Unlocking the Potential of Wear Time of a Wearable Device to Enhance Postpartum Depression Screening and Detection: Cross-Sectional Study.

Journal: JMIR formative research
Published Date: May 23, 2025

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a mood disorder affecting 1 in 7 women after childbirth that is often underscreened and underdetected. If not diagnosed and treated, PPD is associated with long-term developmental challenges in the child and maternal morbidity. Wearable technologies, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers (eg, Fitbit), offer continuous and longitudinal digital phenotyping for mood disorder diagnosis and monitoring, with device wear time being an important yet understudied aspect.

Authors

  • Eric Hurwitz
    University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
  • Samantha Meltzer-Brody
    Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
  • Zachary Butzin-Dozier
    University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
  • Rena C Patel
    Department of Infectious Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States.
  • Noémie Elhadad
    Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
  • Melissa A Haendel
    Library, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.

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