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  • Melinda M, Michelle B, Judith G, Isabelle S, Chunlei C, Sanket S, Gagan K, Kim C
  • Mental health related outcomes across repeated testing of a co-designed preventative mental health smartphone app for University students
  • JMIR Formative Research
  • DOI: 10.2196/11848
  • PMID: 30303485
  • PMCID: 6352016
Preprints Accepted Manuscript

Mental health related outcomes across repeated testing of a co-designed preventative mental health smartphone app for University students

Abstract

background

Health and mental health digital tools have emerged as a promising and necessary future of healthcare in a post-COVID 19 pandemic era. In the preventative mental health space many smartphone apps and digital tools available have either limited empirical or research support, or are limited in their ability to design to a commercial standard using iterative development methods.

objective

The current study explored the mental health and help seeking related outcomes of the iterative testing of the Monash Thrive app. It was hypothesised that there would be an improvement in all outcomes across both trials (1), and that these improvements would be observed to a greater degree in trial 2 compared to trial 1 (2).

methods

The Monash Thrive app was tested across two iterative trials in 2022, the minimum viable product (MVP) of the app was tested across 4 weeks of use, followed by the beta version of the app (redeveloped based on MVP testing feedback), tested across 12 weeks of use later that year. Mental health variables including anxiety, depression, mental health literacy and help seeking intentions were compared at pre and post app use for each trial.

results

Improvements in mental health literacy, anxiety and help seeking intentions towards smartphone apps improved in trial 1, changes in all other variables were insignificant. Trial 2 did not demonstrate any significant changes across all variables of interest.

conclusions

The initial hypothesis was partially supported by findings, the second hypothesis was not supported. The absence of observed worsening of all variables of interest across time are a promising observation given the timing of each trial during teaching semesters. The lack of predicted improvement in mental health outcomes in the second trial compared to the first highlights the importance of iterative design and testing where changes may not always result in measurable improvements.

clinicalTrial

Two trials were included in the current manuscript. Trial 1 was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12622001054707). Trial 2 was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12623000131651).

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Copyright

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it’s website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.

Citation

Please cite as:

Melinda M, Michelle B, Judith G, Isabelle S, Chunlei C, Sanket S, Gagan K, Kim C

Mental health related outcomes across repeated testing of a co-designed preventative mental health smartphone app for University students

JMIR Formative Research

DOI: 10.2196/14886

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/11848

PMID: 31789598

PMCID: 6352016

Mental health related outcomes across repeated testing of a co-designed preventative mental health smartphone app for University students

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