Evaluating a Peer-Support Mobile App for Mental Health and Substance Use Among Adolescents Over 12 Months During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND While it is well known that adolescents frequently turn to their friends for support around mental health and substance use problems, there are currently no evidence-based digital programs to support them to do this. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of the Mind your Mate program, a digital peer support program, in improving mental health symptoms, reducing the uptake of substance use, and increasing help-seeking. The Mind your Mate program consists of an online 40-minute classroom lesson and a companion smartphone mobile application (app). The active control group received school-based health education as usual. METHODS A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with 12 secondary schools and 166 students (mean age=15.3 years, SD=0.41, 46% female, 80% born in Australia). Participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing symptoms of mental health (depression, anxiety, and psychological distress), substance use (alcohol and other drug use) and help-seeking measures at baseline, 6- and 12-month follow-up. RESULTS Students who received the Mind your Mate program had reduced growth in depressive symptoms over a 12-month period, compared to controls (b=-1.86, 95% CI=3.73 – 0.02). Promisingly, anxiety symptoms decreased among students in the intervention group; however, these reductions did not meet statistical significance thresholds. No significant differences were observed in relation to psychological distress or help-seeking. CONCLUSIONS A novel digital health intervention, the Mind your Mate program, reduced depression symptoms in adolescents over 12-months compared to a control condition. While the current results are encouraging there is a need to continue to refine, develop and evaluate innovative applied approaches to the prevention of mental disorders in real-world settings. CLINICALTRIAL The study was prospectively registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (#ACTRN12620000753954). https://www.anzctr.org.au/ INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.2196/26796