Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Sep 26, 2024
Date Accepted: Mar 2, 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Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Shifting our focus: the role of young people with lived experience of worry in the development of an online training to manage worry
ABSTRACT
Background:
Many young people report high levels of worry, highlighting the need for brief, accessible and scalable interventions that can teach strategies to shift focus away from worrisome thoughts. We produced an online training, Shift Focus, which was developed, designed and tested with academic researchers, software developers and young people with lived experience of worry. We outline the invaluable role of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) members in the development of the Shift Focus mobile application.
Objective:
To engage with young people who are experts by experience of worry, to help refine and tailor a new digital therapeutic app designed to help shift focus away from worry.
Methods:
PPI members with lived experience of worry were aged 16-25 and from diverse backgrounds across the UK. PPI members provided input during all four phases of app development: developing sessions, piloting sessions, developing user experience (UX) design and testing the app prototype.
Results:
PPI consultations revealed that the online platform needed to be simple to use, interactive, aesthetically pleasing and personalised to individual needs and preferences. It should also be accessible to all, track progress and provide a sense of community. Technical issues were highlighted as a barrier to engagement, and there was suggestion that we should include a reward system in a future iteration of the Shift Focus mobile application to promote engagement.
Conclusions:
PPI members brought unique expertise and were highly valued members of the team. A highly iterative participatory design process enabled continuous feedback from PPI throughout, ensuring their input was meaningful and key messages and ideas were incorporated into the mobile application. Clinical Trial: Open Science Framework Study Registration https://osf.io/gebjz
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