Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning

Depression has profound personal, societal, and economic impacts. Leveraging advances in technology can help identify predictors of depression. In this study, we compared seven machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify depression predictors using publicly available datasets from standard health s...

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Main Authors: Ali Akbar Jamali, Corinne Berger, Raymond J. Spiteri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-01-01
Series:Current Research in Behavioral Sciences
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666518224000111
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author Ali Akbar Jamali
Corinne Berger
Raymond J. Spiteri
author_facet Ali Akbar Jamali
Corinne Berger
Raymond J. Spiteri
author_sort Ali Akbar Jamali
collection DOAJ
description Depression has profound personal, societal, and economic impacts. Leveraging advances in technology can help identify predictors of depression. In this study, we compared seven machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify depression predictors using publicly available datasets from standard health surveys. We obtained data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017–2020, including medical, mental, demographic, and lifestyle information from 8965 individuals aged 18 to 80 years. Our study identified strongly correlated features of depression and demonstrated that ML algorithms can accurately identify depression predictors. The performance of the algorithms was evaluated using standard metrics. Among the algorithms tested, the Neural Network algorithm showed the highest overall performance, with an area under the curve of 91.34 %, which significantly outperformed results obtained with traditional statistical methods such as logistic regression and nomograms. This study demonstrates how ML can mine standard health surveys and identify depression predictors in a more accurate and nuanced fashion than other approaches. The findings of this study further suggest that incorporating heterogeneous data can enhance the performance of ML algorithms. These algorithms can be a valuable complementary tool for clinicians, particularly in remote settings, facilitating data analysis, and accelerating knowledge discovery in mental health studies.
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spelling doaj-art-c94f7d7e9fa44e81b1488c24d9d292032024-11-30T07:14:14ZengElsevierCurrent Research in Behavioral Sciences2666-51822024-01-017100157Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learningAli Akbar Jamali0Corinne Berger1Raymond J. Spiteri2Corresponding author.; Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, CanadaDepartment of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, CanadaDepartment of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, CanadaDepression has profound personal, societal, and economic impacts. Leveraging advances in technology can help identify predictors of depression. In this study, we compared seven machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify depression predictors using publicly available datasets from standard health surveys. We obtained data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017–2020, including medical, mental, demographic, and lifestyle information from 8965 individuals aged 18 to 80 years. Our study identified strongly correlated features of depression and demonstrated that ML algorithms can accurately identify depression predictors. The performance of the algorithms was evaluated using standard metrics. Among the algorithms tested, the Neural Network algorithm showed the highest overall performance, with an area under the curve of 91.34 %, which significantly outperformed results obtained with traditional statistical methods such as logistic regression and nomograms. This study demonstrates how ML can mine standard health surveys and identify depression predictors in a more accurate and nuanced fashion than other approaches. The findings of this study further suggest that incorporating heterogeneous data can enhance the performance of ML algorithms. These algorithms can be a valuable complementary tool for clinicians, particularly in remote settings, facilitating data analysis, and accelerating knowledge discovery in mental health studies.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666518224000111DepressionDepression predictorMachine learning (ML)NHANESFeature Selection
spellingShingle Ali Akbar Jamali
Corinne Berger
Raymond J. Spiteri
Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
Current Research in Behavioral Sciences
Depression
Depression predictor
Machine learning (ML)
NHANES
Feature Selection
title Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
title_full Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
title_fullStr Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
title_full_unstemmed Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
title_short Identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
title_sort identification of depression predictors from standard health surveys using machine learning
topic Depression
Depression predictor
Machine learning (ML)
NHANES
Feature Selection
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666518224000111
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