Time distortion associated with smartphone addiction: Identifying smartphone addiction via a mobile application (App).
BACKGROUND
Global smartphone penetration has brought about unprecedented addictive behaviors.


OBJECTIVE
We report a proposed diagnostic criteria and the designing of a mobile application (App) to identify smartphone addiction.


METHODS
We used a novel empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to delineate the trend in smartphone use over one month.


RESULTS
The daily use count and the trend of this frequency are associated with smartphone addiction. We quantify excessive use by daily use duration and frequency, as well as the relationship between the tolerance symptoms and the trend for the median duration of a use epoch. The psychiatrists' assisted self-reporting use time is significant lower than and the recorded total smartphone use time via the App and the degree of underestimation was positively correlated with actual smartphone use.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests the identification of smartphone addiction by diagnostic interview and via the App-generated parameters with EMD analysis.
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Sleep Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yu-Hsuan
YH
Lin
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Sleep Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yu-Cheng
YC
Lin
Department and Graduate School of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Yang-Han
YH
Lee
Department of Psychiatry, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Po-Hsien
PH
Lin
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Sheng-Hsuan
SH
Lin
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University, College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Li-Ren
LR
Chang
Department and Graduate School of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan; Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, De-Lin Institution of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Hsien-Wei
HW
Tseng
Department and Graduate School of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Liang-Yu
LY
Yen
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Sleep Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Cheryl C H
CC
Yang
Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Sleep Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Translational and Interdisciplinary Medicine, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Electronic address: cchyang@ym.edu.tw.
Terry B J
TB
Kuo
D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D063731:Mobile Applications; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D057566:Self Report; D000068997:Smartphone; D055815:Young Adult
Empirical mode decomposition; Internet addiction; Mobile application; Smartphone addiction