Current methods to assess human anxiety often ignore that anxiety is a dynamic process and have limitations such as high recall bias and low generalizability to real life. Smartphone apps using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may overcome such limitations. We developed a smartphone app for the longitudinal evaluation of anxiety symptoms using EMA. We assessed the feasibility (retention and compliance) and psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the app over 6 months in a sample of 99 participants with different levels of anxiety. The EMA-based smartphone app was highly feasible. It showed excellent within-person and between-person reliability, high convergent and moderate discriminant validity, and significant incremental validity. Assessing anxiety longitudinally using a smartphone and following EMA principles is feasible and can be reliable and valid. Studies combining EMA-based anxiety longitudinal assessments with other assessment methods deserve further research and may offer novel insights into human anxiety.

目前评估人类焦虑的方法常常忽视焦虑是一个动态过程，并且存在回忆偏差高和对现实生活的普遍性低等局限性。使用生态瞬时评估（EMA）的智能手机应用程序可以克服此类限制。我们开发了一款智能手机应用程序，用于使用 EMA 纵向评估焦虑症状。我们在 6 个月内以 99 名具有不同焦虑程度的参与者为样本，评估了该应用程序的可行性（保留性和依从性）和心理测量特性（可靠性和有效性）。基于 EMA 的智能手机应用程序非常可行。它表现出出色的人内和人间可靠性、高收敛效度和中等判别效度以及显着的增量效度。使用智能手机并遵循 EMA 原则纵向评估焦虑是可行的，并且是可靠和有效的。将基于 EMA 的焦虑纵向评估与其他评估方法相结合的研究值得进一步研究，并可能为人类焦虑提供新的见解。