Self-directed engagement with a mobile app (Sinasprite) and its effects on confidence in coping skills, depression, and anxiety: Retrospective longitudinal study

Abstract

Background: Inadequacies in mental health care coverage remain an enormous problem in the United States. Barriers include scarcity of accessible mental health care professionals. Use of a mental health mobile app incorporating social cognitive theory may help improve confidence in coping skills and improve anxiety and depression. Sinasprite is a mobile app that recruited users via self-referral and clinician referral. Users completed questionnaires to obtain demographic and medical histories. At baseline and 6-week follow-up, users completed the Patient Health Questionnaire 8 (PHQ-8), General Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7), and the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSE). It is unknown how self-directed use of a mobile app improves confidence in coping skills and its effects on self-reported depression and anxiety. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the Sinasprite database to assess self-directed engagement and how use of this mobile app impacted self-reported confidence in coping skills and severity of depression and anxiety. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study involved users recruited via clinician referral and self-referral through social media and news media. Questionnaires were used to record demographic, medical, and prescription medication histories. Mental health status was assessed via PHQ-8, GAD-7, and CSE questionnaires. A deidentified dataset reporting mobile app use data was provided to investigators. Individuals with verifiable usage data and at least one completed questionnaire at 6 weeks of use were included. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess whether demographic data and psychotherapy were related to baseline questionnaire scores and usage. A Spearman rho (ρ) test was used to assess the relationship between improvement in the CSE and GAD-7 and PHQ-8 questionnaires. Changes in mental health status were assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A mixed-effects repeated-measures linear regression model assessed the main effects of time, concomitant counseling, and psychotropic prescription medication use on mental health status. Results: Thirty-four users were eligible for inclusion in the analysis. Users were predominantly female, white, married, and college educated. At baseline, 35% (12/34) of respondents reported the use of individual/group counseling, and 38% (19/34) reported using prescription medications for their mental health. The median user completed 5.7 (interquartile range 2.7-14.1) trackable activities per week. Statistically significant improvements using a Wilcoxon signed-ranked test were observed in the PHQ-8 (P