Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 23, 2021
Date Accepted: Jan 31, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 10, 2022
Web App for Emotional Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Platform Development and Retrospective Analysis of Its Use Throughout Two Waves of the Outbreak in Spain
ABSTRACT
Background:
Quarantines and nationwide lockdowns dictated for containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to distress and increase the frequency of anxiety and depression symptoms among the general population. During the national lockdown of the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain, we developed and launched a Web App aimed at promoting emotional self-care in the general population and facilitate contact with healthcare professionals.
Objective:
To describe the Web App development and analyze its utilization pattern throughout two successive waves of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain.
Methods:
The Web App targeted all individuals aged 18 years or more and was designed by adapting the contents of a mobile App for adjuvant treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (i.e., the PTSD Coach App) to the general population and the pandemic/lockdown scenario. We retrospectively assessed the utilization pattern of the Web App using data systematically retrieved from Google Analytics. Data were grouped into three time periods, defined using a joinpoint analysis of COVID-19 incidence in our area: first wave, between-wave period, and second wave.
Results:
The resulting Web App, named gestioemocional.cat, maintains the navigation structure of the PTSD Coach App, with three main modules: tools for emotional self-care, a self-assessment test, and professional resources for on-demand contact. The self-assessment test combines the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and offers professional contact in the advent of high level of depression and anxiety; contact is prioritized according to a screening questionnaire administered at the time of obtaining individual consent to be contacted. The tools for emotional self-care can be accessed either on-demand or symptom-driven. The utilization analysis showed a high number of weekly accesses during the first wave. In this period, press releases regarding critical events of the pandemic progression and government decisions on containment measures were followed by a utilization peak, irrespective of the sense (i.e., positive or negative) of the information. Positive information pieces (e.g., relaxation of containment measures due to a reduction of COVID-19 cases) resulted in a utilization peak immediately after the press release, followed by a successive decline in utilization. The second wave was characterized by a lower and less responsive utilization of the Web App.
Conclusions:
mHealth tools may help the general population coping with stressful conditions associated with the pandemic scenario. Future studies shall investigate the extent of the potential benefits of these tools in the general (i.e., without diagnosed mental illnesses) population and the strategies to reach as many people as possible. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
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