Mobile guided relaxation intervention in reducing young adults’ perceived mental and bodily stress, and user-evaluated efficacy of the digital mental health tool
Keogh, Kaisa-Leena (2019)
Keogh, Kaisa-Leena
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121827399
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121827399
Tiivistelmä
Background: Studies report that young adults are riddled with stress caused by the modern world. Trying to balance work and home life is increasingly stressful due to the “online-ness” of the current times. New cost and resource effective, scalable solutions must be researched in order to stop the stress becoming an epidemic and affecting the young generation of workforce. The possible effects of a large-scale burn-out or stress crisis can have significant repercussions on the economy, even on a global scale. Method: Young adults (N=7) were recruited to participate in a seven-day mobile mental health (Oiva-application) intervention including a guided relaxation for 15minutes per day. The participant perceived mental (PSS-10) and perceived bodily stress levels were observed before and after the intervention (N=5) and analyzed for any statistical differences in perceived levels of stress (bodily or mental). The experiment was conducted as a quasi-experiment.; sample size was small and no control group was not used, instead the participants acted as their own baseline (repeated measures). A user experience questionnaire was also used to evaluate the perceived viability and effectiveness of the intervention and method by the participants. Results: The research found a strongly significant stress-reducing effect of the Oiva mobile intervention for two of the participants in both the PSS-10 (perceived stress scale) survey and within the perceived bodily stress survey results. These participants had elevated stress-levels prior to participating to the intervention and managed to significantly lower their levels due to the intervention. However, it was observed that for those participants whose starting levels of perceived mental and bodily stress were low, the intervention increased stress, or stress remained at starting level. User feedback was also analyzed. Conclusion: It was demonstrated that digital tools for mental health, and in this case, stress, can be influential scalable tools that have the potential to save in resources if used, for example, in public health. Still, more studies are needed to evaluate which groups would benefit from these types of interventions. The results indicate that using mobile applications just for the sake of it, can work against the participants’ mental health and induce unwanted stress rather than reduce it. For these persons, to upkeep the lower levels of stress, it would be advantageous to study whether they would benefit more from non-technological interventions, such as silent retreats, or a different type of a digital mental health application approach, such as Virtual Reality.