TY  - JOUR
AU  - Vachon, Hugo
AU  - Viechtbauer, Wolfgang
AU  - Rintala, Aki
AU  - Myin-Germeys, Inez
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/12/6
TI  - Compliance and Retention With the Experience Sampling Method Over the Continuum of Severe Mental Disorders: Meta-Analysis and Recommendations
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e14475
VL  - 21
IS  - 12
KW  - experience sampling
KW  - ecological momentary assessment
KW  - compliance
KW  - retention
KW  - severe mental disorders
AB  - Background: Despite the growing interest in the experience sampling method (ESM) as a data collection tool for mental health research, the absence of methodological guidelines related to its use has resulted in a large heterogeneity of designs. Concomitantly, the potential effects of the design on the response behavior of the participants remain largely unknown. Objective: The objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate the associations between various sample and design characteristics and the compliance and retention rates of studies using ESM in mental health research. Methods: ESM studies investigating major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and psychotic disorder were considered for inclusion. Besides the compliance and retention rates, a number of sample and design characteristics of the selected studies were collected to assess their potential relationships with the compliance and retention rates. Multilevel random/mixed effects models were used for the analyses. Results: Compliance and retention rates were lower for studies with a higher proportion of male participants (P<.001) and individuals with a psychotic disorder (P<.001). Compliance was positively associated with the use of a fixed sampling scheme (P=.02), higher incentives (P=.03), higher time intervals between successive evaluations (P=.02), and fewer evaluations per day (P=.008), while no significant associations were observed with regard to the mean age of the sample, the study duration, or other design characteristics. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that ESM studies can be carried out in mental health research, but the quality of the data collection depends upon a number of factors related to the design of ESM studies and the samples under study that need to be considered when designing such protocols. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - https://www.jmir.org/2019/12/e14475
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/14475
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31808748
DO  - 10.2196/14475
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/14475
ER  -