Congratulations to our partners at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine who were awarded their publication this week "A Process Evaluation of a Mobile App for Medical Students Aimed at Increasing Resilience and Decreasing Stigma in Mental Health."
Medical students experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and burnout compared to their peers (Lin et al, 2024). According to a recent meta-analysis, depression has a prevalence of 28.0% among medical students, suicidal ideation: 11.1%, anxiety: 33.8% and burnout: 44.2% (Carrard et al, 2024).
In response to the mental health challenges facing medical students, the American Medical Association has adopted policies to support the well-being of medical students during their training. These policies aim to reduce burnout and improve mental health. Medical schools are encouraged to: (i) create mental health awareness and suicide prevention programs, (ii) offer proactive intervention for at-risk students, and (iii) address mental health stigma (AMA, 2016).
Our partners at VCOM deployed the Sharpen system and worked with Sharpen's leadership team to customize the core mental health literacy modules to feature medical students sharing stories of resilience and strength.
Medical students found the Sharpen app experience valuable, accessed mental health screeners embedded within the app, utilized the app to seek help, and engaged with the app to learn more about mental health. There was also a decrease in mental health stigma observed during the course of the study (Fadel et al, 2024).
Learn more about Sharpen Mental Health Literacy at www.sharpenminds.com/smhl.
Carrard V, Berney S, Bourquin C, Ranjbar S, Castelao E, Schlegel K, Gaume J, Bart PA, Schmid Mast M, Preisig M, Berney A. Mental health and burnout during medical school: Longitudinal evolution and covariates. PLoS One. 2024 Apr 16;19(4):e0295100. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295100. PMID: 38626104; PMCID: PMC11020803.
Fadel N M, Stoner A, Berreta K, et al. (June 24, 2024) A Process Evaluation of a Mobile App for Medical Students Aimed at Increasing Resilience and Decreasing Stigma in Mental Health. Cureus 16(6): e63054. doi:10.7759/cureus.63054
Lin, YK., Saragih, I.D., Lin, CJ. et al. Global prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychol 12, 338 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01838-y
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