Objective Digital Phenotypes of Worry Severity, Pain Severity, and Pain Chronicity in Persons Living with HIV

Abstract

Persons living with HIV (PLWH) report experiencing disproportionally severe and chronic pain and worry. However, no objective biomarkers of these subjective experiences have been developed. To address the lack of objective measures and assist in treatment planning, the current study examined whether digital biomarkers of pain severity, pain chronicity, and worry could be developed using passive wearable sensors continuously monitoring movement. Results suggest that digital biomarkers can predict pain severity (r(35) = 0.690), pain chronicity (74.63% accuracy), and worry severity (r(65) = 0.642) with high precision, suggesting that objective digital biomarkers alone accurately capture internal symptom experiences in PLWH.

Publication
The British Journal of Psychiatry
Date