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Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study

The growing number of mental health smartphone applications has led to increased interest in how these tools might support users in different models of care. However, research on the use of these interventions in real-world settings has been scarce. It is important to understand how apps are used in...

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Autores principales: Balaskas, Andreas, Schueller, Stephen M., Cox, Anna L., Rashleigh, Chuck, Doherty, Gavin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9931254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36812622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000185
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author Balaskas, Andreas
Schueller, Stephen M.
Cox, Anna L.
Rashleigh, Chuck
Doherty, Gavin
author_facet Balaskas, Andreas
Schueller, Stephen M.
Cox, Anna L.
Rashleigh, Chuck
Doherty, Gavin
author_sort Balaskas, Andreas
collection PubMed
description The growing number of mental health smartphone applications has led to increased interest in how these tools might support users in different models of care. However, research on the use of these interventions in real-world settings has been scarce. It is important to understand how apps are used in a deployment setting, especially among populations where such tools might add value to current models of care. The objective of this study is to explore the daily use of commercially-available mobile apps for anxiety that integrate CBT, with a focus on understanding reasons for and barriers for app use and engagement. This study recruited 17 young adults (age M = 24.17 years) while on a waiting list to receive therapy in a Student Counselling Service. Participants were asked to select up to two of a list of three selected apps (Wysa, Woebot, and Sanvello) and instructed to use the apps for two weeks. Apps were selected because they used techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy, and offer diverse functionality for anxiety management. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through daily questionnaires to capture participants’ experiences with the mobile apps. In addition, eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of the study. We used descriptive statistics to analyze participants’ interaction with different app features and used a general inductive approach to analyze the collected qualitative data. The results highlight that users form opinions about the apps during the first days of app use. A number of barriers to sustained use are identified including cost-related issues, inadequate content to support long-term use, and a lack of customization options for different app functions. The app features used differ among participants with self-monitoring and treatment elements being the most used features.
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spelling pubmed-99312542023-02-16 Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study Balaskas, Andreas Schueller, Stephen M. Cox, Anna L. Rashleigh, Chuck Doherty, Gavin PLOS Digit Health Research Article The growing number of mental health smartphone applications has led to increased interest in how these tools might support users in different models of care. However, research on the use of these interventions in real-world settings has been scarce. It is important to understand how apps are used in a deployment setting, especially among populations where such tools might add value to current models of care. The objective of this study is to explore the daily use of commercially-available mobile apps for anxiety that integrate CBT, with a focus on understanding reasons for and barriers for app use and engagement. This study recruited 17 young adults (age M = 24.17 years) while on a waiting list to receive therapy in a Student Counselling Service. Participants were asked to select up to two of a list of three selected apps (Wysa, Woebot, and Sanvello) and instructed to use the apps for two weeks. Apps were selected because they used techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy, and offer diverse functionality for anxiety management. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through daily questionnaires to capture participants’ experiences with the mobile apps. In addition, eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of the study. We used descriptive statistics to analyze participants’ interaction with different app features and used a general inductive approach to analyze the collected qualitative data. The results highlight that users form opinions about the apps during the first days of app use. A number of barriers to sustained use are identified including cost-related issues, inadequate content to support long-term use, and a lack of customization options for different app functions. The app features used differ among participants with self-monitoring and treatment elements being the most used features. Public Library of Science 2023-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9931254/ /pubmed/36812622 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000185 Text en © 2023 Balaskas et al 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 author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Balaskas, Andreas
Schueller, Stephen M.
Cox, Anna L.
Rashleigh, Chuck
Doherty, Gavin
Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title_full Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title_fullStr Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title_full_unstemmed Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title_short Examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: A user study
title_sort examining young adults daily perspectives on usage of anxiety apps: a user study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9931254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36812622
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000185
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