Respondent characteristics associated with adherence in a general population ecological momentary assessment study

Objectives

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has seen an explosion in popularity in recent years; however, an improved understanding of how to minimise (selective) non-adherence is needed.

Methods

We examined a range of respondent characteristics predictors of adherence (defined as the number of EMA surveys completed) in the D2M EMA study. Participants were a sample of n = 255 individuals drawn from the longitudinal z-proso cohort who completed up to 4 EMA surveys per day for a period of 2 weeks.

Results

In unadjusted analyses, lower moral shame, lower self-control, lower levels of self-injury, and higher levels of aggression, tobacco use, psychopathy, and delinquency were associated with lower adherence. In fully adjusted analyses with predictors selected using lasso, only alcohol use was related to adherence: beer and alcopops to higher adherence and spirits to lower adherence.

Conclusions

These findings provide potential insights into some of the psychological mechanisms that may underlie adherence in EMA. They also point to respondent characteristics for which additional or tailored efforts may be needed to promote adherence.