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Review
. 2022 Mar 31:10:e13111.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.13111. eCollection 2022.

Effectiveness of digital mental health interventions for university students: an umbrella review

Sophia Harith  1 , Insa Backhaus  2 , Najihah Mohbin  3 , Huyen Thi Ngo  4 , Selina Khoo  1
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness of digital mental health interventions for university students: an umbrella review

Sophia Harith et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: Poor mental health among university students remains a pressing public health issue. Over the past few years, digital health interventions have been developed and considered promising in increasing psychological wellbeing among university students. Therefore, this umbrella review aims to synthesize evidence on digital health interventions targeting university students and to evaluate their effectiveness.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in April 2021 searching PubMed, Psychology and Behavioural Science Collection, Web of Science, ERIC, and Scopus for systematic reviews and meta-analyses on digital mental health interventions targeting university students. The review protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews PROSPERO [CRD42021234773].

Results: The initital literature search resulted in 806 records of which seven remained after duplicates were removed and evaluated against the inclusion criteria. Effectiveness was reported and categorized into the following six delivery types: (a) web-based, online/computer-delivered interventions (b) computer-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), (c) mobile applications and short message service (d) virtual reality interventions (e) skills training (f) relaxation and exposure-based therapy. Results indicated web-based online/computer delivered-interventions were effective or at least partially effective at decressing depression, anxiety, stress and eating disorder symptoms. This was similar for skills-training interventions, CBT-based intervention and mobile applications. However, digital mental health interventions using virtual reality and relaxation, exposure-based therapy was inconclusive. Due to the variation in study settings and inconsistencies in reporting, effectiveness was greatly dependent on the delivery format, targeted mental health problem and targeted purpose group.

Conclusion: The findings provide evidence for the beneficial effect of digital mental health interventions for university students. However, this review calls for a more systematic approach in testing and reporting the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions.

Keywords: Digital health; Digital intervention; Mental health; Undergraduate; University students; Young people; mHealth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

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Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart.
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Grants and funding

Funded by SATU Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2020 President’s Forum of Southeast Asia, South Asia and Taiwan Universities. Grant number: ST024-2020 The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.