Use of a smartphone application to screen for depression and suicide in South Korea

Objective: This is a cross-sectional study using a free depression and suicide screening smartphone application, which contains the data from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) and a Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). Method: The free application was downloaded worldwide from Apple's App Store and Android Market, and the participants who downloaded the application were actively measured. Results: The subjects totaled 208,683 men and women. 72.6% of the subjects were females, and 81.4% of the subjects were aged between 10 and 29 years. In total, 25.7% of the participants were recorded CES-D positive, and there were differences among the groups based on sex (X-2 = 1065.82, p < 0.001), age (X-2 = 1420.75, p < 0.001), and psychiatric history (X-2 = 1502.21, p < 0.001). The highest score of CES-D, 40.69 +/- 15.79 and that of SBQ-R, 13.68 +/- 4.97 was reported by the participants with a history of schizophrenia. The characteristics associated with suicide were as follows: depression (OR 8.92, 95% CI: 8.71-9.13), female (OR 1.39, 95% CI: 1.36-1.43), 30-49 age group (OR 2.51, 95% CI: 2.29-2.72), 50 or older age group (OR 1.48, 95% CI: 1.35-1.61), and psychiatric history (OR 1.98, 95% CI: 1.89-2.06). Conclusion: The smartphone application may be a useful tool for screening depression and suicide. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.