The Impact of Tracking Mood on Emotional Quality of Life: A Secondary Analysis of the Randomized Controlled Trial of Mood Tracker.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of using a smartphone application to track mood on emotional quality of life (QoL) outcomes (positive emotion, negative emotion, and sense of self) in persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the postacute period of recovery.

SETTING

Community in the southwestern United States.

PARTICIPANTS

In total, 127 community-dwelling adults with medically documented complicated mild to severe TBI.

DESIGN

Randomized, parallel group, wait-list-controlled trial of Mood Tracker, a 6-week intervention requiring participants to self-report mood using a smartphone application.

MAIN MEASURES: TBI-QoL item banks.

RESULTS

Comparing groups using Wilcoxon rank sum tests, analyses revealed a positive change in sense of self ( P = .02) and a marginal positive change in negative emotion ( P = .06) pre-to-post intervention, largely driven by the effect on subjective depressive symptoms. Effect sizes were generally small (Cohen's d = .272-.320). There were no significant effects on positive emotion ( P = .98).

CONCLUSIONS

Persons with chronic TBI can use smartphone technology for self-reporting mood multiple times per week, which shows some promise for improving emotional QoL. Large variation in outcomes suggests that further research is needed to determine who is most likely to benefit from this type of intervention and what additional intervention components are needed to maximize effects.