Designing and Evaluating Digital Mental Health Interventions: Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Mental Healthcare Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Digital interventions offer scalable mental health support.
• Effectiveness of digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) hinges on design and evaluation.
• Lack of clear consensus on best practices for DMHI design and evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate design principles and evaluation approaches for DMHIs.
• Report on how these principles and approaches are applied in research.
• Outline best practices for developing and evaluating digital mental health tools.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review adhering to PRISMA guidelines.
• Searched SCOPUS and Web of Science databases (Jan 2024-Jan 2025).
• Two independent reviewers screened 401 papers, selecting 17 for data extraction and synthesis.

Main Results:

• Identified common design principles: user-centered development, expert inclusion, usability testing, and feedback mechanisms.
• Evaluation approaches varied based on goals, including randomized controlled trials, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies.
• Proposed 8 guidelines for DMHI development, emphasizing stakeholder involvement and design justification.

Conclusions:

• User-centered design and rigorous evaluation are crucial for effective DMHIs.
• Mixed-methods approaches capture both efficacy and user experience.
• Future research should justify design choices and adopt multiperspective approaches.