Carson Nicholas J, Cortés Dharma E, Williams Peyton, Odayar Varshini, Gonzalez Lecsy, Schlossberg Eric, Xie Lily, Holmes Katie E, Holmes Michelle D, Williams David R, Reid Todd G
Health Equity Research Lab, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Mhealth. 2025 Mar 21;11:15. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-24-39. eCollection 2025.
Youth from racial and ethnic minoritized groups have experienced an increase in suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in recent years. Mobile health technology (mHealth) and digital phenotyping hold promise as means to measure STBs and related risk factors in these groups. Such tools are more likely to be successful when designed with input from the youth and caregivers who will use the technology. This study aimed to refine a digital phenotyping smartphone application, GeoMood, customized to measure STBs and relevant risk factors, such as family conflict and experiences of discrimination. The app was designed to collect passive data from smartphones (e.g., location, phone usage), as well as short-response survey data via ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) to further understand digital phenotypes of STBs.
We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with five youths of color and five caregivers to obtain feedback and refine the smartphone application, GeoMood. The ultimate goal of the interviews was to assess the app's potential acceptability from the two sets of users for whom the app was developed. Both youth and caregivers reviewed the youth version, which differs from the caregiver version content by the inclusion of items addressing suicidal behavior. Interviews were analyzed using a qualitative manifest analytic approach.
Youth found the app to be an acceptable tool for measuring STBs. Caregivers were concerned about assessing self-injury explicitly.
Youth and caregiver feedback confirms openness by participating youth to using mHealth tools for measurement of STBs, but caregivers experience hesitation with the direct questions of such tools. Feedback was useful in refining the mobile tool and suggests multimodal assessment (text and emoji prompts) may appeal to users. Results from this study may improve the acceptability of future apps designed to measure and address disparities among particularly vulnerable groups of youth.
近年来，来自少数族裔群体的青少年自杀念头和行为（STB）呈上升趋势。移动健康技术（mHealth）和数字表型分析有望成为测量这些群体中STB及相关风险因素的手段。当这些工具在设计时融入将使用该技术的青少年及其照顾者的意见时，更有可能取得成功。本研究旨在完善一款数字表型分析智能手机应用程序GeoMood，该应用程序专为测量STB及相关风险因素（如家庭冲突和歧视经历）而定制。该应用程序旨在从智能手机收集被动数据（例如位置、手机使用情况），并通过生态瞬时评估（EMA）收集短回复调查数据，以进一步了解STB的数字表型。
我们对五名有色人种青少年和五名照顾者进行了半结构化定性访谈，以获取反馈并完善智能手机应用程序GeoMood。访谈的最终目标是评估该应用程序对两组目标用户的潜在可接受性。青少年和照顾者都查看了青少年版，该版本与照顾者版内容的不同之处在于包含了涉及自杀行为的项目。使用定性显性分析方法对访谈进行了分析。
青少年认为该应用程序是测量STB的可接受工具。照顾者担心明确评估自我伤害行为。
青少年和照顾者的反馈证实，参与研究的青少年对使用mHealth工具测量STB持开放态度，但照顾者对这类工具的直接问题有所犹豫。反馈对于完善移动工具很有用，并表明多模式评估（文本和表情符号提示）可能会吸引用户。本研究结果可能会提高未来旨在测量和解决特别脆弱青少年群体之间差异的应用程序的可接受性。
