Automated Monitoring of Suicidal Adolescents’ Digital Media Use: Qualitative Study Exploring Acceptability Within Clinical Care

Background Monitoring linguistic cues from adolescents’ digital media use (DMU; ie, digital content transmitted on the web, such as through text messages or social media) that could denote suicidal risk offers a unique opportunity to protect adolescents vulnerable to suicide, the second leading cause of death among youth. Adolescents communicate through digital media in high volumes and frequently express emotionality. In fact, web-based disclosures of suicidality are more common than in-person disclosures. The use of automated methods of digital media monitoring triggered by a natural language processing algorithm offers the potential to detect suicidal risk from subtle linguistic units (eg, negatively valanced words, phrases, or emoticons known to be associated with suicidality) present within adolescents’ digital media content and to use this information to respond to alerts of suicidal risk. Critical to the implementation of such an approach is the consideration of its acceptability in the clinical care of adolescents at high risk of suicide. Objective Through data collection among recently suicidal adolescents, parents, and clinicians, this study examines the current context of digital media monitoring for suicidal adolescents seeking clinical care to inform the need for automated monitoring and the factors that influence the acceptance of automated monitoring of suicidal adolescents’ DMU within clinical care. Methods A total of 15 recently suicidal adolescents (aged 13-17 years), 12 parents, and 10 clinicians participated in focus groups, qualitative interviews, and a group discussion, respectively. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Participants described important challenges to the current strategies for monitoring the DMU of suicidal youth. They felt that automated monitoring would have advantages over current monitoring approaches, namely, by protecting web-based environments and aiding adolescent disclosure and support seeking about web-based suicidal risk communication, which may otherwise go unnoticed. However, they identified barriers that could impede implementation within clinical care, namely, adolescents’ and parents’ concerns about unintended consequences of automated monitoring, that is, the potential for loss of privacy or false alerts, and clinicians’ concerns about liability to respond to alerts of suicidal risk. On the basis of the needs and preferences of adolescents, parents, and clinicians, a model for automated digital media monitoring is presented that aims to optimize acceptability within clinical care for suicidal youth. Conclusions Automated digital media monitoring offers a promising means to augment detection and response to suicidal risk within the clinical care of suicidal youth when strategies that address the preferences of adolescents, parents, and clinicians are in place.

Download Full-text

Automated Monitoring of Suicidal Adolescents’ Digital Media Use: Qualitative Study Exploring Acceptability Within Clinical Care (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.26031 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Candice Biernesser ◽

Jamie Zelazny ◽

David Brent ◽

Todd Bear ◽

Christina Mair ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Language Processing ◽

Media Use ◽

Clinical Care ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Text Messages ◽

Suicidal Risk ◽

Web Based ◽

Automated Monitoring ◽

Media Monitoring

BACKGROUND Monitoring linguistic cues from adolescents’ digital media use (DMU; ie, digital content transmitted on the web, such as through text messages or social media) that could denote suicidal risk offers a unique opportunity to protect adolescents vulnerable to suicide, the second leading cause of death among youth. Adolescents communicate through digital media in high volumes and frequently express emotionality. In fact, web-based disclosures of suicidality are more common than in-person disclosures. The use of automated methods of digital media monitoring triggered by a natural language processing algorithm offers the potential to detect suicidal risk from subtle linguistic units (eg, negatively valanced words, phrases, or emoticons known to be associated with suicidality) present within adolescents’ digital media content and to use this information to respond to alerts of suicidal risk. Critical to the implementation of such an approach is the consideration of its acceptability in the clinical care of adolescents at high risk of suicide. OBJECTIVE Through data collection among recently suicidal adolescents, parents, and clinicians, this study examines the current context of digital media monitoring for suicidal adolescents seeking clinical care to inform the need for automated monitoring and the factors that influence the acceptance of automated monitoring of suicidal adolescents’ DMU within clinical care. METHODS A total of 15 recently suicidal adolescents (aged 13-17 years), 12 parents, and 10 clinicians participated in focus groups, qualitative interviews, and a group discussion, respectively. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS Participants described important challenges to the current strategies for monitoring the DMU of suicidal youth. They felt that automated monitoring would have advantages over current monitoring approaches, namely, by protecting web-based environments and aiding adolescent disclosure and support seeking about web-based suicidal risk communication, which may otherwise go unnoticed. However, they identified barriers that could impede implementation within clinical care, namely, adolescents’ and parents’ concerns about unintended consequences of automated monitoring, that is, the potential for loss of privacy or false alerts, and clinicians’ concerns about liability to respond to alerts of suicidal risk. On the basis of the needs and preferences of adolescents, parents, and clinicians, a model for automated digital media monitoring is presented that aims to optimize acceptability within clinical care for suicidal youth. CONCLUSIONS Automated digital media monitoring offers a promising means to augment detection and response to suicidal risk within the clinical care of suicidal youth when strategies that address the preferences of adolescents, parents, and clinicians are in place.

