JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Healthcare workers (HCW) are at risk of experiencing psychological distress, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological self-monitoring (PSM) apps may contribute to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and trauma exposure by enhancing emotional self-awareness. This study focused on how a basic PSM app was experienced by HCW during the covid-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada, by exploring users’ experience and factors contributing to their adherence.

Objective:

To explore HCW experience with a PSM app and whenever their satisfaction with the app, their perception of its contribution to self-awareness and their experience of distress influenced their adherence to the app.

Methods:

HCW in Quebec, Canada, were invited to answer each week questions about their well-being on a mobile app. A concomitant mixed design was used. Data (N=430) were collected from the app, a post-participation questionnaire and 30 semi-structured interviews. Correlations and hierarchical multiple regression models were conducted to examine possible factors influencing participants' adherence and a thematic analysis was used to further explore their experience.

Results:

Over a 12 week-period, mean adherence to the PSM app was 72% (SD=29.0) and mean satisfaction was 80% (SD=2.0). Most participants perceived that the app contributed moderately (n=165) or a lot (n=141) to enhance their self-awareness. The significant regression model found (F (3, 401) =9.81, p< 0.001) that around 11 % of adherence variation could be explained by satisfaction (ß=0.251, t=4.918, p<0.001) and the app’s perceived contribution to self-awareness (ß=0.128, t=2.49, p=0.013). Biological sex (377 women, 53 men), age (A= 41 years, SD= 9.9) and the experience of psychological distress at least once in 12 weeks (n=242) were not a statistically significant predictor of adherence. Emerged themes from 30 interviews corresponded to how participants described their experience as introspective, with reports of enhanced self-awareness and self-care practices. Participants also discussed how app’s qualities (e.g. its ease of use, the range of the questions asked, weekly notifications, etc.) influenced their experience and named few unmet expectations that could possibly enhance experience.

Conclusions:

A simple PSM app could be an interesting tool for HCW interested in improving their self-awareness and preventing psychological distress, especially in health crises such as pandemics.