability to real life. Smartphone apps using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may overcome such limitations. We developed a smartphone app for the longitudinal evaluation of anxiety symptoms using EMA. We assessed the feasibility (retention and compliance) and psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the app over 6 months in a sample of 99 participants with different levels of anxiety. The EMA-based smartphone app was highly feasible. It showed excellent within-person and between-person reliability, high convergent and moderate discriminant validity, and significant incremental validity. Assessing anxiety longitudinally using a smartphone and following EMA principles is feasible and can be reliable and valid. Studies combining EMA-based anxiety longitudinal assessments with other assessment methods deserve further research and may offer novel insights into human anxiety.",

keywords = "anxiety, app, ecological momentary assessment, psychometrics, smartphone",

author = "Lydia Fortea and Miquel Tortella-Feliu and Asier Juaneda-Segu{\'i} and {De la Pe{\~n}a-Arteaga}, V{\'i}ctor and Pamela Chavarr{\'i}a-Elizondo and Laia Prat-Torres and Carles Soriano-Mas and Lane, {Sean P.} and Joaquim Radua and Fullana, {Miquel A.}",

note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: M.A.F., J.R., and C.S.-M. have received support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I and co-financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)-Subdirecci{\'o}n General de Evaluaci{\'o}n and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (PI16/00144, PI19/00272, PI19/00394, CPII19/00009, PI16/00889, and PI19/01171). C.S.-M. has received research support from the Departament de Salut, Generalitat de Catalunya (PERIS SLT006/17/249), and the Ag{\`e}ncia de Gesti{\'o} d{\textquoteright}Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2017 SGR 1262). S.P.L. is supported by the National Institutes of Health through a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism R01 grant (R01 AA027264; PI: Lane/Hennes). V.d.l.P.-A. has received support from the “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434, fellowship code LCF/BQ/IN17/11620071). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2021.",

year = "2021",

month = dec,

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doi = "10.1177/10731911211065166",

language = "English",

journal = "Assessment",

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T1 - Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based App for the Longitudinal Assessment of Anxiety in Daily Life

AU - Fortea, Lydia

AU - Tortella-Feliu, Miquel

AU - Juaneda-Seguí, Asier

AU - De la Peña-Arteaga, Víctor

AU - Chavarría-Elizondo, Pamela

AU - Prat-Torres, Laia

AU - Soriano-Mas, Carles

AU - Lane, Sean P.

AU - Radua, Joaquim

AU - Fullana, Miquel A.

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: M.A.F., J.R., and C.S.-M. have received support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation integrated into the Plan Nacional de I+D+I and co-financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)-Subdirección General de Evaluación and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (PI16/00144, PI19/00272, PI19/00394, CPII19/00009, PI16/00889, and PI19/01171). C.S.-M. has received research support from the Departament de Salut, Generalitat de Catalunya (PERIS SLT006/17/249), and the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2017 SGR 1262). S.P.L. is supported by the National Institutes of Health through a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism R01 grant (R01 AA027264; PI: Lane/Hennes). V.d.l.P.-A. has received support from the “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434, fellowship code LCF/BQ/IN17/11620071). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

PY - 2021/12/30

Y1 - 2021/12/30

N2 - Current methods to assess human anxiety often ignore that anxiety is a dynamic process and have limitations such as high recall bias and low generalizability to real life. Smartphone apps using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may overcome such limitations. We developed a smartphone app for the longitudinal evaluation of anxiety symptoms using EMA. We assessed the feasibility (retention and compliance) and psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the app over 6 months in a sample of 99 participants with different levels of anxiety. The EMA-based smartphone app was highly feasible. It showed excellent within-person and between-person reliability, high convergent and moderate discriminant validity, and significant incremental validity. Assessing anxiety longitudinally using a smartphone and following EMA principles is feasible and can be reliable and valid. Studies combining EMA-based anxiety longitudinal assessments with other assessment methods deserve further research and may offer novel insights into human anxiety.

AB - Current methods to assess human anxiety often ignore that anxiety is a dynamic process and have limitations such as high recall bias and low generalizability to real life. Smartphone apps using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may overcome such limitations. We developed a smartphone app for the longitudinal evaluation of anxiety symptoms using EMA. We assessed the feasibility (retention and compliance) and psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the app over 6 months in a sample of 99 participants with different levels of anxiety. The EMA-based smartphone app was highly feasible. It showed excellent within-person and between-person reliability, high convergent and moderate discriminant validity, and significant incremental validity. Assessing anxiety longitudinally using a smartphone and following EMA principles is feasible and can be reliable and valid. Studies combining EMA-based anxiety longitudinal assessments with other assessment methods deserve further research and may offer novel insights into human anxiety.

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KW - app

KW - ecological momentary assessment

KW - psychometrics

KW - smartphone

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DO - 10.1177/10731911211065166

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AN - SCOPUS:85122131512

SN - 1073-1911

JO - Assessment

JF - Assessment

ER -

Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based App for the Longitudinal Assessment of Anxiety in Daily Life

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