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Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use
BACKGROUND: Shift is a novel smartphone app for providing a digital-first mental health resource to junior doctors. It contains psychoeducational material, cognitive behavioral modules, guided mediations, information on common work stressors, and a section on help-seeking options for psychological p...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36129745 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/38497 |
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author | Sanatkar, Samineh Counson, Isabelle Mackinnon, Andrew Bartholomew, Alexandra Glozier, Nick Harvey, Samuel |
author_facet | Sanatkar, Samineh Counson, Isabelle Mackinnon, Andrew Bartholomew, Alexandra Glozier, Nick Harvey, Samuel |
author_sort | Sanatkar, Samineh |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Shift is a novel smartphone app for providing a digital-first mental health resource to junior doctors. It contains psychoeducational material, cognitive behavioral modules, guided mediations, information on common work stressors, and a section on help-seeking options for psychological problems through workplace and private avenues. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct a preliminary investigation of the use and potential effectiveness of Shift on depressive and anxiety symptoms (primary outcomes) and work and social functioning, COVID-19 safety concerns, and help seeking (secondary outcomes). This study also sought feedback on whether Shift was seen as an acceptable tool. METHODS: Junior doctors in New South Wales, Australia, were approached through promotional activities from the Ministry of Health, specialist medical colleges, and social media advertisements between June and August 2020. Consenting participants provided web-based baseline data, used the Shift app for 30 days, and were asked to complete a poststudy web-based questionnaire. Outcomes were analyzed under the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: A total of 222 (n=156 female, 70.3%; mean age 29.2, SD 4.61 years) junior doctors provided full baseline data. Of these, 89.2% (198/222) downloaded the app, logged into the app approximately 6 times (mean 5.68, SD 7.51), completed 4 in-app activities (mean 3.77, SD 4.36), and spent a total of 1 hour on in-app activities (mean 52:23, SD 6:00:18) over 30 days. Postintervention and app use data were provided by 24.3% (54/222) of participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms significantly decreased between the pre- and postassessment points as expected; however, physicians’ COVID-19 safety concerns significantly increased. Work and social functioning, COVID-19 concerns for family and friends, and help seeking did not change significantly. There was no significant relationship between symptom changes and app use (number of log-ins, days between first and last log-in, and total activity time). Most poststudy completers (31/54, 57%) rated Shift highly or very highly. CONCLUSIONS: Despite high levels of nonresponse to the poststudy assessment and increases in COVID-19 safety concerns, junior doctors who used the app reported some improvements in depression and anxiety, which warrant further exploration in a robust manner. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9536518 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95365182022-10-07 Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use Sanatkar, Samineh Counson, Isabelle Mackinnon, Andrew Bartholomew, Alexandra Glozier, Nick Harvey, Samuel J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Shift is a novel smartphone app for providing a digital-first mental health resource to junior doctors. It contains psychoeducational material, cognitive behavioral modules, guided mediations, information on common work stressors, and a section on help-seeking options for psychological problems through workplace and private avenues. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct a preliminary investigation of the use and potential effectiveness of Shift on depressive and anxiety symptoms (primary outcomes) and work and social functioning, COVID-19 safety concerns, and help seeking (secondary outcomes). This study also sought feedback on whether Shift was seen as an acceptable tool. METHODS: Junior doctors in New South Wales, Australia, were approached through promotional activities from the Ministry of Health, specialist medical colleges, and social media advertisements between June and August 2020. Consenting participants provided web-based baseline data, used the Shift app for 30 days, and were asked to complete a poststudy web-based questionnaire. Outcomes were analyzed under the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: A total of 222 (n=156 female, 70.3%; mean age 29.2, SD 4.61 years) junior doctors provided full baseline data. Of these, 89.2% (198/222) downloaded the app, logged into the app approximately 6 times (mean 5.68, SD 7.51), completed 4 in-app activities (mean 3.77, SD 4.36), and spent a total of 1 hour on in-app activities (mean 52:23, SD 6:00:18) over 30 days. Postintervention and app use data were provided by 24.3% (54/222) of participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms significantly decreased between the pre- and postassessment points as expected; however, physicians’ COVID-19 safety concerns significantly increased. Work and social functioning, COVID-19 concerns for family and friends, and help seeking did not change significantly. There was no significant relationship between symptom changes and app use (number of log-ins, days between first and last log-in, and total activity time). Most poststudy completers (31/54, 57%) rated Shift highly or very highly. CONCLUSIONS: Despite high levels of nonresponse to the poststudy assessment and increases in COVID-19 safety concerns, junior doctors who used the app reported some improvements in depression and anxiety, which warrant further exploration in a robust manner. JMIR Publications 2022-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9536518/ /pubmed/36129745 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/38497 Text en ©Samineh Sanatkar, Isabelle Counson, Andrew Mackinnon, Alexandra Bartholomew, Nick Glozier, Samuel Harvey. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 21.09.2022. 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 the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Sanatkar, Samineh Counson, Isabelle Mackinnon, Andrew Bartholomew, Alexandra Glozier, Nick Harvey, Samuel Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title | Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title_full | Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title_fullStr | Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title_full_unstemmed | Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title_short | Preliminary Investigation of Shift, a Novel Smartphone App to Support Junior Doctors’ Mental Health and Well-being: Examination of Symptom Progression, Usability, and Acceptability After 1 Month of Use |
title_sort | preliminary investigation of shift, a novel smartphone app to support junior doctors’ mental health and well-being: examination of symptom progression, usability, and acceptability after 1 month of use |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9536518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36129745 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/38497 |
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