ArticleFrontiers in artificial intelligence2019
Apps for Mental Health: An Evaluation of Behavior Change Strategies and Recommendations for Future Development.
Article in Frontiers in artificial intelligence, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Persuasive Systems Design Features of Smartphone Apps for Psychosis: Systematic Review.JMIR human factors · 2026Pooled it
- Initial Requirements for the Prototyping of an App for a Psychosocial Rehabilitation Project: An Integrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Scope, Characteristics, Behavior Change Techniques, and Quality of Conversational Agents for Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Assessment of Apps.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Usability testing of a digital tool to support behavioural activation for depression with young people aged 12 to 18.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Trial
- An implementation evaluation of the physical activity counseling for in-patients with major depressive disorder (PACINPAT) intervention: a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Young Adults' Perspectives on an Ecological Momentary Intervention for Drinking to Cope: Qualitative Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Co-Designing a Text Messaging Intervention for Youth Transitioning From Child to Adult Mental Health Services: Participatory Design Jam Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Identifying Evidence-Based Strategies in a Digital Mental Health Intervention for Depression: Qualitative Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Engagement With Meditation Apps: Cross-Sectional Survey of Use and Associations.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Forging Online Community Among People in Recovery From Substance Use: Natural Language Processing and Deep-Learning Analysis of The Phoenix App User-Generated Data.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
- Toward Digital Self-Monitoring of Mental Health in the General Population: Scoping Review of Existing Approaches to Self-Report Measurement.JMIR mental health · 2025Article
- Loneliness by Design: The Structural Logic of Isolation in Engagement-Driven Systems.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Nationwide Implementation of Unguided Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression: Observational Study of SPARX.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Optimizing Intervention Components of a Preventive Stress Management mHealth Intervention for Health Care Workers: Experimental Factorial Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Depression Self-Care Apps' Characteristics and Applicability to Older Adults: Systematic Assessment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- A Web-Based Stratified Stepped Care Platform for Mental Well-being (TourHeart+): User-Centered Research and Design.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Article
- Improving Access to Behavioral Strategies to Improve Mental Well-being With an Entertaining Breakfast Show App: Feasibility Evaluation Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Personality-targeted persuasive gamified systems: exploring the impact of application domain on the effectiveness of behaviour change strategies.User modeling and user-adapted interaction · 2022Article
- A Systematic and Comparative Review of Behavior Change Strategies in Stress Management Apps: Opportunities for Improvement.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mobile applications have shown promise in supporting people with mental health issues to adopt healthy lifestyles using various persuasive strategies. However, the extent to which mental health apps successfully employ various persuasive strategies remains unknown. Hence, it is important to understand the persuasive strategies integrated into mental health applications (apps) and how they are implemented to promote mental health. This paper aims to achieve three main objectives. First, we review 103 mental health apps and identify distinct persuasive strategies incorporated in them using the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model and Behavior Change Techniques (BCTs). We further classify the persuasive strategies based on the type of mental health issues the app is focused on. Second, we reveal the various ways that the persuasive strategies are implemented/operationalized in mental health apps to achieve their intended objectives. Third, we examine the relationship between apps effectiveness (measured by user ratings) and the persuasive strategies employed. To achieve this, two researchers independently downloaded and used all identified apps to identify the persuasive strategies using the PSD model and BCTs. Next, they also examine the various ways that these strategies are implemented in mental health apps. The results show that the apps employed 26 distinct persuasive strategies and a range of 1-10 strategies per app.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.