Angela MacIsaac, Vamika Mann, Elaine Toombs, Fred Schmidt, Janine V Olthuis, Sherry H Stewart, Amanda Newton, Arto Ohinmaa, Aislin R Mushquash
{"title":"Promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students with the JoyPop™ app: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.","authors":"Angela MacIsaac, Vamika Mann, Elaine Toombs, Fred Schmidt, Janine V Olthuis, Sherry H Stewart, Amanda Newton, Arto Ohinmaa, Aislin R Mushquash","doi":"10.1186/s13063-024-08424-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Technology use may be one strategy to promote mental health and wellbeing among young adults in post-secondary education settings experiencing increasing distress and mental health difficulties. The JoyPop™ app is mobile mental health tool with a growing evidence base. The objectives of this research are to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the JoyPop™ app in improving emotion regulation skills (primary outcome), as well as mental health, wellbeing, and resilience (secondary outcomes); (2) evaluate sustained app use once users are no longer reminded and determine whether sustained use is associated with maintained improvements in primary and secondary outcomes; (3) determine whether those in the intervention condition have lower mental health service usage and associated costs compared to those in the control condition; and (4) assess users' perspectives on the quality of the JoyPop™ app.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A pragmatic, parallel arm randomized controlled trial will be used. Participants will be randomly allocated using stratified block randomization in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention (JoyPop™) or control (no intervention) condition. Participants allocated to the intervention condition will be asked to use the JoyPop™ app at least twice daily for 4 weeks. Participants will complete outcome measures at four assessment time-points (first [baseline], second [after 2 weeks], third [after 4 weeks], fourth [after 8 weeks; follow-up]). Participants in the control condition will be offered access to the app after the fourth assessment time-point.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Results will determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop™ app for promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students. If effective, this may encourage more widespread adoption of the JoyPop™ app by post-secondary institutions as part of their response to student mental health needs.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06154369 . Registered on November 23, 2023.</p>","PeriodicalId":2,"journal":{"name":"ACS Applied Bio Materials","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11367905/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ACS Applied Bio Materials","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08424-y","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, BIOMATERIALS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Technology use may be one strategy to promote mental health and wellbeing among young adults in post-secondary education settings experiencing increasing distress and mental health difficulties. The JoyPop™ app is mobile mental health tool with a growing evidence base. The objectives of this research are to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the JoyPop™ app in improving emotion regulation skills (primary outcome), as well as mental health, wellbeing, and resilience (secondary outcomes); (2) evaluate sustained app use once users are no longer reminded and determine whether sustained use is associated with maintained improvements in primary and secondary outcomes; (3) determine whether those in the intervention condition have lower mental health service usage and associated costs compared to those in the control condition; and (4) assess users' perspectives on the quality of the JoyPop™ app.
Methods: A pragmatic, parallel arm randomized controlled trial will be used. Participants will be randomly allocated using stratified block randomization in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention (JoyPop™) or control (no intervention) condition. Participants allocated to the intervention condition will be asked to use the JoyPop™ app at least twice daily for 4 weeks. Participants will complete outcome measures at four assessment time-points (first [baseline], second [after 2 weeks], third [after 4 weeks], fourth [after 8 weeks; follow-up]). Participants in the control condition will be offered access to the app after the fourth assessment time-point.
Discussion: Results will determine the effectiveness of the JoyPop™ app for promoting mental health and wellbeing among post-secondary students. If effective, this may encourage more widespread adoption of the JoyPop™ app by post-secondary institutions as part of their response to student mental health needs.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06154369 . Registered on November 23, 2023.