The Impact of a Gamified Mobile Mental Health App (eQuoo) on Resilience and Mental Health in a Student Population: Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial

With many digital mental health interventions failing to engage clients for enough time to demonstrate substantive changes to their well-being and with only 2% of all digital solutions on app stores having undergone randomized controlled trials, the rising demand for mental health prevention and ear...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JMIR mental health 2023-07, Vol.10, p.e47285-e47285
Main Authors: Litvin, Silja, Saunders, Rob, Jefferies, Philip, Seely, Hayley, Pössel, Patrick, Lüttke, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Cellular telephones
Computer & video games
Educational software
Games
Gamification
Intervention
Mental depression
Mental health
Original Paper
Smartphones
Software
Teenagers
Young adults
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Summary:With many digital mental health interventions failing to engage clients for enough time to demonstrate substantive changes to their well-being and with only 2% of all digital solutions on app stores having undergone randomized controlled trials, the rising demand for mental health prevention and early intervention care is not being met. Young adults in particular struggle to find digital well-being apps that suit their needs. This study explored the effects of eQuoo, an evidence-based mental health game that teaches psychological skills through gamification, on resilience, depression, anxiety, and attrition in a student population. In total, 1165 students from 180 universities in the United Kingdom participated in a 5-week, 3-armed randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly allocated into 1 of 3 groups: eQuoo users, users of a treatment-as-usual evidence-based cognitive behavioral health app called Sanvello, and a no-intervention waitlist. The Rugged Resilience Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-8 were administered to all participants at baseline and every 7 days until completion. A repeated measures-ANOVA revealed statistically significant increases in resilience scores in the test group (P
ISSN:2368-7959
2368-7959
DOI:10.2196/47285