JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital technologies have been used to support mental health services for two decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic creates a unique opportunity for greater utilization and more data-driven assessment of these digital technologies.

Objective:

This research aims to provide a systematic review of the characteristics and effectiveness of digital inventions that were employed to improve mental health in the real context of COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:

A combination of search terms was applied for automatic search of publications in the relevant databases. The key features of included studies were extracted, including the intervention, participant, and study details.

Results:

A total of 14 eligible studies were included in the final review, which were conducted across different geographic regions and among diverse cultural groups. Ten studies mainly examined the impact of digital technologies on healthy individuals, while only one study developed specific interventions for the isolated COVID-19 depressed patients in hospitals. Digital technologies identified in this study mainly include web-based interventions, smartphone or social media applications such as SMS messages, mobile games, and even video conferencing app. But only five of them were aligned with theoretical approaches from standardized psychological treatments. Most of the studies have reported positive effects of digital technologies, either on improving general mental and emotional well-being or addressing specific conditions (e.g., depression, loneliness).

Conclusions:

This systematic review suggests that digital technologies hold promise in bridging the mental health-care gap during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for more rigorous studies to identify pertinent features that are likely to achieve more effective mental health outcomes.