The Impact of a Gamified Mobile Mental Health App (eQuoo) on Resilience and Mental Health in a Student Population: Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: With many digital mental health interventions failing to engage clients for enough time to demonstrate substantive changes to their well-being and with only 2% of all digital solutions on app stores having undergone randomized controlled trials, the rising demand for mental health prevention and early intervention care is not being met. Young adults in particular struggle to find digital well-being apps that suit their needs.

Objective: This study explored the effects of eQuoo, an evidence-based mental health game that teaches psychological skills through gamification, on resilience, depression, anxiety, and attrition in a student population.

Gamification as an approach to improve resilience and reduce attrition in mobile mental health interventions: A randomized controlled trial.

Forty percent of all general-practitioner appointments are related to mental illness, although less than 35% of individuals have access to therapy and psychological care, indicating a pressing need for accessible and affordable therapy tools. The ubiquity of smartphones offers a delivery platform for such tools. Previous research suggests that gamification-turning intervention content into a game format-could increase engagement with prevention and early-stage mobile interventions.