ArticleBMJ open2025
Mixed-methods longitudinal evaluation of the mental health first aid (MHFA) for freshman university students in Hong Kong: a study protocol.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe mental health first aid (MHFA) training is an evidence-based programme that is known to improve undergraduate students' attitudes towards mental illness and confidence in helping people with mental health problems. MHFA training will be implemented at a university in Hong Kong to address growing concerns about mental health challenges among students. Given the context of a university-wide systematic MHFA training implementation, this evaluation uses an intervention logic framework to evaluate the processes and longitudinal outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A mixed-method approach will be used where the quantitative component will gather data from a review of records and a case-control study for outcome evaluation; the qualitative component will gather data from individual interviews. All first-year students from the university in the academic year 2024-2025 (ie, September 2024 to August 2025) will be enrolled in the mandatory MHFA training. The outcome evaluation will assess effectiveness through short-, intermediate- and long-term outcomes. An online questionnaire will be distributed to the students before (pre) and immediately after (post) the MHFA training. For comparison, second-year students who had not participated in MHFA training will be invited to complete the same online questionnaire. The questionnaires will be administered further to those who completed the MHFA training at 12 months (ie, academic year 2025-2026) and 24 months (ie, academic year 2026-2027) post-training to evaluate intermediate-term and long-term effects, respectively. The process evaluation explores feasibility, fidelity, adoption and the barriers and enablers to implementation. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This evaluation has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Hong Kong Metropolitan University (reference number HE-SF2024/35). The findings are expected to contribute to establishing long-term effects on mental health literacy and on the actual mental health support actions provided by participants, which goes beyond the intention to help. This evaluation would also facilitate a better understanding of the processes that need to be considered in a systematic MHFA training implementation in a university context. The findings will be disseminated in academic and public health community settings. DATA STATEMENT AND PROJECT REGISTRATION: This project has been registered in the Open Science Framework. Fully anonymised data will be saved and subsequently made available through the following OSF registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/92N5Q.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.