ArticleJMIR mHealth and uHealth2018
A Novel Approach to Evaluating Mobile Smartphone Screen Time for iPhones: Feasibility and Preliminary Findings.
Article in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Social media use and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical psychology review · 2021Pooled it
- Self-Reported Versus Objectively Logged Social Media Use: Implications for Measurement in Eating Disorder Research.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Improving the Science of Adolescent Social Media and Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities of Smartphone-Based Mobile Sensing and Digital Phenotyping.Journal of technology in behavioral science · 2025Article
- Examining Associations Between Smartphone Use and Clinical Severity in Frontotemporal Dementia: Proof-of-Concept Study.JMIR aging · 2024Article
- Measurement Method Options to Investigate Digital Screen Technology Use by Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Adolescents' daily social media use and mood during the COVID-19 lockdown period.Current research in ecological and social psychology · 2024Article
- Stress and Mood Associations With Smartphone Use in University Students: A 12-Week Longitudinal Study.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2023Article
- From screen time to the digital level of analysis: a scoping review of measures for digital media use in children and adolescents.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Fear of Missing Out, Mental Wellbeing, and Social Connectedness: A Seven-Day Social Media Abstinence Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Likes and impulsivity: Investigating the relationship between actual smartphone use and delay discounting.PloS one · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIncreasingly high levels of smartphone ownership and use pose the potential risk for addictive behaviors and negative health outcomes, particularly among younger populations. Previous methodologies to understand mobile screen time have relied on self-report surveys or ecological momentary assessments (EMAs). Self-report is subject to bias and unreliability, while EMA can be burdensome to participants. Thus, a new methodology is needed to advance the understanding of mobile screen time.
objectiveThe objective of this study was to test the feasibility of a novel methodology to record and evaluate mobile smartphone screen time and use: battery use screenshot (BUS).
methodsThe BUS approach, defined for this study as uploading a mobile phone screenshot of a specific page within a smartphone, was utilized within a Web-based cross-sectional survey of adolescents aged 12-15 years through the survey platform Qualtrics. Participants were asked to provide a screenshot of their battery use page, a feature within an iPhone, to upload within the Web-based survey. Feasibility was assessed by smartphone ownership and response rate to the BUS upload request. Data availability was evaluated as apps per BUS, completeness of data within the screenshot, and five most used apps based on battery use percentage.
resultsAmong those surveyed, 26.73% (309/1156) indicated ownership of a smartphone. A total of 105 screenshots were evaluated. For data availability, screenshots contained an average of 10.2 (SD 2.0) apps per screenshot and over half (58/105, 55.2%) had complete data available. The most common apps or functions included Safari and Home and Lock Screen.
conclusionsStudy findings describe the BUS as a novel approach for real-time data collection focused on iPhone screen time and use among young adolescents. Although feasibility showed some challenges in the upload capacity of young teens, data availability was generally strong across this large dataset. These data from screenshots have the potential to provide key insights into precise mobile smartphone screen use and time spent per mobile app. Future studies could explore the use of the BUS methodology on other mobile smartphones such as Android phones to correlate mobile smartphone screen time with health outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.