Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40186196›Full record

ArticleBMC cancer2025

Associations between smartphone GPS data and changes in psychological health and burden outcomes among family caregivers and patients with advanced cancer: an exploratory longitudinal cohort study.

J Nicholas Odom, Kyungmi Lee, Erin R Harrell, Kristen Allen Watts, Avery C Bechthold, Sally Engler, Frank Puga, Natashia Bibriescas, Arif H Kamal, Christine S Ritchie and 4 more

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Article in BMC cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

J Nicholas OdomSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA. dionneod@uab.edu.
Kyungmi LeeFrances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Erin R HarrellNational Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Kristen Allen WattsDivision of General Internal Medicine and Population Science, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Avery C BechtholdSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.
Sally EnglerSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.
Frank PugaSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.
Natashia BibriescasSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.
Arif H KamalDepartment of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
Christine S RitchieDivision of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine, Mongan Institute Center for Aging and Serious Illness, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
George DemirisDepartment of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, School of Nursing & Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Alexi A WrightDivision of Population Sciences, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medicine School, Boston, MA, USA.
Marie A BakitasSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.
Andres AzueroSchool of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Avenue South, NB 485J, Birmingham, AL, 35294-1210, USA.

Funding

XRAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA013148 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · PI Omer Jamy · 1985 to 2026
$165.9M
Cambia Health Foundation no grant numberNCI NIH HHS P30 CA013148
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundManaging advanced cancer can be psychologically distressing and burdensome for family caregivers and their care recipients. Innovations in the collection and modelling of passive data from personally-owned smartphones (e.g., GPS), called digital phenotyping, may afford the possibility of remotely monitoring and detecting distress and burden. We explored the potential of using passively-collected GPS data from smartphones to assess and predict caregiver and patient distress and burden.

methodsThis exploratory longitudinal cohort study enrolled smartphone-owning family caregiver and patient participants with advanced cancer (August 2021-July 2023) recruited via an oncology clinic or self-referral through Facebook. Participants downloaded a digital phenotyping research app, called Beiwe, that passively collected GPS data for 24 weeks. Participants completed self-report measures (PROs) of anxiety and depressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS]), mental health (PROMIS Mental Health), and caregiver burden (Montgomery-Borgatta Caregiver Burden scale) at baseline and every 6 weeks for 24 weeks. After pre-processing raw GPS data into daily GPS features (e.g., time spent at home, distance traveled/day), computing biweekly moving averages and standard deviations, and conducting a principal components analysis (PCA) of the resulting variables, within-person regression models were used to assess associations between changes in PRO measures and changes in PCA scores, with adjusted-R

resultsEvaluable data were collected from 48 participants (family caregivers = 32; patients = 16). Caregiver smartphone data explained small-to-medium variance in caregiver anxiety (0.06), depression (0.15), and mental health (0.07). Patient smartphone data predicted small to medium variance in caregiver depressive symptoms (0.12) and burden (0.05). Combined caregiver and patient smartphone data explained small variance in caregiver depressive (0.02) and anxiety symptoms (0.10) and large variance for PROMIS-mental health (0.36) and burden (0.50). For patient outcomes, caregiver smartphone data accounted for small variance in anxiety symptoms (0.07); patient smartphone data predicted large variance in anxiety symptoms (0.24). Combined data explained medium variance in patient depressive symptoms (0.18).

conclusionsThe exploratory study demonstrates the potential predictive utility of using passive smartphone data to detect changes in caregiver and patient psychological distress and burden. A larger study is needed to validate these findings and further explore the clinical application of digital phenotyping in cancer.

Indexed as

CaregiversGeographic Information SystemsNeoplasmsSmartphoneAdultAgedAnxietyCost of IllnessDepressionFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMental HealthMiddle AgedSelf ReportAdvanced cancerDigital phenotypingFamily caregiversRemote monitoring

Identifiers

PMID40186196
PMCPMC11971861

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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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.