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Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors
BACKGROUND: Mental and emotional self-help apps have emerged as potential mental illness prevention and treatment tools. The health behavior theory mechanisms by which these apps influence mental health–related behavior change have not been thoroughly examined. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5663950/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29042340 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mental.7262 |
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author | Crookston, Benjamin T West, Joshua H Hall, P Cougar Dahle, Kaitana Martinez Heaton, Thomas L Beck, Robin N Muralidharan, Chandni |
author_facet | Crookston, Benjamin T West, Joshua H Hall, P Cougar Dahle, Kaitana Martinez Heaton, Thomas L Beck, Robin N Muralidharan, Chandni |
author_sort | Crookston, Benjamin T |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Mental and emotional self-help apps have emerged as potential mental illness prevention and treatment tools. The health behavior theory mechanisms by which these apps influence mental health–related behavior change have not been thoroughly examined. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the association between theoretical behavior change mechanisms and use of mental and emotional self-help apps and whether the use of such apps is associated with mental health behaviors. METHODS: This study utilized a cross-sectional survey of 150 users of mental or emotional health apps in the past 6 months. Survey questions included theory-based items, app engagement and likeability items, and behavior change items. Stata version 14 was used to calculate all statistics. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each of the demographic, theory, engagement, and behavior variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with reported changes in theory and separately for reported changes in actual behavior after controlling for potentially confounding variables. RESULTS: Participants reported that app use increased their motivation, desire to set goals, confidence, control, and intentions to be mentally and emotionally healthy. Engagement (P<.001) was positively associated with the reported changes in theory items, whereas perceived behavior change was positively associated with theory (P<.001), engagement (P=.004), frequency of use of apps (P=.01), and income (P=.049). CONCLUSIONS: Participants reported that app use increased their motivation, desire to set goals, confidence, control, and intentions to be mentally and emotionally healthy. This increase in perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes surrounding their mental and emotional health was considerably associated with perceived change in behavior. There was a positive association between the level of engagement with the app and the impact on theory items. Future efforts should consider the value of impacting key theoretical constructs when designing mental and emotional health apps. As apps are evaluated and additional theory-based apps are created, cost-effective self-help apps may become common preventative and treatment tools in the mental health field. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5663950 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-56639502017-11-06 Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors Crookston, Benjamin T West, Joshua H Hall, P Cougar Dahle, Kaitana Martinez Heaton, Thomas L Beck, Robin N Muralidharan, Chandni JMIR Ment Health Original Paper BACKGROUND: Mental and emotional self-help apps have emerged as potential mental illness prevention and treatment tools. The health behavior theory mechanisms by which these apps influence mental health–related behavior change have not been thoroughly examined. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the association between theoretical behavior change mechanisms and use of mental and emotional self-help apps and whether the use of such apps is associated with mental health behaviors. METHODS: This study utilized a cross-sectional survey of 150 users of mental or emotional health apps in the past 6 months. Survey questions included theory-based items, app engagement and likeability items, and behavior change items. Stata version 14 was used to calculate all statistics. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each of the demographic, theory, engagement, and behavior variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with reported changes in theory and separately for reported changes in actual behavior after controlling for potentially confounding variables. RESULTS: Participants reported that app use increased their motivation, desire to set goals, confidence, control, and intentions to be mentally and emotionally healthy. Engagement (P<.001) was positively associated with the reported changes in theory items, whereas perceived behavior change was positively associated with theory (P<.001), engagement (P=.004), frequency of use of apps (P=.01), and income (P=.049). CONCLUSIONS: Participants reported that app use increased their motivation, desire to set goals, confidence, control, and intentions to be mentally and emotionally healthy. This increase in perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes surrounding their mental and emotional health was considerably associated with perceived change in behavior. There was a positive association between the level of engagement with the app and the impact on theory items. Future efforts should consider the value of impacting key theoretical constructs when designing mental and emotional health apps. As apps are evaluated and additional theory-based apps are created, cost-effective self-help apps may become common preventative and treatment tools in the mental health field. JMIR Publications 2017-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5663950/ /pubmed/29042340 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mental.7262 Text en ©Benjamin T Crookston, Joshua H West, P Cougar Hall, Kaitana Martinez Dahle, Thomas L Heaton, Robin N Beck, Chandni Muralidharan. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 17.10.2017. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Crookston, Benjamin T West, Joshua H Hall, P Cougar Dahle, Kaitana Martinez Heaton, Thomas L Beck, Robin N Muralidharan, Chandni Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title | Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title_full | Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title_fullStr | Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title_full_unstemmed | Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title_short | Mental and Emotional Self-Help Technology Apps: Cross-Sectional Study of Theory, Technology, and Mental Health Behaviors |
title_sort | mental and emotional self-help technology apps: cross-sectional study of theory, technology, and mental health behaviors |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5663950/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29042340 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mental.7262 |
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