Supportive Mental Health Self-Monitoring among Smartphone Users with Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Fully Mobile Randomized Controlled Trial

Frontiers in Public Health

Till Beiwinkel¹ 

关键词: mental health;    smartphone;    mobile intervention;    psychological distress;    self-monitoring;    ambulatory assessment;    randomized controlled trial;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2017.00249

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Mobile health (mHealth) could be widely used in the population to improve access to psychological treatment. In this paper, we describe the development of a mHealth intervention on the basis of supportive self-monitoring and describe the protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness among smartphone users with psychological distress. Based on power analysis, a representative quota sample of N = 186 smartphone users will be recruited, with an over-sampling of persons with moderate to high distress. Over a 4-week period, the intervention will be compared to a self-monitoring without intervention group and a passive control group. Telephone interviews will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 12-week follow-up to assess study outcomes. The primary outcome will be improvement of mental health. Secondary outcomes will include well-being, intentions toward help-seeking and help-seeking behavior, user activation, attitudes toward mental-health services, perceived stigmatization, smartphone app quality, user satisfaction, engagement, and adherence with the intervention. Additionally, data from the user’s daily life as collected during self-monitoring will be used to investigate risk and protective factors of mental health in real-world settings. Therefore, this study will allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of a smartphone application as a widely accessible and low-cost intervention to improve mental health on a population level. It also allows to identify new assessment approaches in the field of psychiatric epidemiology.

【 授权许可】

CC BY