Correlating MSM's Mental Health with Usage Behaviors on MSM-Specific Social Applications

Homophobia and discrimination towards men who have sex with men (MSM) make the mental health of this community a severe concern. The prevalence of mobile social apps for MSM provides a new channel to study their mental health issues. However, the correlation between the psychological states of MSM and their behaviors on social apps are still uninvestigated. In this paper, we conduct a case study of 103 MSM in China to explore whether the User Generated Content, Profile, Mobility information of MSM on social apps correlate with their depression, loneliness, anxiety and stress level. The analysis results indicate that the mental health disorder level of MSM is correlated with the emotion expressed in posts, whether the user has filled in self-description blank, the social relationship among online friends, frequency of visiting popular gays-meeting places. Our findings imply future opportunities in early psychological problems detection and intervention.

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