Mental Health Mobile Apps for Adults

In Hong Kong, the shortage of mental health professionals has been a public health concern for many decades. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends self-care intervention as one of the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being. Rapid development in digital technologies is making population-based self-care interventions possible. The goal of this pilot randomised controlled trial is to provide brief advice of a list of mental health mobile apps for reducing depressive symptoms and anxiety in adults. Participants will be instructed to use four mobile apps for 10 min each day for 30 days. They have freedom to choose which one app to use, or a mix of two or three apps. The Waitlist control group will not receive treatment from the research team during the assessment period. But they will be notified their evaluation results (mild to moderate depression) after they complete the baseline assessment. They will receive the information about mental health hotline services for general public. The hypothesis is that the interventions show preliminary effectiveness in reducing adults' depressive and/or anxiety symptoms.