Google App to Explore Effect of Smartphones on Mental Health
Google Health app is soon gonna be launched by a team of researchers at the University of Oregon in the United States. The app helps us to explore how smartphone use affects the mental health of individuals.
The researchers will use the Google Health app to explore the benefits and risks associated with the use of smartphones.
‘The Google app provides secure technology in partnership with doctors, nurses, and health researchers to help improve understanding of mental health.’
Writing in a Google blog post, Prof. Nicholas Allen at the University's Center for Digital Mental Health said that mental health has become even more urgent during the Covid-19 pandemic as so many people have turned to digital technology to maintain some semblance of their lifestyle.
The new research will "uncover insights that help us all build a future where digital products may support us in living healthier, happier lives," Allen said.
The findings will help "the research community and technology industry to pursue evidence-based product design, education and policy aimed at maximizing benefits and minimizing risks," he added.
One Stop for All Your Health Problems
The four week-study, to be launched on May 27, will be open to adults based in the US and only those using an Android phone. The team will sample and collect direct, objective measures of how people use their phones, with their informed consent."We'll use passive and continuous sensing technology to do this, rather than relying only on self reports," Allen said.
The study will also use participants' phones to directly measure many of the well-established building blocks of well-being, such as sleep and physical activity. Participants will also have the option to add relevant Fitbit data, including step count and physical activity.
Allen said that users will have to give "informed consent" to participate and that the data "will be managed according to strict ethical standards and will only be used for research and to inform better products". It explicitly says that the data "will never be sold or used for advertising."
Google's Health Studies app was introduced in December 2020 with a study into respiratory illnesses. The app, in partnership with doctors, nurses and health researchers, provides secure technology that can help improve understanding of health.
Source: IANS