BERT and BERTopic for screening clinical depression on open-ended text messages collected through a mobile application from older adults.

Journal: BMC public health
Published Date: Jun 10, 2025

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the high suicide rate in South Korea, older adults are reluctant to see a psychiatrist. Recently, text mining has gained popularity to detect depression in social media posts, but older adults rarely use social media. However, more than 90% of them use smartphones. South Korea has also made a public effort to utilize a mobile application to manage chronic health problems. In these situations, this study explores the possibility of screening the risk of depression through textual data reporting major stressors collected from older adults via a mobile application.

Authors

  • Moo-Kwon Chung
    Department of Global Public Administration, Yonsei University Mirae Campus, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
  • Sang Yup Lee
    Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
  • Taeksoo Shin
    Department of Business Administration, Yonsei University Mirae Campus, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
  • Ji Young Park
    Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
  • Sangwon Hwang
    Department of Precision Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
  • Min-Hyuk Kim
    Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
  • Jinhee Lee
    AI R & D Center, lululab Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • Kyoung-Joung Lee
  • Hyo-Sang Lim
    Division of Software, Yonsei University, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
  • Erdenebayar Urtnasan
  • Yeonsu Jung
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, South Korea.
  • Dan-Kyung Kim
    Department of Public Administration, Korea University Seoul Campus, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • EunJi Shin
    Department of Clinical Counseling Psychology, Cha University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • Jin-Kyung Lee
    Mo-Im Kim Nursing Research Institute, Yonsei University Sinchon Campus, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 2jinkyung.lee@gmail.com.

Keywords

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