Predicting Anxiety Severity with Digital Ecological Momentary Assessment of Stress, Sleep, and Mood
摘要
Self-reports of stress, sleep, and mood, measured by ecological momentary assessments (EMA), significantly predict concurrent risk of suicidal ideation (SI). However, it is unclear whether similar associations exist between these EMA data points and anxiety symptom severity. We examine the relationship between EMA data on stress, sleep, and mood and anxiety symptom severity, extending prior research examining the relationship between these stress, sleep, and mood data and SI. This study utilizes a retrospective database approach involving temporally collated EMA data and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) questionnaires. All data were collected via an active, commercial, digital behavioral health (dBH) platform between 1 May 2021 and 31 August 2023. We conducted multilevel linear regression analyses to quantify the relationship between self-reported stress, sleep, and mood scores and GAD-7 measures of anxiety severity. In total, 18,014 GAD-7 + EMA pairings from a total of 14,592 individuals were examined. Stress, sleep, and mood emerged as significant predictors of anxiety symptom severity. Higher stress, poor sleep quality, and worse moods predicted higher levels of anxiety. We found significant associations between self-reported stress, sleep, and anxiety symptom severity, extending our previous analyses examining the relationships between these factors and the risk of suicidal ideation. Our findings further validate EMA self-reports as a practical means of low-latency digital sensing for behavioral health insights. Future studies should model the longitudinal relationship between EMA data and anxiety symptom severity, while including covariates that may influence an individual’s anxiety levels.