Strudwick Gillian, Sockalingam Sanjeev, Kassam Iman, Sequeira Lydia, Bonato Sarah, Youssef Alaa, Mehta Rohan, Green Nadia, Agic Branka, Soklaridis Sophie, Impey Danielle, Wiljer David, Crawford Allison
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
JMIR Ment Health. 2021 Mar 2;8(3):e26550. doi: 10.2196/26550.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a number of negative health related consequences, including impacts on mental health. More than 22% of Canadians reported that they had felt depressed in the last week, in response to a December 2020 national survey. Given the need to physically distance during the pandemic, and the increase in demand for mental health services, digital interventions that support mental health and wellness may be beneficial.
The purpose of this research was to identify digital interventions that could be used to support the mental health of the Canadian general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives were to identify (1) the populations these interventions were developed for, inclusive of exploring areas of equity such as socioeconomic status, sex/gender, race/ethnicity and culture, and relevance to Indigenous peoples and communities; (2) the effect of the interventions; and (3) any barriers or facilitators to the use of the intervention.
This study was completed using a Cochrane Rapid Review methodology. A search of Embase, PsycInfo, Medline, and Web of Science, along with Google, Million Short, and popular mobile app libraries, was conducted. Two screeners were involved in applying inclusion criteria using Covidence software. Academic articles and mobile apps identified were screened using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields resource, the American Psychiatric Association App Evaluation Framework, and the Mental Health Commission of Canada's guidance on app assessment and selection.
A total of 31 mobile apps and 114 web-based resources (eg, telemedicine, virtual peer support groups, discussion forums, etc) that could be used to support the mental health of the Canadian population during the pandemic were identified. These resources have been listed on a publicly available website along with search tags that may help an individual make a suitable selection. Variability exists in the populations that the interventions were developed for, and little assessment has been done with regard to areas of equity. The effect of the interventions was not reported for all those identified in this synthesis; however, for those that did report the effect, it was shown that they were effective in the context that they were used. A number of barriers and facilitators to using these interventions were identified, such as access, cost, and connectivity.
A number of digital interventions that could support population mental health in Canada during the global COVID-19 pandemic were identified, indicating that individuals have several options to choose from. These interventions vary in their purpose, approach, design, cost, and targeted user group. While some research and digital interventions addressed equity-related considerations, more research and focused attention should be given to this area.
新冠疫情已造成诸多与健康相关的负面后果，包括对心理健康的影响。在2020年12月的一项全国性调查中，超过22%的加拿大人表示，他们在过去一周感到抑郁。鉴于疫情期间需要保持身体距离，以及心理健康服务需求的增加，支持心理健康和幸福感的数字干预措施可能会有所帮助。
本研究的目的是确定在新冠疫情期间可用于支持加拿大普通人群心理健康的数字干预措施。目标是确定：（1）这些干预措施所针对的人群，包括探索社会经济地位、性别、种族/民族和文化等公平领域，以及与原住民和社区的相关性；（2）干预措施的效果；（3）使用干预措施的任何障碍或促进因素。
本研究采用Cochrane快速综述方法完成。对Embase、PsycInfo、Medline和科学网进行了检索，同时检索了谷歌、Million Short和流行的移动应用程序库。两名筛选人员使用Covidence软件应用纳入标准。使用来自不同领域的《评估初级研究论文的标准质量评估标准》资源、美国精神病学协会应用程序评估框架以及加拿大心理健康委员会关于应用程序评估和选择的指南，对识别出的学术文章和移动应用程序进行筛选。
共识别出31款移动应用程序和114个基于网络的资源（如远程医疗、虚拟同伴支持小组、讨论论坛等），这些资源可用于在疫情期间支持加拿大人群的心理健康。这些资源已列在一个公开网站上，并带有搜索标签，可能有助于个人做出合适的选择。干预措施所针对的人群存在差异，在公平领域方面几乎没有进行评估。并非对本综述中识别出的所有干预措施都报告了其效果；然而，对于那些报告了效果的干预措施，结果表明它们在使用的背景下是有效的。确定了使用这些干预措施的一些障碍和促进因素，如获取、成本和连接性。
确定了一些在全球新冠疫情期间可支持加拿大人群心理健康的数字干预措施，这表明个人有多种选择。这些干预措施在目的、方法、设计、成本和目标用户群体方面各不相同。虽然一些研究和数字干预措施涉及了与公平相关的考虑因素，但该领域应得到更多的研究和关注。
