Publications

Preprints

1. Supportive Fintech for Individuals with Bipolar Disorder: Financial Data Sharing Preferences to Support Longitudinal Care Management

   Brozena, Jeff, Blair, Johnna, Richardson, Thomas, Matthews, Mark, Mukherjee, Dahlia, Saunders, Erika F H, and Abdullah, Saeed

   2023

   Abs Website

   Financial stability is a key challenge for individuals living with bipolar disorder (BD). Symptomatic periods in BD are associated with poor financial decision-making, contributing to a negative cycle of worsening symptoms and an increased risk of bankruptcy. There has been an increased focus on designing supportive financial technologies (fintech) to address varying and intermittent needs across different stages of BD. However, little is known about this population’s expectations and privacy preferences related to financial data sharing for longitudinal care management. To address this knowledge gap, we have deployed a factorial vignette survey using the Contextual Integrity framework. Our data from individuals with BD (N=480) shows that they are open to share financial data for long term care management. We have also identified significant differences in sharing preferences across age, gender, and diagnostic subtype. We discuss the implications of these findings in designing equitable fintech to support this marginalized community.

Journal Articles

1. Financial technologies (FinTech) for mental health: The potential of objective financial data to better understand the relationships between financial behavior and mental health

   Blair, Johnna,  Brozena, Jeff, Matthews, Mark, Richardson, Thomas, and Abdullah, Saeed

   Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022

   Abs Website

   Financial stability is a key challenge for individuals with mental illnesses. Symptomatic periods often manifest in poor financial decision-making including compulsive spending and risky behaviors. This article explores research opportunities and challenges in developing financial technologies (FinTech) to support individuals with mental health. Specifically, we focus on how objective financial data might lead to novel mental health assessment and intervention methods. We have used data from one individual with bipolar disorder (BD) (i.e., an N = 1 case study) to illustrate feasibility of collecting and analyzing objective financial data alongside mental health factors. While we have not found statistically significant trends nor our findings are generalizable beyond this case, our approach provides an insight into the potential of using objective financial data to identify early warning signs and thereby, enable preemptive care for individuals with serious mental illnesses. We have also identified challenges of accessing objective financial data. The paper outlines what data is currently available, what can be done with it, and what factors to consider when working with financial data. We have also explored future directions for developing interventions to support financial well-being and stability. Furthermore, we have described the technical, ethical, and equity challenges for financial data-driven assessments and intervention methods, as well as provided a broad research agenda to address these challenges.