TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital mental health in China: a systematic review
AU - Zhang, Xiaolong
AU - Lewis, Shôn
AU - Firth, Joseph
AU - Chen, Xu
AU - Bucci, Sandra
N1 - Funding Information:
SL is Mental Health Lead of Health Innovation Manchester, Director of Affigo CiC (not for profit) and Strategic Advisor of Kooth PLC. JF is supported by a University of Manchester Presidential Fellowship (P123958) and a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T021780/1) and has consulted for ParachuteBH on a separate project. SB is Director of Affigo CiC (not-for-profit) and is supported by an NIHR Research Professorship. XZ and XC declare no conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2021/11/28
Y1 - 2021/11/28
N2 - Mental health problems are highly prevalent in China; however, China's mental health services lack resources to deliver high-quality care to people in need. Digital mental health is a promising solution to this short-fall in view of the population's digital literacy. In this review, we aim to: (i) investigate the effectiveness, acceptability, usability, and safety of digital health technologies (DHTs) for people with mental health problems in China; (ii) critically appraise the literature; and (iii) make recommendations for future research directions. The databases MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, WANFANG, and VIP were systemically searched for English and Chinese language articles evaluating DHTs for people with mental health problems in mainland China. Eligible studies were systematically reviewed. The heterogeneity of studies included precluded a meta-analysis. In total, 39 articles were retrieved, reporting on 32 DHTs for various mental health problems. Compared with the digital mental health field in the West, the Chinese studies targeted schizophrenia and substance use disorder more often and investigated social anxiety mediated by shame and culturally specific variants, DHTs were rarely developed in a co-production approach, and methodology quality was less rigorous. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review focused on digital mental health in the Chinese context including studies published in both English and the Chinese language. DHTs were acceptable and usable among Chinese people with mental health problems in general, similar to findings from the West. Due to heterogeneity across studies and a paucity of robust control trial research, conclusions about the efficacy of DHTs are lacking.
AB - Mental health problems are highly prevalent in China; however, China's mental health services lack resources to deliver high-quality care to people in need. Digital mental health is a promising solution to this short-fall in view of the population's digital literacy. In this review, we aim to: (i) investigate the effectiveness, acceptability, usability, and safety of digital health technologies (DHTs) for people with mental health problems in China; (ii) critically appraise the literature; and (iii) make recommendations for future research directions. The databases MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, WANFANG, and VIP were systemically searched for English and Chinese language articles evaluating DHTs for people with mental health problems in mainland China. Eligible studies were systematically reviewed. The heterogeneity of studies included precluded a meta-analysis. In total, 39 articles were retrieved, reporting on 32 DHTs for various mental health problems. Compared with the digital mental health field in the West, the Chinese studies targeted schizophrenia and substance use disorder more often and investigated social anxiety mediated by shame and culturally specific variants, DHTs were rarely developed in a co-production approach, and methodology quality was less rigorous. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review focused on digital mental health in the Chinese context including studies published in both English and the Chinese language. DHTs were acceptable and usable among Chinese people with mental health problems in general, similar to findings from the West. Due to heterogeneity across studies and a paucity of robust control trial research, conclusions about the efficacy of DHTs are lacking.
KW - China
KW - co-production
KW - cultural adapation
KW - digital mental health
KW - schizophrenia
KW - systematic review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116566394&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/64c62c00-f6ac-3f9e-954e-da816b6b3364/
U2 - 10.1017/S0033291721003731
DO - 10.1017/S0033291721003731
M3 - Article
C2 - 34581263
SN - 0033-2917
VL - 51
SP - 2552
EP - 2570
JO - Psychological Medicine
JF - Psychological Medicine
IS - 15
ER -