Cited by 192Digital Mental Health InterventionsMobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsMental Health Research Topics

A mobile phone application for the assessment and management of youth mental health problems in primary care: a randomised controlled trial

Open access
Reid, Sophie C, Kauer, Sylvia D, Hearps, Stephen JC, Crooke, Alexander HD, Khor, Angela S, Sanci, Lena A, Patton, George C·2011·BMC Family Practice

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Over 75% of mental health problems begin in adolescence and primary care has been identified as the target setting for mental health intervention by the World Health Organisation. The mobiletype program is a mental health assessment and management mobile phone application which monitors mood, stress, coping strategies, activities, eating, sleeping, exercise patterns, and alcohol and cannabis use at least daily, and transmits this information to general practitioners (GPs) via a secure website in summary format for medical review. METHODS: We conducted a randomised controlled trial in primary care to examine the mental health benefits of the mobiletype program. Patients aged 14 to 24 years were recruited from rural and metropolitan general practices. GPs identified and referred eligible participants (those with mild or more mental health concerns) who were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (where mood, stress, and daily activities were monitored) or the attention comparison group (where only daily activities were monitored). Both groups self-monitored for 2 to 4 weeks and reviewed the monitoring data with their GP. GPs, participants, and researchers were blind to group allocation at randomisation. Participants completed pre-, post-, and 6-week post-test measures of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale and an Emotional Self Awareness (ESA) Scale. RESULTS: Of the 163 participants assessed for eligibility, 118 were randomised and 114 participants were included in analyses (intervention group n = 68, comparison group n = 46). Mixed model analyses revealed a significant group by time interaction on ESA with a medium size of effect suggesting that the mobiletype program significantly increases ESA compared to an attention comparison. There was no significant group by time interaction for depression, anxiety, or stress, but a medium to large significant main effect for time for each of these mental health measures. Post-hoc analyses suggested that participation in the RCT lead to enhanced GP mental health care at pre-test and improved mental health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Monitoring mental health symptoms appears to increase ESA and implementing a mental health program in primary care and providing frequent reminders, clinical resources, and support to GPs substantially improved mental health outcomes for the sample as a whole. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00794222.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/1471-2296-12-131

Cites

62 of 63 references verified0 citation errors · 1 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Kauer S Reid S Jackson H Jorm T The phenomenon of insight and preliminary findings for preventing depression: self-monitoring via mobile phones 'ASPR Poster Presentations' Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2007 41 A496
  2. Reid S Kauer S Sanci L Patton G Please turn your mobiles on in our clinic: a mobile phone mental health monitoring program and website interface for detection and management of adolescent mental health in clinical settings 'ASPR Poster Presentations' Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2007 41 A499
  3. Fritz MS MacKinnon DP Required sample sizr to detect the mediated effect Psychological Science 2007 18 3 233 239 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01882.x 17444920 PMC2843527 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Reid, S. C., Kauer, S. D., Hearps, S. J., Crooke, A. H., Khor, A. S., Sanci, L. A., & Patton, G. C.
Affiliations
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Royal Children's Hospital (AU)
Corresponding author
Reid, Sophie C
Venue
BMC Family Practice
Published
2011-11-29
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
131-131
ISSN
1471-2296 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2154306466
Cited by
192
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 3
FWCI
12.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • BMC Family Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Telstra Foundation
  • Australian Rotary Health
  • State Government of Victoria
  • Shepherd Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
Keywords
mobile application, youth mental health, adolescent mental health, primary care, self-monitoring, mood tracking, stress, coping strategies, emotional self-awareness, depression, anxiety, general practitioners, general practitioner referral, mobile health intervention
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Primary Health Care, Single-Blind Method, Cell Phone, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review