Digital Phenotyping to Quantify Psychosocial Well-Being Trajectories After Spinal Cord Injury.

Only 43 adults enrolled, and only 10 exercise participants and 5 community reintegration participants completed 4-month data. Drop-out was common early and was higher in newly injured adults, so the findings may not represent people still adjusting to community life. Participants who dropped out had lower baseline social participation and less physical activity, so the remaining sample may be more socially active than the full SCI population. It was not an intervention study and did not substitute for mental health services, and responses were not reviewed in real time. GPS data were discarded when signal reliability was greater than 20 meters, and location visits required at least 20 minutes within 50 meters, so some mobility may be missed. The sample was mostly male and white, and eligibility required English communication, wheelchair use, and independent smartphone use, so results may not apply to other groups. The paper did not collect data on people approached who did not join, so reasons for non-participation are incomplete. Retention changed after compensation was added, so pre-compensation and post-compensation data may not be directly comparable.

The paper is listed as Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't. The supplied text does not include an author conflict of interest statement.

Do not treat this as evidence that smartphone data can diagnose or predict depression after spinal cord injury. It was a small feasibility study with incomplete data, and depression links to mobility varied by person.