A Mobile Peer Intervention for Preventing Mental Health and Substance Use Problems in Adolescents: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (The Mind Your Mate Study)

Abstract

Background Anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders have significant social and economic impacts, which are largely attributable to their early age of onset and chronic disabling course. Therefore, it is critical to intervene early to prevent chronic and debilitating trajectories. Objective This paper describes the study protocol of a CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)-compliant randomized controlled trial for evaluating the effectiveness of the Mind your Mate program, a mobile health (mHealth) peer intervention that aims to prevent mental health (focusing on anxiety and depression) and substance use problems in adolescents. Methods Participants will consist of approximately 840 year 9 or year 10 students (60 students per grade per school) from 14 New South Wales high schools in Sydney, Australia. Schools will be recruited from a random selection of independent and public schools across the New South Wales Greater Sydney Area by using publicly available contact details. The intervention will consist of 1 introductory classroom lesson and a downloadable mobile app that will be available for use for 12 months. Schools will be randomly allocated to receive either the mHealth peer intervention or a waitlist control (health education as usual). All students will be given web-based self-assessments at baseline and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. The primary outcomes of the trial will be the self-reported use of alcohol and drugs, anxiety and depression symptoms, knowledge about mental health and substance use, motives for not drinking, and willingness to seek help. Secondary outcomes will include positive well-being, the quality of life, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses will be conducted using mixed-effects linear regression analyses for normally distributed data and mixed-effects logistic regression analyses for categorical data. Results The Mind your Mate study was funded by an Australian Rotary Health Bruce Edwards Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 2019 to 2022. Some of the development costs for the Mind your Mate intervention came from a seed funding grant from the Brain and Mind Centre of the University of Sydney. The enrollment of schools began in July 2020; 12 of 14 schools were enrolled at the time of submission. Baseline assessments are currently underway, and the first results are expected to be submitted for publication in 2022. Conclusions The Mind your Mate study will generate vital new knowledge about the effectiveness of a peer support prevention strategy in real-world settings for the most common mental disorders in youth. If effective, this intervention will constitute a scalable, low-cost prevention strategy that has significant potential to reduce the impact of mental and substance use disorders. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620000753954; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=379738&isReview=true International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/26796

Evaluating the effectiveness of a universal eHealth school-based prevention program for depression and anxiety, and the moderating role of friendship network characteristics

“…Despite our intervention's focus being on mental health, rather than changing a specific behaviour, some aspect of peer involvement in the delivery of the intervention may increase fidelity through allowing young people themselves to be agents of their own change (Yeager et al, 2018). There are already promising developments in this area: one trial-'The Mind Your Mate Study'is a web-based peer support prevention strategy that facilitates discussion around mental health and is currently being trialled in Australian secondary schools (Birrell et al, 2021).…”

Mobile Applications for the Implementation of Health Control against Covid-19 in Educational Centers, a Systematic Review of the Literature

“…[99]- [102], [104]- [109], [128], [133] Preventive [11], [20]- [22], [28], [42]- [47], [56]- [58], [110]- [122], [134] Tracking [18], [23], [49], [50], [123]- [126], [135] Table VI shows the classification of articles according to the results found. THEMES AND FUNCTIONALITY REFERENCES These articles take into account the parameter of distancing as they focus on creating strategies, and making use of technology, for the prevention of Covid-19, in scenarios where there is no rapprochement of individuals.…”

“…[14]- [17], [19], [25], [26], [37]- [41], [60], [61], [63], [99]- [102], [104]- [109], [128], [133] These articles take into account the prevention parameter since they postulate measures, with the help of technological tools and Artificial Intelligence focusing on events that have already occurred, against Covid-19 to reduce contagion or a new outbreak. [11], [20]- [22], [28], [42]- [47], [56]- [58], [110]- [122], [134] These articles take into account the traceability parameter since they are based on following people or societies that have already suffered from Covid-1toto collect data and avoid possible Covid-19 infections.…”

“…[14], [15], [23], [27], [28], [32], [36], [39], [43], [45], [47], [49], [51], [55], [57], [60], [61], [65], [71], [72], [75], [81], [83], [90], [97], [101], [102], [108], [116], [119], [124], [138], [139] These articles take into account the quality attributes of functionality and reliability since a software must fulfill the functions for which it was created, but also that software must remain operational over time, these requirements are perfectly aligned to address the problems that Covid-19 is presenting.…”

A Systematic Review of the Reporting Quality of Observational Studies That Use Mediation Analyses

“…Others have investigated the role of peer influence on the effect of drug exposure on drug use (Rudolph et al, 2018;Studer et al, 2014). For this reason, several interventions commonly include preventive approaches to improve the skills of adolescents and adults to deal with peer influence (Birrell et al, 2021;McCormack, 2021).…”