Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 20, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 3, 2018 - Jan 28, 2019
Date Accepted: Jun 14, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Digital mental health interventions for depression, anxiety, and enhancement of psychological well-being among college students: A systematic review
ABSTRACT
Background:
College students are increasingly reporting common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, and frequently encounter barriers to seeking traditional mental health treatments. Digital mental health interventions, such as those delivered via the web and apps, offer the potential to improve access to mental health treatment.
Objective:
This study reviews the literature on digital mental health interventions focused on depression, anxiety, and enhancement of psychological well-being among samples of college students to identify the effectiveness, uptake, and adoption of such programs.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and the search strategy was conducted by a medical research librarian in the following databases: MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Elsevier), PsycINFO (EbscoHost), the Cochrane Library (Wiley), and Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) databases (from the date of inception to December 2017). Data were synthesized using a systematic narrative synthesis framework and formal quality assessments were conducted to address risk of bias.
Results:
A total of 65 studies met inclusion criteria. The majority of interventions (n = 51) were delivered via website, and the most common intervention was internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT; n = 15). Many programs (n = 27) featured human support in the form of coaching. The majority of studies (n = 35) did not present any usability or acceptability outcomes, and few studies examined broad implementation of digital mental health interventions on college campuses (n = 3).
Conclusions:
Results suggest that digital mental health interventions can be effective for improving depression, anxiety, and psychological well-being among college students, but more rigorous studies are needed to ascertain the effective elements of these interventions. Continued research on improving the user experience of, and thus user engagement with, these programs appears vital for the sustainable implementation of digital mental health on college campuses.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
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.