Download Full-text

Physical Activity Among Preadolescents Modifies the Long-Term Association Between Sedentary Time Spent Using Digital Media and the Increased Risk of Being Overweight

Journal of Physical Activity and Health ◽

10.1123/jpah.2021-0163 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Elina Engberg ◽

Marja H. Leppänen ◽

Catharina Sarkkola ◽

Heli Viljakainen

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Digital Media ◽

Leisure Time ◽

Media Use ◽

Leisure Time Physical Activity ◽

Normal Weight ◽

Web Based ◽

Increased Risk

Background: This study aimed to examine whether sedentary digital media use in preadolescence increases the risk of being overweight 3 years later, and whether this association differs based on preadolescents’ leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) levels. Methods: The authors conducted a 3-year follow-up study among 4661 participants with a mean (SD) age of 11 (1) years at baseline and 14 (1) years at follow-up. A web-based questionnaire assessed sedentary digital media use and LTPA. The authors categorized baseline LTPA duration into 3 levels: 0 to 5 (low), 6 to 8 (moderate), and ≥9 (high) hours per week. In addition, the authors categorized adolescents as normal weight or overweight/obese at follow-up. Results: Greater amounts of sedentary digital media use at baseline associated with an increased risk of being overweight 3 years later even after adjusting for confounders. This only held for preadolescents with low baseline LTPA (OR = 1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.24), but not among those with moderate (OR = 1.02; 0.91–1.15) or high (OR = 0.96; 0.85–1.08) LTPA. Conclusions: Preadolescent LTPA modified the long-term association between sedentary digital media use and being overweight; specifically, 6 hours per week or more of LTPA mitigated the increased risk of being overweight associated with higher amounts of digital media use.

Download Full-text

Examining Changes in Problematic Internet Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An App-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Youth in Outpatient Mental Health Treatment (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.33114 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Meredith Gansner ◽

Melanie Nisenson ◽

Vanessa Lin ◽

Sovannarath Pong ◽

John Torous ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Digital Media ◽

Mental Health Treatment ◽

Screen Time ◽

Media Use ◽

Clinical Care ◽

Health Treatment ◽

Outpatient Mental Health ◽

Clinically Significant ◽

Ecological Momentary

BACKGROUND Youth with existing psychiatric illness are more apt to use the Internet as a coping skill. Because many “in-person” coping skills were not easily accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, youth in outpatient mental health treatment may have been particularly vulnerable to the development of problematic Internet use, or PIU. Identification of a pandemic-associated worsening of PIU in this population is critical in order to guide clinical care; if these youth have become dependent upon the Internet to regulate their negative emotions, PIU must be addressed as part of mental health treatment. However, many existing studies of youth digital media use in the pandemic do not include youth in psychiatric treatment, or are reliant upon cross-sectional methodology and self-report measures of digital media use. OBJECTIVE This study pilots use of an app-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol to investigate potential pandemic-associated changes in digital media use in cohorts of youth in outpatient mental health treatment before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analyses assess for differences in digital media use dependent upon personal and familial COVID-19 exposure and familial hospitalization, as well as factors associated with PIU in this population. METHODS Participants were aged 12-23 and receiving mental health treatment in an outpatient community hospital setting. All participants completed a six-week daily EMA protocol on their personal smartphones. Questions asked about depression (PHQ-8), anxiety (GAD-7), and PIU (PIU-SF-6), digital media use based on Apple’s daily screen time reports, and personal and familial COVID-19 exposure. Regression models compared screen time, psychiatric symptoms and PIU between cohorts, as well as between youth with personal/familial COVID-19 exposures, and those without. Regression models also assessed for demographic and psychiatric factors associated with clinically significant PIU-SF-6 scores. RESULTS 69 participants completed the study. Participants recruited during the pandemic were significantly more likely to meet criteria for PIU based on their average PIU-SF-6 score (P =.02) and to spend more time using social media each day (P =.02). Overall amount of daily screen time did not differ between cohorts. Secondary analyses revealed a significant increase in average daily screen time among subjects who were exposed to COVID-19 (P =.01). Youth with clinically significant PIU-SF-6 scores were significantly younger and more likely to have higher PHQ-8 (P =.01) and GAD-7 (P =.007) scores. No differences in scale scores or media use were found between subjects based on familial COVID-19 exposure or hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS Our findings support our hypothesis that PIU may have worsened for youth in mental health treatment during the pandemic, particularly problematic use of social media. Mental health clinicians should incorporate screening for PIU into routine clinical care in order to prevent potential familial conflict and subsequent psychiatric crises that might stem from unrecognized PIU. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

Download Full-text

Supplemental Material for Associations Between Parental Media Monitoring, Media Use, and Internalizing Symptoms During Adolescence

Psychology of Popular Media ◽

10.1037/ppm0000256.supp ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Internalizing Symptoms ◽

Media Use ◽

Media Monitoring

Download Full-text

UGLEO: A WEB BASED INTELLIGENCE CHATBOT FOR STUDENT ADMISSION PORTAL USING MEGAHAL STYLE

Jurnal Ilmiah Informatika Komputer ◽

10.35760/ik.2018.v23i3.2373 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 175-191

Author(s):

Anneke Annassia Putri Siswadi ◽

Avinanta Tarigan

Keyword(s):

