Agreement between momentary and retrospective reports of cannabis use and alcohol use: Comparison of ecological momentary assessment and timeline followback indices.

Abstract

Objective: This study compares three methods of cannabis and of alcohol use assessment in a sample of regular cannabis users: (a) ecological momentary assessment (EMA) repeated momentary surveys aggregated to the daily level, (b) EMA morning reports (MR) where participants reported on their total use from the previous day, and (c) retrospective timeline followback (TLFB) interviews covering the same period of time as the EMA portion of the study. We assessed the overall correspondence between these methods in terms of cannabis and alcohol use occasions and also investigated predictors of agreement between methods. Method: Forty-nine individuals aged 18-50 (M age = 24.49, 49% female, 84% White) who reported regular cannabis use completed a 14-day EMA study. At the end of the EMA period, participants returned to the laboratory to complete a TLFB (administered via computer) corresponding to the same dates of the EMA period. Results: Daily aggregated EMA and TLFB reports showed a low to modest agreement for both alcohol and cannabis use. Overall, agreement between EMA and MR was better than agreement between EMA and TLFB, likely because less retrospection is required when only reporting on behavior from the previous day. Quantity and frequency of use differentially predicted agreement across reporting methods when assessing alcohol compared to cannabis. When reporting cannabis use, but not alcohol use, individuals who used more demonstrated higher agreement between EMA and TLFB. Conclusions: Results suggest that retrospective reporting methods assessing alcohol and cannabis should not be considered a direct "substitute" for momentary or daily assessments. Public Health Significance StatementThis study highlights the importance of differentiating between in-the-moment and retrospective reports of alcohol and cannabis use.

Digital mental health: challenges and next steps

“…Digital phenotyping (in its broadest definition) is therefore a promising route to supplement clinical decision-making and reduce bias. From these data we have already learnt that momentary real-life patient data (eg, on alcohol use) may not match some of our assumptions about behaviour or traditional views of clinical symptoms over time 18. Although this discrepancy might be expected, given that recall biases are avoided, systematic evidence that real-time models are more accurate than traditional clinical symptom assessment is still in progress.…”

“…From these data we have already learnt that momentary real-life patient data (eg, on alcohol use) may not match some of our assumptions about behaviour or traditional views of clinical symptoms over time. 18 Although this discrepancy might be expected, given that recall biases are avoided, systematic evidence that real-time models are more accurate than traditional clinical symptom assessment is still in progress. To date, studies of clinical validation have been scarce, as although digital phenotyping allows for an extensive and broad range of personal data, demonstrating its use and validity in the clinic is challenging especially when many outcomes are personalised.…”

Psychometric Properties and Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of the Spanish Version of the Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire – Short Form among Young Adult Binge Drinkers

“…Additionally, although our study utilized a relatively short time frame (last two months) to collect follow-up data, the validity of our results may have been affected by certain self-report biases, particularly recall bias. To mitigate these potential biases and further test the validity of our findings, future research could explore the use of Ecological Momentary Assessments (e.g., (59), (60)).…”

Progesterone/Estradiol Ratio Is Related to Real-Life Alcohol Consumption in Alcohol Use Disorder in a Sex- and Menstrual Cycle Phase-Dependent Manner

“…We investigated a large sample of females and males with mainly mild-to-moderate AUD across a broad age range. Self-reported alcohol use assessed retrospectively via the Timeline Followback Interview differs from daily reports (87,88) with the latter providing ecologically more valid results through minimizing recall biases (25). Therefore, we employed advanced smartphone-based EMA technology across a 12-month period with sound compliance rates (75% answered queries on alcohol use) resulting in two large real-time intensively-sampled longitudinal data sets (21,438 smartphone entries) allowing hierarchical repeated measures analyses and ecological valid findings (89).…”