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. 2024 Jun 5:11:e53406.
doi: 10.2196/53406.

Digital Lifestyle Interventions for Young People With Mental Illness: A Qualitative Study Among Mental Health Care Professionals

Chelsea Sawyer  1 , Rebekah Carney  2 , Lamiece Hassan  1 , Sandra Bucci  1 , John Sainsbury  2 , Karina Lovell  3 , John Torous  4 , Joseph Firth  1
Affiliations

Digital Lifestyle Interventions for Young People With Mental Illness: A Qualitative Study Among Mental Health Care Professionals

Chelsea Sawyer et al. JMIR Hum Factors. .

Abstract

Background: Given the physical health disparities associated with mental illness, targeted lifestyle interventions are required to reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disease. Integrating physical health early in mental health treatment among young people is essential for preventing physical comorbidities, reducing health disparities, managing medication side effects, and improving overall health outcomes. Digital technology is increasingly used to promote fitness, lifestyle, and physical health among the general population. However, using these interventions to promote physical health within mental health care requires a nuanced understanding of the factors that affect their adoption and implementation.

Objective: Using a qualitative design, we explored the attitudes of mental health care professionals (MHCPs) toward digital technologies for physical health with the goal of illuminating the opportunities, development, and implementation of the effective use of digital tools for promoting healthier lifestyles in mental health care.

Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with MHCPs (N=13) using reflexive thematic analysis to explore their experiences and perspectives on using digital health to promote physical health in youth mental health care settings.

Results: Three overarching themes from the qualitative analysis are reported: (1) motivation will affect implementation, (2) patients' readiness and capability, and (3) reallocation of staff roles and responsibilities. The subthemes within, and supporting quotes, are described.

Conclusions: The use of digital means presents many opportunities for improving the provision of physical health interventions in mental health care settings. However, given the limited experience of many MHCPs with these technologies, formal training and additional support may improve the likelihood of implementation. Factors such as patient symptomatology, safety, and access to technology, as well as the readiness, acceptability, and capability of both MHCPs and patients to engage with digital tools, must also be considered. In addition, the potential benefits of data integration must be carefully weighed against the associated risks.

Keywords: behavior change; digital health; lifestyle intervention; mental health care professionals; mobile phone; physical health; qualitative; service optimization; thematic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: JF has received honoraria and consultancy fees from Atheneum, Informa, Gillian Kenny Associates, Big Health, Nutritional Medicine Institute, ParachuteBH, Richmond Foundation, and Nirakara independent of this work. SB is the director and a shareholder of CareLoop Health Ltd, a spinout from the University of Manchester to develop and market digital solutions for remote monitoring using smartphones for mental health conditions (currently, schizophrenia and postnatal depression). JT is the editor of JMIR Mental Health and is on the scientific board of Precision Mental Wellness; however, this is unrelated to this work. The remaining authors (CS, RC, and LH) declare no other conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Barriers to implementation of DLIs in MHC using the COM-B model_v2. COM-B: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation–Behavior; DLI: digital lifestyle intervention; MHC: mental health care; MHCP: mental health care professional.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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