Markov Chain ◽

Natural Language Processing ◽

Natural Language ◽

Language Processing ◽

Information Need ◽

Web Based ◽

Markov Chain Method ◽

Information Center

To fulfill the prospective student's information need about student admission, Gunadarma University has already many kinds of services which are time limited, such as website, book, registration place, Media Information Center, and Question Answering’s website (UG-Pedia). It needs a service that can serve them anytime and anywhere. Therefore, this research is developing the UGLeo as a web based QA intelligence chatbot application for Gunadarma University's student admission portal. UGLeo is developed by MegaHal style which implements the Markov Chain method. In this research, there are some modifications in MegaHal style, those modifications are the structure of natural language processing and the structure of database. The accuracy of UGLeo reply is 65%. However, to increase the accuracy there are some improvements to be applied in UGLeo system, both improvement in natural language processing and improvement in MegaHal style.

Download Full-text

A systematic review and meta-analysis of discrepancies between logged and self-reported digital media use

Nature Human Behaviour ◽

10.1038/s41562-021-01117-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Douglas A. Parry ◽

Brittany I. Davidson ◽

Craig J. R. Sewall ◽

Jacob T. Fisher ◽

Hannah Mieczkowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Digital Media ◽

Media Use ◽

Meta Analysis

Download Full-text

AB0915-PARE DEVELOPMENT AND USABILITY OF A WEB-BASED PATIENT-TAILORED TOOL TO SUPPORT ADHERENCE TO URATE-LOWERING THERAPY IN GOUT PATIENTS

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases ◽

10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-eular.1500 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽

pp. 1479.1-1479

Author(s):

R. te Kampe ◽

A. Boonen ◽

T. Jansen ◽

J. M. Elling ◽

M. Flendrie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Text Messages ◽

Change Model ◽

Adherence Behavior ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Web Based ◽

Usability Tests ◽

Lowering Therapy ◽

Steering Group ◽

Three Phases

Background:Adherence to prescribed urate-lowering therapy (ULT) among gout patients is considered to be among the poorest of all chronic conditions. eHealth programs can be a possible opportunity to foster ULT adherence.Objectives:This study describes the development and usability evaluation of a web-based tool to support ULT adherence among gout patients, specifically designed for a complement to usual care.Methods:The Integrated Change (I-Change) model was used as theoretical basis for the development. The model combines various socio-cognitive theories and differentiates between three phases: a pre-motivational, a motivational, and a post-motivational phase. In practices, the I-Change gout tool contains three sessions, following the three phases of the I-Change model. Patients receive tailored feedback based on their answers in the form of animated videos and text messages after each session, and are prompted to set specific goals and action plans for their ULT adherence. The content and development of the I-Change gout tool was determined along an iterative process within a steering group of clinicians and researchers, supported by patient interviews and gout specific literature related to key aspects of medication adherence behavior. A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used to test usability of the support tool consisting of a think aloud method and a usability questionnaire.Results:The steering group decided on the content of the three sessions of the I-Change gout tool. Depending on the intention to change ULT adherence behavior patients were navigated through the I-Change gout tool, patients with a low intention go through all 3 sessions and patients with a high intention go through the pre- and post-motivational session (figure 1). In total, the I-Change gout tool contains three sessions with 80 questions, 66 tailored textual feedback messages, and 40 tailored animated videos.Figure 1.Flowchart of the computer-tailored I-Change gout tool for urate-lowering therapy adherence.Twenty gout patients and seven healthcare professionals participated in the usability tests. The program end score rating for the gout tool was on average 8.4±0.9 (range 6-10) for patients and 7.7±1.0 (range 6-9) for healthcare professionals. Furthermore, participants reported a high intention to use and/or recommend the program in the future. Yet, participants identified some issues for further improvement of the systems user-friendliness by addressing barriers (e.g. more explicitly navigation) and weaknesses (e.g. technical and health literacy). The I-Change gout tool was updated according suggestions of improvements of the participants.Conclusion:This study provides initial support for the usability by patients and healthcare professionals of a ULT adherence I-Change gout tool. Further studies need to be conducted to assess its efficacy and (cost-) effectiveness in daily practice.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Download Full-text

Exploring ‘digital placemaking’

Convergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies ◽

10.1177/13548565211014828 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 573-578

Author(s):

Germaine Halegoua ◽

Erika Polson

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Sense Of Place ◽

Media Use ◽

Special Issue ◽

Social Actors ◽

Broad Framework ◽

The Many ◽

And Control ◽

Connected Spaces

This brief essay introduces the special issue on the topic of ‘digital placemaking’ – a concept describing the use of digital media to create a sense of place for oneself and/or others. As a broad framework that encompasses a variety of practices used to create emotional attachments to place through digital media use, digital placemaking can be examined across a variety of domains. The concept acknowledges that, at its core, a drive to create and control a sense of place is understood as primary to how social actors identify with each other and express their identities and how communities organize to build more meaningful and connected spaces. This idea runs through the articles in the issue, exploring the many ways people use digital media, under varied conditions, to negotiate differential mobilities and become placemakers – practices that may expose or amplify preexisting inequities, exclusions, or erasures in the ways that certain populations experience digital media in place and placemaking.

Download Full-text