title: Patient Smartphone Ownership and Interest in Mobile Apps to Monitor Symptoms of Mental Health Conditions: A Survey in Four Geographically Distinct Psychiatric Clinics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite growing interest in mobile mental health and utilization of smartphone technology to monitor psychiatric symptoms, there remains a lack of knowledge both regarding patient ownership of smartphones and their interest in using such to monitor their mental health.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To provide data on psychiatric outpatients' prevalence of smartphone ownership and interest in using their smartphones to run applications to monitor their mental health.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed 320 psychiatric outpatients from four clinics around the United States in order to capture a geographically and socioeconomically diverse patient population. These comprised a state clinic in Massachusetts (n=108), a county clinic in California (n=56), a hybrid public and private clinic in Louisiana (n=50), and a private/university clinic in Wisconsin (n=106).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Smartphone ownership and interest in utilizing such to monitor mental health varied by both clinic type and age with overall ownership of 62.5% (200/320), which is slightly higher than the average United States' rate of ownership of 58% in January 2014. Overall patient interest in utilizing smartphones to monitor symptoms was 70.6% (226/320).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that psychiatric outpatients are interested in using their smartphones to monitor their mental health and own the smartphones capable of running mental healthcare related mobile applications.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program Boston, MA United States ; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Boston, MA United States.
authors.forename: John
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5362-7937
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Torous
authors.affiliation: General Psychiatry Residency Training Program UC Davis School of Medicine Sacramento, CA United States ; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences UC Davis School of Medicine Sacramento, CA United States.
authors.forename: Steven Richard
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1696-3122
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University-Ochsner Psychiatry Residency Program Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Louisiana State University New Orleans, LA United States ; Department of Psychiatry Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, LA United States.
authors.forename: Shih
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9228-8325
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yee-Marie Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison, WI United States.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3460-4227
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Boston, MA United States.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5661-8243
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, LA United States.
authors.forename: Erich J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9399-2613
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences UC Davis School of Medicine Sacramento, CA United States.
authors.forename: Ladson
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2285-6884
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hinton
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences UC Davis School of Medicine Sacramento, CA United States.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5238-7468
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yellowlees
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School Boston, MA United States.
authors.forename: Matcheri
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5945-888X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keshavan
keywords: mobile health; psychiatry; smartphone