Smart Homes as Enablers for Depression Pre-Diagnosis Using PHQ-9 on HMI through Fuzzy Logic Decision System

Depression is a common mental illness characterized by sadness, lack of interest, or pleasure. According to the DSM-5, there are nine symptoms, from which an individual must present 4 or 5 in the last two weeks to fulfill the diagnosis criteria of depression. Nevertheless, the common methods that health care professionals use to assess and monitor depression symptoms are face-to-face questionnaires leading to time-consuming or expensive methods. On the other hand, smart homes can monitor householders’ health through smart devices such as smartphones, wearables, cameras, or voice assistants connected to the home. Although the depression disorders at smart homes are commonly oriented to the senior sector, depression affects all of us. Therefore, even though an expert needs to diagnose the depression disorder, questionnaires as the PHQ-9 help spot any depressive symptomatology as a pre-diagnosis. Thus, this paper proposes a three-step framework; the first step assesses the nine questions to the end-user through ALEXA or a gamified HMI. Then, a fuzzy logic decision system considers three actions based on the nine responses. Finally, the last step considers these three actions: continue monitoring through Alexa and the HMI, suggest specialist referral, and mandatory specialist referral.