Koushik Sinha Deb|Anupriya Tuli|Mamta Sood|Rakesh Kumar Chadda|Rohit Verma|Saurabh Kumar|Ragul Ganesh|Pushpendra Singh
Is India ready for mental health apps (MHApps)? A quantitative-qualitative exploration of caregivers’ perspective on smartphone-based solutions for managing severe mental illnesses in low resource settings
All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi|Indian Institute of Technology Delhi|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Raipur|All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal|Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi|Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
background mobile application based delivery psychosocial interventions may help reduce treatment gap severe mental illnesses smis decrease burden caregivers apps developed high income settings show effectiveness suffer lack applicability low resource scenarios due difference technology penetration affordability acceptance objective study aimed understand health technology usage perceived needs acceptability app based interventions patients smis improve illness management reduce caregiver burden methods study conducted inpatient outpatient settings tertiary care center north india crosssectional survey assessed smartphone health app usage three focus group discussions evaluated needs apprehensions using apps management smis results total 176 participants including 88 patients 88 caregivers completed survey smartphone ownership similar national average 30 caregivers 386 patients 318 although subjects regularly used third party app health app usage low cost unfamiliarity language significant barriers adoption focus group discussions provided insight various apprehensions caregivers using allowing patients use smartphones apps caregivers wanted mobile apps accessing information regarding services resources available people smi felt apps helpful could automate routine caregiving activities however significant difficulty perceived regards cost device language medium unfamiliarity using technology apprehensions smi patients might misuse technology damage device also prevalent conclusions study systematically looks scope design considerations limitations implementing mobile technology based intervention low resource settings onethird patients caregivers access smartphones internet parallel outreach strategies like ivrs actively considered designing interventions difficulty understanding searching nonnative language needs addressed hand holding caregivers frequent encouragement treating doctors might significantly help technology adoption surmounting apprehensions related using technology make solution acceptable useful already overburdened caregivers developers need work closely patients family members follow groundup collaborative approach app development scope delivering mental health services technology immense resource constrained settings like india provided researchers appreciate accept fact varied landscape divergent economic educational cultural milieu single solution never suffice intervention modality matching end user capacity paramount importance determining success endeavor