Participant Consent

You are invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide, please read the following carefully, talk to others about it if you wish, and ask us anything that is not clear. Take your time to decide whether you want to take part.

This study is organised by the University of Warwick, in partnership with Monash University Malaysia, and funded by the Monash Warwick Alliance Research Activation Fund. Dr Sagar Jilka (University of Warwick) is the Chief Investigator for the Warwick arm.

Young people are more likely than older adults to experience anxiety and depression, and how we use our phones - time on social media, or phone use close to bedtime - may be linked to how we feel. Using an app called DataDoc, this study looks at whether everyday patterns of smartphone use are related to changes in wellbeing over 6 months. A parallel study runs at Monash University Malaysia so findings can be compared between the two countries.

If you take part, you will be asked to:

• Join online and save your code. You read this leaflet and consent on the study website (study.sagarjilka.com). You are then shown a unique participant code (like DD-XXXXXX) - keep it safe: you enter it once in the app to activate your participation, and it is how your data is linked without using your name.
• Install the DataDoc app (Android only). It passively records which apps you use and for how long, to work out measures such as your phone use in the 90 minutes before bed and your share of time on apps such as social media, entertainment and messaging, and to show you your own usage summaries. It does not access the content of your messages, calls, browsing history, contacts, or location.
• Optionally connect your health data - if you choose to, the app reads only your sleep, step count and exercise sessions (nothing else). The study works without this.
• Complete a check-in every two weeks. Each check-in is two short questionnaires (the PHQ-9 and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index) - about 2-5 minutes in total. There are 12 check-ins over the 6 months.
• Take part for 6 months. There are no visits, interviews or focus groups - everything happens through the app, and nothing is audio or video recorded.
• Giving DataDoc these permissions does not give any other app access to anything. On Android, permissions are granted to one named app only. Allowing DataDoc to see your app-usage statistics, or your sleep and activity data, changes nothing for any other app on your phone, and no other app can read what DataDoc collects. You can withdraw either permission at any time in your phone's Settings.

When you first set up the app we also ask a short set of one-off questions about you (age, gender, ethnicity, education, employment, shift work, living and relationship situation, sleep timing, and whether you have ever been diagnosed with or treated for depression or anxiety). These help us describe who took part; you can answer "prefer not to say" to any of them, and you only answer them once.

No - taking part is entirely voluntary, and choosing not to (or withdrawing later) will not affect you or your studies or work in any way. To withdraw at any time, either delete your account in the app or email the research team (see "What if I don't want to carry on?" below).

You won't receive personalised feedback or a diagnosis, and the study does not assess or screen your mental health. You will, though, contribute to research that could help services and universities better understand and support young people's mental health, and build the evidence base for using everyday smartphone data - rather than more invasive methods - to understand wellbeing.

The main risks are small: some people may find fortnightly mood questions slightly uncomfortable (you can skip any question or take a break), and there is a privacy consideration because the app records phone-use patterns. We keep that low - the app records only how long apps are used and when, never content; your data is linked to a code, not your name; and it is held on a secure, encrypted, access-controlled University-approved system (see "confidential" below).

The PHQ-9 and WHO-5 are used here as research measures, not a personal test or diagnosis - you are not shown a score, a severity rating, or any assessment of your mental health.

How the support signposting works. The app applies fixed, pre-set rules to your answers, on your phone, the moment you submit a check-in. These rules are simply the published cut-off points that come with these questionnaires. If your answers reach one of them, the app immediately shows you free support services (such as the University of Warwick Student Wellbeing & Mental Health Team, Samaritans on 116 123, Shout by texting SHOUT to 85258, and NHS 111). If any answer indicates you may be at risk of harming yourself, it also shows emergency options including calling 999. There is no artificial intelligence and no judgement involved - the same answers always produce the same response, and reaching a cut-off is not a diagnosis, a clinical assessment, or a statement that anything is wrong.

If the automated response doesn't work. The support information is built into the app and does not need an internet connection, so it should always appear. But so that you are never dependent on it, the same support services are listed under "Resources & support" at the top of the app's Settings screen, available at any time whether or not you have completed a check-in, and they are also listed on the study website and in this leaflet. If you need help, please go straight to those services, or call 999 in an emergency.

Why no one reviews your answers. Your answers are not seen or reviewed by the research team, and this is deliberate rather than an oversight. This is a research study, not a monitoring or clinical service. We could not offer genuine monitoring - we are a small team and cannot read responses as they arrive, at night, or at weekends - and implying otherwise would be unsafe, because you might wait for a response that was never coming. The automated signposting is immediate and does not depend on anyone being available. Please contact the services shown directly rather than waiting to hear from us.

