This feasibility study aims to develop and test the acceptability and feasibility of a mHealth app to deliver BA psychological intervention for youth within the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme in Kampala and Wakiso district of Uganda. It will develop a smartphone app to deliver BA and assess whether it is acceptable and feasible for use with 30 youth. Also, it will validate measures of mental health and wellbeing, cognition, risky behaviours and socioeconomic indicators for use by this population, and examine the association between these variables.
Researchers: Professor Alan Stein; Dr Munshi Sulaiman; Professor Eugene Kinyanda
Partners: University of Oxford, Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute
Timeline: 2019–2021
Status: Ongoing
Contact: Christine Nabulumba; christine.nabulumba@brac.net
Context
There is a lack of scalable, effective and acceptable emotional wellbeing interventions for youth in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). The recent rise in a low-end smartphone ownership among youth in Uganda offers an opportunity to deliver emotional wellbeing interventions at a population level. BA has been shown to enhance wellbeing, prevent depression, and provide an evidence-based treatment for those who are experiencing depressive symptoms. However, no other study has explored this potential with youth in Uganda. This study consists of three phases: (i) formative work, which includes conducting focus groups, in-depth interviews, and mobile phone app testing with youth, caregivers, and BRAC’s ELA mentors; (ii) measurement, within which a bank of context-and age-appropriate measures of executive function, social cognition and risk behaviours will be developed by translation and cultural adaptation of existing measures; (iii) BA digital platform, which will be co-constructed with youth using an iterative design process. A platform for training peer mentors will also be created.
This study is relevant to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), particularly to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Research Questions
1. Can psychological intervention through the mHealth app be adapted digitally for use with youth in LMICs in order to improve cognitive control and prevent or reduce depression?
2. Can we utilize local peer mentors to support the use of a mHealth platform and positively impact the platform engagement metric?
Methodology
This feasibility assessment will use mixed-methods approach and a sample of 480 youth 15-20 within the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program in Abayita Ababiri in Wakiso district and in Kampala city of Uganda to develop and test the acceptability and feasibility of a mHealth app to deliver BA.
