Effectiveness of an mhealth application to overcome problematic smartphone use: Comparing mental health of a smartphone control-use group and a problematic-use group

Abstract

We developed an mHealth application that can help alleviate the problematic use of smartphones and allied psychological symptoms. This study observed the change in patterns of users’ problematic smartphone use, depression, and anxiety while using the mHealth application. We conducted this study from 9 January to 10 April 2019. The Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Adults, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire were measured at week 0, 8, 12. A post hoc test of Repeated Measurement Anova analysis and Linear Mixed Model analysis were used. Overall, 190 participants were allocated into two groups. Sixty-six were in the smartphone control-use group and 124 were in the problematic-use group. The study elucidated the difference between the two groups in terms of problematic smartphone use and depression and anxiety after 13 weeks of using the mHealth application. This study showed the use of the mHealth application reducing problematic smartphone use scores and negative symptoms such as anxiety and depression in the PSU group. The results can be used as the basis for similar qualitative studies to further resolve the problematic use of smartphones.