Acceptability of mHealth augmentation of Collaborative Care: A mixed methods pilot study

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Mental Healthcare
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Collaborative Care models improve mental health outcomes.
• Mobile health (mHealth) platforms offer potential for enhanced patient monitoring and engagement.
• Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of new mHealth tools is crucial for successful implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a novel mobile health platform designed to support Collaborative Care.
• To understand patient and care manager experiences with the mHealth platform.

Main Methods:

• Seventeen Collaborative Care patients utilized a smartphone application to transmit Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scores, alongside sensor data.
• Data were monitored via a care manager dashboard; participants completed usability and satisfaction surveys and qualitative interviews.
• Mobile usage metadata were collected over an 8-week period.

Main Results:

• All patients used the app for 4 weeks, but only 35% sustained use at 8 weeks.
• High completion rates for initial PHQ-9 and GAD-7 measures (88%) were observed before discontinuation.
• Qualitative findings revealed themes of understanding purpose, care manager support, daily monitoring benefits, privacy concerns, desire for personalization, and care manager burden.

Conclusions:

• The mobile platform demonstrated initial feasibility and acceptability, evidenced by high early engagement.
• Steep attrition rates indicate challenges with long-term user retention.
• Enhancing patient understanding, provider engagement, and personalized experiences are key to improving retention in mHealth interventions for Collaborative Care.