IMPROVING STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH HEALTH OBJECTIVES IN A MOBILE APP

Abstract

This research sets out to validate a mobile app intervention that aimed to improve the participant’s mental health by asking them to engage in daily challenges, which encouraged the participant to create better sleep, diet, and exercise routines. The study gathered 73 participants, of which 67 completed at least one challenge, 30 participated in multiple mental health surveys, and 8 completed the entire 8-week trial. Throughout the trial participants filled out a patient health questionnaire (PHQ-4) that evaluated their mental health, while analytics were gathered about their engagement with the app as measured by the number of days they opened the app, number of challenges they completed, number of points they collected, and so on. Correlation analyses were performed to measure the correlation of engagement and mental health. We observed a negative correlation between points gained and mental health score indicating that engagement had a positive effect on mental health.