Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jul 22, 2024
Date Accepted: May 6, 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Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Users’ needs for mental health apps: Quality Evaluation Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mental health is an essential element of life. However, existing mental health services are having difficulty using the service due to problems such as societal prejudices, counselor shortages. Mobile health(mHealth) is drawing attention as an alternative to improving mental health by compensating for the shortcomings of existing services. As a result, various mental health apps are being developed, but there is a lack of evaluation research on whether the developed apps meet users' needs.
Objective:
This study evaluated the content and quality of mental health apps from the user's perspective and identified the content that affects the evaluation score. We hope to guide future updates and improvements in mental health apps to deliver high-quality solutions to users.
Methods:
We searched the Google Play Store and iOS App Store using Korean keywords, “mental health,” “mental health care,” “depression,” and “stress.” Apps meeting the following criteria were selected for the study: relevance to the topic, written in Korean, >700 reviews (Android) or >200 reviews (iOS), last updated ithin ≤365 days, available for free, non-duplicate, and currently operational. After identifying and defining the primary contents of the apps, seven users evaluated their quality using the user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS). Correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationships among app content, uMARS scores, star ratings, and the number of reviews. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors that influenced uMARS scores and each evaluation item.
Results:
The analysis included a total of 41 mental health apps. Content analysis revealed that reminders (71%), recording and statistics features (71%), and diaries (59%) were the most common app components. The top-rated apps, as determined by uMARS evaluations, consistently provided information about counselors and counseling agencies, and included counseling services. uMARS scores were significantly correlated with healthcare provider information (r=0.53, P<.001) and counseling/Q&A services (r=0.55, P<.001). Multiple regression analysis indicated that providing more relevant information was associated with higher uMARS scores (β=.361, P=.02).
Conclusions:
The quality of mental health apps was evaluated from the user’s perspective utilizing a verified scale. To provide a quality mental health app, it is necessary to utilize application technologies such as generative ai when developing the app and to continuously monitor the app quality from the user's perspective.
Citation
