Prevention of mental health issues in the young: A randomised controlled evaluation of an e-mental health application for young adults to enhance mental health literacy

IF 4.1 2区医学 Q1 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES

Internet Interventions-The Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health Pub Date : 2025-09-17 DOI:10.1016/j.invent.2025.100874

Olivia Krokos , Isabel Brandhorst , Caterina Gawrilow , Johanna Löchner

{"title":"Prevention of mental health issues in the young: A randomised controlled evaluation of an e-mental health application for young adults to enhance mental health literacy","authors":"Olivia Krokos , Isabel Brandhorst , Caterina Gawrilow , Johanna Löchner","doi":"10.1016/j.invent.2025.100874","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The mental health of young adults is deteriorating. Reasons for this are manifold, ranging from biological factors (e.g. entering a vulnerable developmental phase) to crisis-related external events (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic). Accordingly, easily accessible and universal prevention for the young is needed. Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions are on the rise and especially promising for this age group, due to numerous benefits, such as low threshold, temporal and local flexibility and high scalability. However, the effectiveness and acceptance of mHealth interventions as prevention measures are missing empirical evidence.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>In a two-arm randomised controlled trial design, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a mental health app, the ‘Mental Health Guide’, primarily on mental health literacy as well as secondary mental health outcomes. <em>N</em> = 322 Participants (81.99 % female, M = 25.55 years, SD = 9.63 years, age range: 15 to 59 years) were either assigned to the intervention group (<em>n</em> = 158), using the Mental Health Guide for 12 weeks, or the wait-list control group (<em>n</em> = 164).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The results show a significant intervention effect on mental health literacy for the intervention group in the post assessment (<em>p</em> = .047, <em>d</em> = 0.20), but no at later follow-up time points. Further variables related to mental health indicate various effects, such as improved problematic (<em>p</em> = .018, <em>d</em> = 0.20) and prosocial behaviour (<em>p</em> = .008, <em>d</em> = 0.23) in the intervention group and improved emotion regulation capacities for both groups (<em>p</em> < .001, <em>d</em> = 0.20). Overall, there was a high drop-out rate in the study (up to 80 %), especially in the intervention group.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study contributes valuable insights into the potential effectiveness of mHealth prevention in young adults and gives insights on how such applications are used under very naturalistic settings, laying a foundation for future research in this field. However, generalisability is limited due to selective sample characteristics and a rather high drop-out rate over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48615,"journal":{"name":"Internet Interventions-The Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 100874"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Internet Interventions-The Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214782925000752","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The mental health of young adults is deteriorating. Reasons for this are manifold, ranging from biological factors (e.g. entering a vulnerable developmental phase) to crisis-related external events (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic). Accordingly, easily accessible and universal prevention for the young is needed. Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions are on the rise and especially promising for this age group, due to numerous benefits, such as low threshold, temporal and local flexibility and high scalability. However, the effectiveness and acceptance of mHealth interventions as prevention measures are missing empirical evidence.

Method

In a two-arm randomised controlled trial design, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a mental health app, the ‘Mental Health Guide’, primarily on mental health literacy as well as secondary mental health outcomes. N = 322 Participants (81.99 % female, M = 25.55 years, SD = 9.63 years, age range: 15 to 59 years) were either assigned to the intervention group (n = 158), using the Mental Health Guide for 12 weeks, or the wait-list control group (n = 164).

Results

The results show a significant intervention effect on mental health literacy for the intervention group in the post assessment (p = .047, d = 0.20), but no at later follow-up time points. Further variables related to mental health indicate various effects, such as improved problematic (p = .018, d = 0.20) and prosocial behaviour (p = .008, d = 0.23) in the intervention group and improved emotion regulation capacities for both groups (p < .001, d = 0.20). Overall, there was a high drop-out rate in the study (up to 80 %), especially in the intervention group.

Conclusion

This study contributes valuable insights into the potential effectiveness of mHealth prevention in young adults and gives insights on how such applications are used under very naturalistic settings, laying a foundation for future research in this field. However, generalisability is limited due to selective sample characteristics and a rather high drop-out rate over time.

查看原文本刊更多论文

预防年轻人的心理健康问题：一项针对年轻人的电子心理健康应用程序的随机对照评估，以提高心理健康素养

年轻人的心理健康状况正在恶化。造成这种情况的原因是多方面的，从生物因素（例如进入脆弱的发展阶段）到与危机相关的外部事件（例如COVID-19大流行）。因此，需要为年轻人提供容易获得和普遍的预防。移动医疗（mHealth）干预措施正在增加，尤其对这一年龄组有希望，因为它有许多好处，如低门槛、时间和局部灵活性以及高可扩展性。然而，移动医疗干预措施作为预防措施的有效性和接受度缺乏经验证据。方法采用两组随机对照试验设计，本研究旨在评估心理健康应用程序“心理健康指南”的有效性，主要是对心理健康素养和次要心理健康结果的影响。N = 322名参与者（81.99%为女性，M = 25.55岁，SD = 9.63岁，年龄范围：15至59岁）被分配到干预组（N = 158），使用心理健康指南12周，或等候名单对照组（N = 164）。结果干预组心理健康素养在干预后评估有显著影响（p = 0.047, d = 0.20），但在后续随访时间点无显著影响。与心理健康相关的其他变量表明，干预组的问题行为（p = 0.018, d = 0.20）和亲社会行为（p = 0.008, d = 0.23）得到改善，两组的情绪调节能力都得到改善（p < 0.001, d = 0.20）。总的来说，研究中有很高的退出率（高达80%），特别是在干预组。本研究对移动健康预防在年轻人中的潜在有效性提供了有价值的见解，并对在非常自然的环境下如何使用此类应用程序提供了见解，为该领域的未来研究奠定了基础。然而，由于选择性的样本特征和相当高的随时间的辍学率，通用性是有限的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Internet Interventions-The Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health Medicine-Health Informatics

CiteScore

6.50

自引率

9.30%

发文量

审稿时长

6 weeks

期刊介绍： Official Journal of the European Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ESRII) and the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII). The aim of Internet Interventions is to publish scientific, peer-reviewed, high-impact research on Internet interventions and related areas. Internet Interventions welcomes papers on the following subjects: • Intervention studies targeting the promotion of mental health and featuring the Internet and/or technologies using the Internet as an underlying technology, e.g. computers, smartphone devices, tablets, sensors • Implementation and dissemination of Internet interventions • Integration of Internet interventions into existing systems of care • Descriptions of development and deployment infrastructures • Internet intervention methodology and theory papers • Internet-based epidemiology • Descriptions of new Internet-based technologies and experiments with clinical applications • Economics of internet interventions (cost-effectiveness) • Health care policy and Internet interventions • The role of culture in Internet intervention • Internet psychometrics • Ethical issues pertaining to Internet interventions and measurements • Human-computer interaction and usability research with clinical implications • Systematic reviews and meta-analysis on Internet interventions