Abstract
Research on the use of mobile technology in health sciences has identified several advantages of so-called mHealth (mobile health) applications. Tablet-supported clinical assessments are becoming more and more prominent in clinical applications, even in low-income countries. The present study used tablet computers for assessments of clinical symptom profiles in a sample of Burundian AMISOM soldiers (i.e., African Union Mission to Somalia; a mission approved by the UN). The study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of mHealth-supported assessments in field research in Burundi. The study was conducted in a resource-poor setting, in which tablet computers are predestined to gather data in an efficient and reliable manner. The overall goal was to prove the validity of the obtained data as well as the feasibility of the chosen study setting. Four hundred sixty-three soldiers of the AMISOM forces were investigated after return from a 1-year military mission in Somalia. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression were assessed. The used data-driven approach based on a latent profile analysis revealed the following four distinct groups, which are based on the soldiers' PTSD and depression symptom profiles: Class 1: moderate PTSD, Class 2: moderate depression, Class 3: low overall symptoms, and Class 4: high overall symptoms. Overall, the four identified classes of soldiers differed significantly in their PTSD and depression scores. The study clearly demonstrates that tablet-supported assessments can provide a useful application of mobile technology in large-scale studies, especially in resource-poor settings. Based on the data collected for the study at hand, it was possible to differentiate different sub-groups of soldiers with distinct symptom profiles, proving the statistical validity of the gathered data. Finally, advantages and challenges for the application of mobile technology in a resource-poor setting are outlined and discussed.
Highlights
In recent years, more and more studies and meta-analyses have investigated and shown the usefulness of mobile technology in psychological research, clinical assessments, and therapeutic interventions [e.g., [1, 2]]
In the beginning of the development of mobile health (mHealth) applications, no guidelines existed on how interventions based on mHealth have to be reported in scientific applications, making it difficult to compare the quality of research designs
The tabled-based diagnostic procedure was accomplished in a larger project aiming to improve the mental health status of Burundian soldiers of the AMISOM mission [for further details on post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) rates and specific types of trauma-exposure pre- and peri-deployment see [17]]
Summary
More and more studies and meta-analyses have investigated and shown the usefulness of mobile technology in psychological research, clinical assessments, and therapeutic interventions [e.g., [1, 2]]. A suitable infrastructure has to be provided, additional development costs have to be covered, and data security issues must be addressed [e.g., [6, 7]]. The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) applications is not solely bound to practical issues. As the proliferation of mobile technology has increased by orders of magnitude, more and more researchers address validity issues in the context of mHealth-collected data. The World Health Organization (WHO) mHealth Technical Evidence Review Group developed the mHealth evidence reporting and assessment (mERA) checklist in 2016, covering 16 items to be addressed when reporting mHealth applications in scientific publications [8]
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