The digital wellness study, led by Dr. Nicholas Allen, will assess our relationship with smartphones. Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)
Researchers at the University of Oregon are teaming up with Google to conduct a digital wellness study using the Google Health Studies tool, Dr. Nicholas Allen said in a blog post on Google today.
Dr. Nicholas Allen is a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, director of the school’s Digital Mental Health Center and principal investigator of this new research project on how technology intersects with our well-being. The data will be collected through the Google Health Studies application, which allows regular people to participate in human health studies from reputable institutions. Because these studies will include data on various medical conditions, Google says the app will allow users to monitor sensitive data they enter. This new study will focus on the effect that smartphones may or may not have on mental health.
“With today’s smartphones, social media and bottomless streams of content, many are rushing to condemn technology based on their belief that these products must be bad for mental health and well-being. “Allen said in the blog post. “But focusing only on these potentially harmful effects doesn’t tell the whole story. Nor does it help us get all the benefits these tools offer, while managing their risks.”
The Google Health Studies app allows researchers to move away from the pre-existing methodology of self-report questionnaires, which Allen describes in the publication as highly subjective. Instead, the app will be able to collect “direct and objective measures of how people use their phones” using passive and continuous detection technology. Fitbit data can also be sent at the participant’s discretion. Researchers believe that the Google Health Studies app will allow them to collect a larger sample than pre-existing studies on similar topics, while at the same time being able to analyze more relationships between mental health and telephone use, such as time the screen may affect sleep.
The study will last four weeks and registration opens on May 27; only American adults with Android devices can participate in this particular research project. Google Health Studies states in its Privacy Statement that it only collects a minimum amount of user data, such as study eligibility, consent, study data, and data from certain third-party applications. In order to protect the identities of the participants in the study, Google explained to Gizmodo in an email that the data collected through the application has the identity of the users removed. It is then encrypted and uploaded to a cloud drive, where it is shared with researchers for statistical analysis. Google also told us that users may choose not to participate in the study.
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In addition to Google Health Studies’ extensive privacy policies, Google explicitly states in its Privacy Statement that it will not sell search data and will not use it to target you with ads. Google’s interest in the safety of users of this app seems pretty bulletproof, which is great because in the past even the best health apps have had privacy issues.