Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Over the past five to six years, the prevalence of depression among adults and children has significantly increased, alongside other chronic diseases. With the expansion of digital health features in smartphones, this study aimed to evaluate their use in the digital monitoring of depression to provide a comprehensive overview.
METHODS: A literature search was conducted on Google Scholar using the keywords "depression," "smartphone," and "digital health". Variables examined included the location and size of study populations, demographic data (gender, age, ethnicity, education, and marital status), type of monitoring device, digital monitoring methods (sleep tracking, heart rate variability, movement, mood tracking, and word tracking), and clinical reporting.
RESULTS: Out of 140 scanned articles, 22 met the inclusion criteria. Most studies were published in 2024, primarily in the US, with an average population size of 465 patients. Gender and age information was included in 20 articles, ethnicity in 9, and education and marital status in 4. The predominant monitoring devices were smartphones (20), with digital monitoring methods including mood tracking (20), movement tracking (10), HRV tracking (5), word tracking (4), and sleep tracking (2). Clinical reporting was primarily conducted through questionnaires, with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 being the most commonly used.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a comprehensive overview of the digital monitoring of depression using mobile devices, highlighting a significant gap in the inclusion of demographic data, such as education and marital status, which are crucial factors influencing mental health. Further research is necessary to evaluate the impact of this gap across a broader range of studies.