Smartphone-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment of Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Future Studies

Abstract

Feelings of well-being and happiness fluctuate over time and contexts. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) studies can capture fluctuations in momentary behavior, and experiences by assessing these multiple times per day. Traditionally, EMA was performed using pen and paper. Recently, due to technological advances EMA studies can be conducted more easily with smartphones, a device ubiquitous in our society. The goal of this review was to evaluate the literature on smartphone-based EMA in well-being research in healthy subjects. The systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Searching PubMed and Web of Science, we identified 53 studies using smartphone-based EMA of well-being. Studies were heterogeneous in designs, context, and measures. The average study duration was 12.8 days, with well-being assessed 2–12 times per day. Half of the studies included objective data (e.g. location). Only 47.2% reported compliance, indicating a mean of 71.6%. Well-being fluctuated daily and weekly, with higher well-being in evenings and weekends. These fluctuations disappeared when location and activity were accounted for. On average, being in nature and physical activity relates to higher well-being. Working relates to lower well-being, but workplace and company do influence well-being. The important advantages of using smartphones instead of other devices to collect EMAs are the easier data collection and flexible designs. Smartphone-based EMA reach far larger maximum sample sizes and more easily add objective data to their designs than palm-top/PDA studies. Smartphone-based EMA research is feasible to gain insight in well-being fluctuations and its determinants and offers the opportunity for parallel objective data collection. Most studies currently focus on group comparisons, while studies on individual differences in well-being patterns and fluctuations are lacking. We provide recommendations for future smartphone-based EMA research regarding measures, objective data and analyses.

Mobile Sensing Around the Globe: Considerations for Cross-Cultural Research

“…Furthermore, most mobile sensing research is based on WEIRD samples. Figure 1 maps the locations of smartphone-based passive sensing studies included in the reviews on health and well-being from Cornet and Holden (2018) and on well-being from de Vries et al (2021). An overview of the included studies and samples can be found in Table 1, and a detailed list can be found on this project's OSF page (https://osf.io/2wbda/).…”

“…Mobile Sensing Study Locations Around the World Note. World map depicting the locations and sample sizes of k = 60 passive sensing studies listed in two reviews (Cornet & Holden, 2018;de Vries et al, 2021). Studies that did not use passive sensing (k = 27) were excluded.…”

Diurnal Dynamics of Stress and Mood during Covid-19 Lockdown - An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

“…A recent review that addressed diurnal variations of well-being measures reported mixed results. Some studies showed increases in mood valence and calmness during the day whilst others did not (see de Vries et al 2020).…”

Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Study the Development of COVID-19 Worries in Sweden: Longitudinal Study

“…The analysis also pursued a secondary aim to demonstrate that data collected by a smartphone with an EMA tool in daily rhythm can be a basis for meaningful analyses of the formation and change of emotions toward a phenomenon such as the COVID-19 pandemic. EMA was developed to study mood management and has typically been applied by paper and pencil before the ubiquity of the smartphone [35][36][37][38]. Respondents are contacted by EMA, with contacts serving as a reminder that a questionnaire is due, as a device to place the time of the interview at a particular hour of the day, or in juxtaposition to particular events.…”