Summers Charlotte, Wu Philip, Taylor Alisdair J G
DDM Health, Coventry, United Kingdom.
School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, United Kingdom.
JMIR Form Res. 2021 Oct 6;5(10):e31273. doi: 10.2196/31273.
The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on people's mental health, particularly as people are advised to adhere to social distancing, self-isolation measures, and government-imposed national lockdowns. Digital health technologies have an important role to play in keeping people connected and in supporting their mental health and well-being. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health and social services were already strained.
Our objective was to evaluate the 12-week outcomes of the digitally delivered Gro Health intervention, a holistic digital behavior change app designed for self-management of mental well-being, sleep, activity, and nutrition.
The study used a quasi-experimental research design consisting of an open-label, single-arm, pre-post intervention engagement using a convenience sample. Adults who had joined the Gro Health app (intervention) and had a complete baseline dataset (ie, 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire) were followed up at 12 weeks (n=273), including 33 (12.1%) app users who reported a positive COVID-19 diagnosis during the study period. User engagement with the Gro Health platform was tracked by measuring total minutes of app engagement. Paired t tests were used to compare pre-post intervention scores. Linear regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between minutes of active engagement with the Gro Health app and changes in scores across the different mental health measures.
Of the 347 study participants, 273 (78.67%) completed both the baseline and follow-up surveys. Changes in scores for anxiety, perceived stress, and depression were predicted by app engagement, with the strongest effect observed for changes in perceived stress score (F=251.397; R=0.479; P<.001).
A digital behavior change platform that provides remote mental well-being support can be effective in managing depression, anxiety, and perceived stress during times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes of this study may also support the implementation of remote digital health apps supporting behavior change and providing support for low levels of mental health within the community.
新冠疫情正在对人们的心理健康造成损害，尤其是在人们被建议遵守社交距离、自我隔离措施以及政府实施全国封锁的情况下。数字健康技术在保持人们联系以及支持他们的心理健康和幸福方面可以发挥重要作用。甚至在新冠疫情之前，心理健康和社会服务就已经不堪重负。
我们的目的是评估数字化提供的Gro Health干预措施的12周效果，这是一款为心理健康、睡眠、活动和营养的自我管理而设计的综合性数字行为改变应用程序。
该研究采用了准实验研究设计，包括使用便利样本进行的开放标签、单臂、干预前后参与情况的研究。加入Gro Health应用程序（干预组）且拥有完整基线数据集（即7项广泛性焦虑症量表、感知压力量表和9项患者健康问卷）的成年人在12周时接受随访（n = 273），其中包括33名（12.1%）在研究期间报告新冠病毒检测呈阳性的应用程序用户。通过测量应用程序参与的总时长来跟踪用户与Gro Health平台的互动情况。使用配对t检验来比较干预前后的得分。进行线性回归分析以评估与Gro Health应用程序的活跃互动时长与不同心理健康指标得分变化之间的关系。
在347名研究参与者中，273名（78.67%）完成了基线和随访调查。焦虑、感知压力和抑郁得分的变化可通过应用程序互动来预测，其中感知压力得分变化的影响最为显著（F = 251.397；R = 0.479；P <.001）。
一个提供远程心理健康支持的数字行为改变平台在管理诸如当前新冠疫情等危机时期的抑郁、焦虑和感知压力方面可能是有效的。本研究结果也可能支持实施远程数字健康应用程序，以支持行为改变并为社区内心理健康水平较低的人群提供支持。
