The feasibility of using Apple's ResearchKit for recruitment and data collection: Considerations for mental health research

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Leah Bührmann
  • Tom Van Daele
  • Alina Rinn
  • Nele A.J. De Witte
  • Dirk Lehr
  • Jiska Joëlle Aardoom
  • Lisa Loheide-Niesmann
  • Jan Smit
  • Heleen Riper

In 2015, Apple launched an open-source software framework called ResearchKit. ResearchKit provides an infrastructure for conducting remote, smartphone-based research trials through the means of Apple's App Store. Such trials may have several advantages over conventional trial methods including the removal of geographic barriers, frequent assessments of participants in real-life settings, and increased inclusion of seldom-heard communities. The aim of the current study was to explore the feasibility of participant recruitment and the potential for data collection in the non-clinical population in a smartphone-based trial using ResearchKit. As a case example, an app called eMovit, a behavioural activation (BA) app with the aim of helping users to build healthy habits was used. The study was conducted over a 9-month period. Any iPhone user with access to the App Stores of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany could download the app and participate in the study. During the study period, the eMovit app was disseminated amongst potential users via social media posts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), paid social media advertisements (Facebook), digital newsletters and newspaper articles, blogposts and other websites. In total, 1,788 individuals visited the eMovit landing page. A total of 144 visitors subsequently entered Apple's App Store through that landing page. The eMovit product page was viewed 10,327 times on the App Store. With 79 installs, eMovit showed a conversion rate of 0.76% from product view to install of the app. Of those 79 installs, 53 users indicated that they were interested to participate in the research study and 36 subsequently consented and completed the demographics and the participants quiz. Fifteen participants completed the first PHQ-8 assessment and one participant completed the second PHQ-8 assessment. We conclude that from a technological point of view, the means provided by ResearchKit are well suited to be integrated into the app process and thus facilitate conducting smartphone-based studies. However, this study shows that although participant recruitment is technically straightforward, only low recruitment rates were achieved with the dissemination strategies applied. We argue that smartphone-based trials (using ResearchKit) require a well-designed app dissemination process to attain a sufficient sample size. Guidelines for smartphone-based trial designs and recommendations on how to work with challenges of mHealth research will ensure the quality of these trials, facilitate researchers to do more testing of mental health apps and with that enlarge the evidence-base for mHealth.

Original languageEnglish
Article number978749
JournalFrontiers in Digital Health
Volume4
Number of pages12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.11.2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was funded by VU University, GGZ inGeest and A-UMC, VUMC. Acknowledgments

Publisher Copyright:
2022 Bührmann, Van Daele, Rinn, De Witte, Lehr, Aardoom, Loheide-Niesmann, Smit and Riper.

    Research areas

  • app store trial, behavioural activation, dissemination, feasibility, mental health, mHealth, recruitment, Researchkit
  • Health sciences

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. Does the Method of Limits reveal Subjects` Capability to Determine Odor Thresholds?
  2. Universität Wien
  3. Symposium "Publicum"
  4. Supporting Enlightened Public Thought - 2020
  5. Workshop „Different Worlds of Political Party Development. Comparative Analysis of the Institutionalization of Political Parties“
  6. Conception of a heat storage system for household applications
  7. Anthropocene Campus 2016: The Technosphere Issue
  8. Resource use and competition between honey bees and wild bees in the Lüneburger Heath
  9. Fostering Oral Skills Through the Use of Participatory Web 2.0 Technologies in the Project-based EFL Classroom
  10. Three steps forward, two steps backward: How distributed field governance causes incremental practice change in the case of integrated health care in Germany
  11. Zootechnologies. A Media History of Swarm Intelligence
  12. Conference "FICTION AND SIMULATION: Theories, Methods, Practices" - 2015
  13. 6th Workshop on Unintended Consequences
  14. Introducing the Teacher Education Network In Lüneburg. Theory-Practice-Interrelation through Transdisciplinary Cooperation
  15. Einführung in SPSS: Computergestützte Auswertung statistischer Daten
  16. Towards an International Keywords for Children's Literature (Roundtable): Presenters: Lissa Paul, Philip Nel, Nina Alonso, Nina Christensen, Francesca Orestano and Emer O’Sullivan
  17. HyperKult XII - Computer als Medium: analog digital
  18. Universities as Transformative Locations for Sustainable Approaches to Science: Network of Early-Career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers’
  19. Digital–Sustainable Co-Transformation
  20. Edward Lear: Limerick
  21. Enlightened Mythology.: Thomas Mann and Myth
  22. Did we take the spatial turn? Tracing organizational space from paperwork to digitalization
  23. Determinants of entrepreneurial intent: A meta-analystic test and integration of competing models
  24. PhD Masterclass ''Discourse Theoretical Approaches to Politics, Society, Communication and Media" - 2019

Publications

  1. Education and Communication as Prerequisites for and Components of Sustainable Development. Reflections for Policies, Conceptual Work, and Theory, Based on Previous Practises
  2. Self-perception of the internal audit function within the corporate governance system - Empirical evidence for the European Union
  3. Value-based management in banking
  4. Which nudges get support - A Quantitative Analysis of the Dimensions Transparency and Dual Process Theory
  5. Deconstructing and reconstructing diversity in client-provider-relationships of social work
  6. Integration durch soziale Kontrolle?
  7. Enhancing the structural diversity between forest patches — A concept and real-world experiment to study biodiversity, multifunctionality and forest resilience across spatial scales
  8. Editorial introduction to the special issue on crises at work
  9. Augmented space
  10. Animating embryos
  11. Ob lang oder kurz, berührbar oder nicht: Ist die Längenschätzkompetenz eindimensional?
  12. Polycrisis patterns
  13. Trans pixelate substitution scheme for denoising computed tomography images towards high diagnosis accuracy
  14. Drawing as a Generative Activity and Drawing as a Prognostic Activity
  15. To settle or protect? A global analysis of net primary production in parks and urban areas
  16. Worauf warten?
  17. Thinking and Diagrams - An Introduction
  18. Making mutual learning tangible
  19. Emergency Politics After Globalization
  20. Introduction
  21. The Role of Formalisation, Participation and Context in the Success of Public Involvement Mechanisms in Resource Management
  22. Secondary task as a measure of cognitive load
  23. Neural Networks for Energy Optimization of Production Processes in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises