Social Media App Usage in Relation with PHQ-9 Depression Scores during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and the 2022 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, UbiComp/ISWC 2022
; : 188-192, 2022.
Article
in English
| Scopus | ID: covidwho-2325100
ABSTRACT
With about 300 million affected people, major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common diseases worldwide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases increased even further, by 28%. Many factors may be correlated with MDD, including the excessive use of social media apps. In this paper, we investigated the relationship between the use of social media and communication apps and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and social distancing like lockdowns probably changed smartphone usage times and usage patterns. While previous studies have shown an association between depression and social media usage, we report about the situation during these special circumstances. We employed a log-linear regression to examine the association of social media and communication app usage and depression. To quantify the usage, we applied the total usage time in hours of social media apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook) as well as communication apps (Phone and Messaging) within one week. To measure depressive symptoms, we used the PHQ-9 score. We discovered a significant association between the usage time and the PHQ-9 score (beta=0.0084, p-value=0.010). We conclude that social media usage is a robust marker for depression severity and future research should focus on a better understanding of the underlying causality and potential counter-measures. © 2022 ACM.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Scopus
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
ISWC 2022
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS