Previously submitted to: JMIR Human Factors (no longer under consideration since May 14, 2026)
Date Submitted: Nov 25, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards the use of mobile technology applications for mental healtH
ABSTRACT
Background:
The demand for mental health services has increased significantly in recent years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, so that health professionals and hospitals are not sufficient to serve all patients in a timely manner. The use of digital technological tools is becoming more and more frequent for the support of patients with mental illness to complement services.
Objective:
The main objective of this research is to understand the perceptions, experiences, and knowledge regarding the use of technological tools (websites, platforms, apps) for mental health issues of experts and patients of a university clinic in Colombia to develop an app that is helpful for users in this context.
Methods:
Twenty-one interviews were conducted among mental health professionals and patients of the university clinic.
Results:
Participants see technological applications as an opportunity for mental health in terms of personalization of aids, breaking down barriers to access services, obtaining psychoeducation and forming support networks. There are fears regarding the protection of users’ privacy and their data and the use of these tools in some patients with certain pathologies.
Conclusions:
App can be a complementary and strengthening tool for the relationship between professionals and patients. Taking advantage of the fact that the population has common knowledge about technology, the development of an application can promote inclusion in care, facilitate access to psychoeducation and help in treatment follow-up and assistance. In addition, it can help patients and families generate support networks that strengthen treatment and break down stigma. For medical staff, this application enables effective personalization of treatments, virtual and early care, as well as communication with other professionals. In addition, it provides the opportunity to obtain immediate information and follow-up by facilitating patient identification and validation. Finally, it serves as an early warning mechanism for patients facing mental difficulties.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.