JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Published 2026-06-05 · DOI 10.2196/80332
Kyungmi Chung, Jin Young Park
Abstract BackgroundTraditional clinical assessments in psychiatric research or clinical practice rely on global retrospective self-report depression measures, which do not adequately capture intra- and interindividual variability in depressive symptoms over time and across contexts. ObjectiveThis study aimed to (1) assess the sensitivity of mobile ecological momentary assessment (EMA) for monitoring depressive symptoms compared with traditional depression scales, (2) investigate changes in depressive symptoms and recall consistency observed between the first week (FW) and the second week (SW), and (3) identify subgroups at higher risk for depression and suicidal ideation, and characterize their sociodemographic, psychological, and psychiatric profiles. MethodsParticipants’ self-reports were collected once daily for 14 consecutive days via a mobile app–based EMA to monitor the presence of 20 depressive symptoms based on a 24-hour recall period, thereby capturing naturalistic severity and variability. Baseline questionnaires measured sociodemographic characteristics, digital sensitivity, and personality traits. On day 14, postquestionnaires were administered to assess their clinical symptoms. In addition, modified depression scales were administered on day 7 for 1-week recall, and day 14 for both 1-week and 2-week recalls. For cluster analysis, 3 active EMA-derived features were included: mean symptom severity, within-person symptom variability, and frequency of suicidal ideation. ResultsGeneralized Linear Mixed Model analysis (model 1) revealed that traditional 2-week recall explained only 35.5% of the variance in daily symptom presence (odds ratio 0.666, 95% CI 0.659‐0.674; PF1, 81876PdP ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that mobile EMA effectively reduced recall bias in assessing depressive symptoms and revealed symptom dynamics. Using a minimal set of active EMA-derived features, we differentiated 3 distinct risk clusters; within-person symptom variability emerged as a clinically significant indicator not captured by traditional 2-week recall–based assessments. Despite the brief 2-week assessment period, these findings suggest that mobile EMA may serve as a robust real-world data collection tool.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Chung, K., Park, J. (2026). Identifying Symptom Dynamics and Profiles of Subgroups at Risk for Major Depression and Suicidal Ideation Among Korean Adults: 2-Week Ecological Momentary Assessment Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. https://doi.org/10.2196/80332