Although widespread heterogeneity existed across analysis (I 2>90%), no compelling relationship was identified between key features of mEMA protocols representing burden and mEMA compliance.Įcological momentary assessment (EMA) is a survey method that allows collection of data on participant behaviors, affect, and perceptual experiences in real-time (momentary) and real-life environments (ecological). Compliance was associated with prompts per day and items per prompt for nonclinical data sets. Meta-analysis (nonclinical=41, clinical=27) estimated an overall compliance of 81.9% (95% CI 79.1-84.4), with no significant difference between nonclinical and clinical data sets or estimates before or after data exclusions. Less than half of the data sets reported number of prompts delivered (22/105, 21%), answered (43/105, 41%), criterion for valid mEMA data (37/105, 35.2%), or response latency (38/105, 36.2%). More than half of the data sets reported mEMA training (84/105, 80%) and provision of participant incentives (66/105, 62.9%). The median number of items per prompt was similar for nonclinical (8) and clinical data sets (10). Most protocols used a single time-based (random or interval) prompt type (69/105, 65.7%) median prompt frequency was 5 per day. The median duration of the mEMA protocol was 7 days (nonclinical=7, clinical=12). The most common self-reported mEMA target was affect (primary target: 31/105, 29.5% data sets secondary target: 50/105, 47.6% data sets). Of the 168 eligible studies, 97/105 (57.7%) reported compliance in unique data sets (nonclinical=64/105, clinical=41/105 ).