Cargando…

University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis

mHealth researchers can now collect a wealth of data using “life tracking apps” (LTAs), which are smartphone applications that use mobile sensing to capture and summarise a multitude of data channels (e.g., location, movement, keyword use, sleep, exercise, and so on). The combined wealth of informat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cooper, Jack R. H., Scarf, Damian, Conner, Tamlin S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10134000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37122814
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1125276
_version_ 1785031666607063040
author Cooper, Jack R. H.
Scarf, Damian
Conner, Tamlin S.
author_facet Cooper, Jack R. H.
Scarf, Damian
Conner, Tamlin S.
author_sort Cooper, Jack R. H.
collection PubMed
description mHealth researchers can now collect a wealth of data using “life tracking apps” (LTAs), which are smartphone applications that use mobile sensing to capture and summarise a multitude of data channels (e.g., location, movement, keyword use, sleep, exercise, and so on). The combined wealth of information can create digital signatures of individuals, which hold immense promise for mental health research and interventions by allowing new insights into moment-to-moment changes in behaviour and mental states. However, little is known about what a common research demographic (university students) thinks about these apps and what might factor into their decisions to participate in research using a LTA. This qualitative study ran five focus group sessions (21 students in total) to explore students’ experiences, beliefs, and opinions about LTAs to generate insights into what would make them more or less likely to participate in research involving LTAs. Transcripts were coded and examined for categories using qualitative content analysis. Important categories that emerged were privacy (although this varied based on the individual and data being collected), data security, inconvenience, intrusiveness, financial compensation, and the perceived nature of the research team responsible. On the basis of these categories, we derived seven key insights to increase student participation in research using LTAs: strengthen and communicate privacy and data security, design the app to be as convenient as possible to users, maximise passive data collection, think cautiously before tracking data perceived as “creepy” such as messages, offer suitable financial compensation, be transparent about goals and justification for data being collection to build trust, and attract participants by highlighting how the app can help them achieve their goals. With these insights, mHealth researchers can maximise their participant pool and improve this nascent and promising field.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10134000
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-101340002023-04-28 University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis Cooper, Jack R. H. Scarf, Damian Conner, Tamlin S. Front Digit Health Digital Health mHealth researchers can now collect a wealth of data using “life tracking apps” (LTAs), which are smartphone applications that use mobile sensing to capture and summarise a multitude of data channels (e.g., location, movement, keyword use, sleep, exercise, and so on). The combined wealth of information can create digital signatures of individuals, which hold immense promise for mental health research and interventions by allowing new insights into moment-to-moment changes in behaviour and mental states. However, little is known about what a common research demographic (university students) thinks about these apps and what might factor into their decisions to participate in research using a LTA. This qualitative study ran five focus group sessions (21 students in total) to explore students’ experiences, beliefs, and opinions about LTAs to generate insights into what would make them more or less likely to participate in research involving LTAs. Transcripts were coded and examined for categories using qualitative content analysis. Important categories that emerged were privacy (although this varied based on the individual and data being collected), data security, inconvenience, intrusiveness, financial compensation, and the perceived nature of the research team responsible. On the basis of these categories, we derived seven key insights to increase student participation in research using LTAs: strengthen and communicate privacy and data security, design the app to be as convenient as possible to users, maximise passive data collection, think cautiously before tracking data perceived as “creepy” such as messages, offer suitable financial compensation, be transparent about goals and justification for data being collection to build trust, and attract participants by highlighting how the app can help them achieve their goals. With these insights, mHealth researchers can maximise their participant pool and improve this nascent and promising field. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10134000/ /pubmed/37122814 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1125276 Text en © 2023 Cooper, Scarf and Conner. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Digital Health
Cooper, Jack R. H.
Scarf, Damian
Conner, Tamlin S.
University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title_full University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title_fullStr University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title_full_unstemmed University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title_short University students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis
title_sort university students’ opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: a qualitative analysis
topic Digital Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10134000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37122814
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1125276
work_keys_str_mv AT cooperjackrh universitystudentsopinionstowardsmobilesensingdatacollectionaqualitativeanalysis
AT scarfdamian universitystudentsopinionstowardsmobilesensingdatacollectionaqualitativeanalysis
AT connertamlins universitystudentsopinionstowardsmobilesensingdatacollectionaqualitativeanalysis