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. 2022 Aug 26;9(8):e39885.
doi: 10.2196/39885.

An e-Mental Health Resource for COVID-19-Associated Stress Reduction: Mixed Methods Study of Reach, Usability, and User Perceptions

Nadia Minian  1   2   3   4 , Allison Gayapersad  1 , Anika Saiva  1 , Rosa Dragonetti  1   2 , Sean A Kidd  5   6 , Gillian Strudwick  5   7 , Peter Selby  1   2   6   8   9
Affiliations

An e-Mental Health Resource for COVID-19-Associated Stress Reduction: Mixed Methods Study of Reach, Usability, and User Perceptions

Nadia Minian et al. JMIR Ment Health. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 and its public health response are having a profound effect on people's mental health. To provide support during these times, Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health [CAMH]) launched the Mental Health and COVID-19 Pandemic website on March 18, 2020. This website was designed to be a nonstigmatizing psychoeducational resource for people experiencing mild to moderate distress due to COVID-19 and the public health response to the pandemic.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the reach, usability, and user perceptions of the CAMH Mental Health and COVID-19 Pandemic website.

Methods: This study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory design approach, which consisted of the following 2 distinct phases: (1) quantitative data collection and analysis and (2) qualitative semistructured interviews. In phase 1, we analyzed Google Analytics data to understand how many people visited the website and which were the most visited pages. We conducted a survey to identify users' sociodemographic backgrounds, and assess the usability of the website using the System Usability Scale and users' subjective stress levels using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). For phase 2, we conducted semistructured interviews to explore user experiences; user motivation, engagement, satisfaction, and perception of the stress reduction strategies; reflections of the website's functionality, ease of use, navigation, and design; and recommendations for improvement.

Results: Google Analytics results showed 146,978 unique users from June 2020 to March 2021. Most users were from Canada (130,066, 88.5%). Between February 20, 2021, and June 4, 2021, 152 users completed the survey. Most users identified as white, female, and having at least a college degree. Based on the PSS-10 scores, most participants were experiencing moderate to high stress when they visited the website. Users rated the usability of the website as acceptable. Ten users completed in-depth interviews between May 2021 and June 2021. Positive feedback related to the content was that the website was a trustworthy source of mental health information with helpful evidence-based stress reduction strategies. Areas for improvement included the text heavy design of the website, wider dissemination/marketing, and greater accessibility of the website to meet the needs of diverse populations.

Conclusions: Adding stress reduction resources to a website from a well-respected institution may be a practical method to increase awareness and access to evidence-based stress reduction resources during times of crisis, where there is severe disruption to usual health care contacts. Efforts to ensure that these resources are more widely accessed, especially by diverse populations, are needed.

Keywords: COVID-19; digital health; eHealth; health informatics; internet-based intervention; mental health; mixed methods evaluation; stress; usability; website.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: PS reports receiving grants, salary, and/or research support from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Health Canada, Ontario Ministry of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Medical Psychiatry Alliance, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI), Cancer Care Ontario, and National Institutes of Health (NIH). PS also reports receiving funding and/or honoraria from the following commercial organizations: Pfizer Inc./Canada and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Through an open-tender process Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Pfizer Inc are vendors of record for providing smoking cessation pharmacotherapy, free or discounted, for research studies in which PS is the principal investigator or co-investigator.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Project timeline. CAMH: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; WHO: World Health Organization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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