The only situation in which we would break confidentiality is if you contact us directly (for example, by email) to tell us that you, or someone else, is at serious risk of harm - never on the basis of a questionnaire answer.

Prof Swaran Singh, Professor of Psychiatry at Warwick Medical School, provides clinical and scientific oversight of the study - he advised on the study design and on the support and signposting arrangements described above. To be clear about what this does and does not mean: he does not see your data, does not read your questionnaire answers, and is not available to give you individual advice, an assessment, or treatment. No one on the research team, including Prof Singh, is providing you with clinical care as part of this study. If you would like to speak to someone about how you are feeling, please use the support services listed above or contact your GP.

You complete one check-in every two weeks - two short questionnaires (the PHQ-9 and the WHO-5), about 2-5 minutes in total. As a thank-you for your time, you receive a £2.50 shopping voucher for each check-in you complete, up to 12 check-ins over the 6 months, so up to £30 in total. Vouchers are arranged monthly based on the check-ins you completed, and are paid as Edenred shopping vouchers, the University's preferred method. A member of the project administration team arranges it by email, so they will hold your name and email for this purpose. Vouchers can be spent at a range of approved retailers.

Yes. In short:

• At enrolment you are given a unique participant code. Your research data is linked to this code, not your name. We hold a small amount of identifying information separately from it: your name, your email address and your date of birth. Your name and email are needed so the administration team can send your vouchers; your date of birth is used to confirm you are within the study's 18-25 age range. The link between your code and this information is stored separately and securely, and is accessible only to the Chief Investigator (Dr Sagar Jilka) and named Research Assistant (Nadia Alam).
• Because your questionnaire responses relate to mental health, they are 'special category' data and are given extra protection - stored on an encrypted, access-controlled University-approved server, accessible only to named team members.
• Only anonymised, aggregated data (with no code, name or other identifier) is ever shared with our Monash University Malaysia collaborators, to compare UK and Malaysian findings, under a formal data sharing agreement between the two universities.
• There is one limit to confidentiality: if you tell us directly (e.g. by email) that you, or someone else, is at serious risk of harm, we have a duty of care to act, which may mean contacting emergency services, even without your consent. This never comes from your questionnaire answers, which we do not monitor.

The University of Warwick is the data controller and will use your data only as needed to conduct and analyse the research, in line with data protection law. We keep information that could identify you (your name, email address and date of birth, and the key linking your code to you) only while you are taking part and until your final voucher is paid. At that point the link is permanently destroyed and your data becomes anonymous - it carries only your participant code, and no one, including the research team, can trace it back to you. The whole dataset is fully anonymous once the last participant's voucher is paid. The anonymous dataset is kept for at least 10 years, in line with the University's research data policy.

You can withdraw your data up until the end of your own 6-month collection period, either by deleting your account in the app or by emailing us (see "What if I don't want to carry on?"). After that point it has been anonymised and combined with others' data, so an individual contribution can no longer be identified or removed. Your rights to access or change your information are limited, as we need to manage it in specific ways for the research to be reliable.

With your separate consent, your anonymised data may also be used in future, ethically-approved research, and by students undertaking supervised research projects within the University - in every case only data from which you cannot be identified. For more, see the University of Warwick Research Privacy Notice, or contact the Legal and Compliance Team at [email protected].

You can withdraw at any time, without giving a reason and with no effect on you, your studies or your work. There are two ways to do it, and you only need one.The simplest is to delete your account yourself in the app (Settings → "Delete my account & leave the study"); this stops data collection immediately and deletes the data held about you, and you do not need to contact anyone. Alternatively, you can email the research team and ask us to withdraw you and delete your data. Either route is available up until the end of your own 6-month data-collection period. After that point your data has been anonymised and combined with other participants' data, so an individual contribution can no longer be identified or removed.

Findings will be written up for academic publication and shared through conference presentations, infographic summaries for university wellbeing services, and public engagement. A plain-language summary of the overall (group-level) findings will be put on the University of Warwick's study pages once the study concludes - only group-level findings are ever shared, never individual results. We do not keep contact details to send results.

This study has been reviewed and given a favourable opinion by the University of Warwick's Biomedical & Scientific Research Ethics Committee (BSREC) on 7 October 2026. BSREC reference: 1868868.

Study team: Dr Sagar Jilka, Chief Investigator ([email protected]); Nadia Alam, Research Assistant ([email protected]), Warwick Medical School.

Complaints (someone independent of the study): Head of Research Governance, University House, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 8UW - [email protected], 02476 575733. For a complaint about how your personal data has been handled, contact the Data Protection Officer ([email protected]); you may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Thank you for taking the time to read this Participant Information Leaflet.