TY  - JOUR
AU  - Pan, Yuan-Chien
AU  - Lin, Hsiao-Han
AU  - Chiu, Yu-Chuan
AU  - Lin, Sheng-Hsuan
AU  - Lin, Yu-Hsuan
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/03/26
TI  - Temporal Stability of Smartphone Use Data: Determining Fundamental Time Unit and Independent Cycle
JO  - JMIR Mhealth Uhealth
SP  - e12171
VL  - 7
IS  - 3
KW  - temporal stability
KW  - smartphone use
KW  - smartphone addiction
KW  - smartphone
KW  - mobile phone
AB  - Background: Assessing human behaviors via smartphone for monitoring the pattern of daily behaviors has become a crucial issue in this century. Thus, a more accurate and structured methodology is needed for smartphone use research. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the duration of data collection needed to establish a reliable pattern of use, how long a smartphone use cycle could perpetuate by assessing maximum time intervals between 2 smartphone periods, and to validate smartphone use and use/nonuse reciprocity parameters. Methods: Using the Know Addiction database, we selected 33 participants and passively recorded their smartphone usage patterns for at least 8 weeks. We generated 4 parameters on the basis of smartphone use episodes, including total use frequency, total use duration, proactive use frequency, and proactive use duration. A total of 3 additional parameters (root mean square of successive differences, Control Index, and Similarity Index) were calculated to reflect impaired control and compulsive use. Results: Our findings included (1) proactive use duration correlated with subjective smartphone addiction scores, (2) a 2-week period of data collection is required to infer a 2-month period of smartphone use, and (3) smartphone use cycles with a time gap of 4 weeks between them are highly likely independent cycles. Conclusions: This study validated temporal stability for smartphone use patterns recorded by a mobile app. The results may provide researchers an opportunity to investigate human behaviors with more structured methods. 
SN  - 2291-5222
UR  - http://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/3/e12171/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/12171
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30912751
DO  - 10.2196/12171
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/12171
ER  -