International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | September 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 9 Page 3594 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Sucharitha ST et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2020 Sep;7(9):3594-3599 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Digital mental health apps for self-management of depression: a scoping exploration on awareness, attitude, and user experience among professional course students Sree T. Sucharitha 1 , Aravind Manoharan 2 *, Velusamy Dhanuraja 1 , Arunadevi Kasi 3 , Suganya Ezhilarasan 1 INTRODUCTION Depression is recognized as the most common global mental health disorder by World Health Organization (WHO). The theme for World Health Day 2017: “Depression-let’s talk” addresses this issue as societal stigma associated with mental health remains critical barrier for care seeking behaviours to remain either minimal or attempted only for serious ailments. Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from depression. The proportion of the global population with depression in 2015 is estimated to be 4.4% and in India at 4.5%. Depression is more common among females (5.1%) than males (3.6%) and depressive disorders led to a global ABSTRACT Background: Globally, depressive disorders are ranked as the single largest contributor to non-fatal health loss (7.5% of all years lost due to disability-YLD). In India, provision of quality mental health care services remains a challenge due to severe deficiency of qualified care givers. Harnessing the potential of digital technologies and smart phone apps need to be explored to address the existing gaps in mental health care services. This study aims to describe the awareness, attitudes and user experiences of mental health apps among professional course students. Methods: A mixed-methods study methodology was adapted involving medical professional students of a tertiary teaching hospital in South India. A web-based survey assessed the awareness, attitudes and usage of mental health apps. Further, in-depth interviews (30) were conducted among selective app users (20) and non-users (10) to gain insights about the user experiences. Results: Among 898 respondents for the web-based survey, majority were female (513,57.1%), aged between 18-25 years (801,89.2%) undergraduates (673,74.9%), undertaking professional courses in medicine and allied health sciences (633,70.6%). 273 (30.4%) respondents were aware of apps and 86 (9.6%) were ever users. Novel interactive platforms, privacy and agency for self-care are the major factors for using the apps however data confidentiality and authenticity of the app-based information were identified as major concerns limiting app usage. Conclusions: The study found the utilization of mental health apps as self-management tool for depression gaining slow traction among professional course students. Keywords: Depression, Mental health apps, Mixed-methods, Web-based survey, In-depth interviews 1 Department of Community Medicine, Tagore Medical College and Hospital, Rattinamangalam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India 3 Department of Community Medicine, Madha Medical College and Research Institute, Kovur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Received: 02 July 2020 Accepted: 06 August 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Aravind Manoharan, E-mail: m_aravind86@yahoo.co.in Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203928