Tweet dreams
Q: Did you see using a mobile phone after 10pm leads to depression and loneliness, depression, bipolar disorder and neuroticism?
A: Where?
Q: The Independent, the Daily Mail, news.com.au, the Geelong Advertiser, Student Problems, …
A: So, what are we supposed to check first?
Q: Mice. It isn’t mice, it’s people. “However, now a study of more than 91,000 people has found that scrolling through your Instagram and Twitter feeds from the comfort of your pillow in the wee hours could increase the likelihood of developing a number of psychological problems such as depression, bipolar disorder and neuroticism.”
A: Ok, ok. Do any of them link?
Q: The Independent does. But it’s behind a paywall
A: <sighs> Ok. Here’s the press release.
Q: But that doesn’t mention mobile phones. Or Twitter or Instagram.
A: No, it doesn’t.
Q: It looks like they used fitbits, though
A: Yes, or near offer.
Q: Could they tell from those when someone was using their phone?
A: I don’t know if they could, but they didn’t. They just looked at how much people’s physical activity differed between night and day.
Q: What’s that got to do with mobile phones?
A: If using your phone late at night stops you sleeping, then you might have less difference in activity between night and day.
Q: I suppose. Did they look at actual sleep?
A: Not in this study
Q: So, the people with less day-night difference in physical activity ended up with more mental health problems?
A: No, they started off with more mental health problems. As the comment at the bottom of the press release says “The study population (median age at baseline of 62 years, IQR 54-68 years) is not ideal to examine the causes of mental health, given that 75% of disorders start before the age of 24 years.”
Q: These were 60-year olds?
A: Yes. In 2013-14.
Q: Did British 60-year-olds even use Twitter and Instagram in 2013-14? Instagram was only on iPhones back then, wasn’t it?
A: About a third of Brits between 55-64 had a smartphone then, and about 10% of older people.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »