Effectiveness of a Brief Telehealth plus Smartphone Intervention for College Students Receiving Traditional Therapy: Longitudinal Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment Data (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Brief interventions, such as mental health apps and single-session interventions, are increasingly popular, efficacious and accessible delivery formats that may be beneficial for college students whose mental health needs may not be adequately met by college counseling centers. However, no studies so far have examined the effectiveness of these modes of treatment for college students who are already receiving traditional therapy, despite it being common among this population. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the differences in self-reported momentary negative affect between college students in therapy and not in therapy who received a brief single-session intervention delivered by counseling center staff and supplemental mobile app. METHODS Data for this study were drawn from E-Manage, a brief mHealth intervention geared towards college students [18]. Participants in the study were 173 college students who indicated whether they had received therapy. We conducted a multi-level model to determine whether there were differences between those in therapy vs. not in therapy in negative affect reported throughout the study. Following this, we conducted multi-level models with therapy status as the predictor and negative affect as the outcome. RESULTS Results of the multi-level model testing showed that the cross-level interaction between time point (i.e., pre- vs. post-exercise) and therapy status was significant (P = 0.008), with the reduction in negative affect from pre- to post-exercise greater for those in therapy (b = -0.65, 95%CI = [-0.91, -0.40], p < .001) than it was for those not in therapy (b = -0.31, 95%CI = [-0.43, -0.19], p < .001). Therapy status was unassociated with both the pre-exercise (b = -1.69, 95%CI = [-3.51, 0.13], p = .068) and post-exercise (b = -1.37, 95%CI =[-3.17, 0.43], p = .137) ratings of negative affect. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that app-based and single-session interventions are also appropriate to use amongst college students who are receiving traditional therapy. A RCT comparing students receiving therapy to students receiving therapy and E-Manage will be necessary to determine to what extent E-Manage contributed to the reductions in negative affect that therapy-attending college students experienced. CLINICALTRIAL NCT04636151