BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 global pandemic has contributed to increases in mental health issues such as depression and anxiety due to the increase of social isolation, uncertainty, and misinformation while at the same time making it harder to access mental health resources. In response to the pandemic, four counties/cities in California began offering a free mindfulness meditation app known as Headspace as a mental health resource for their communities.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to capture characteristics of people who decided to use, stop using, or not use Headspace within the context of a COVID-19 response program launched in April 2020 which offered Headspace licenses for free to community members.
METHODS
Participants (n = 2,725) completed a 20-minute online survey between July 1, 2021 and October 21, 2022. All participants who had signed up for Headspace through the program (N = 92,311) were sent an email inviting them to complete the survey, which was voluntary and unpaid. Logistic regression models were used to examine relationships between continued use of Headspace and the prevalence of mental health problems, mental healthcare utilization, frequency of Headspace use, user experience with Headspace, and mental health stigma.
RESULTS
76% of respondents were still using Headspace at the time of completing the survey. People who were still using Headspace were more likely to experience mental health challenges and distress and reporter greater use of other digital mental health resources (i.e. online tools and connecting with people online) than people who were not using Headspace. Additionally, people who used the app on a more frequent basis were more likely to continue using it, and current Headspace users rated the app higher on user experience compared to past users. The most common reasons for abandoning Headspace were that people were already using other strategies to support their mental health (35%), no longer needed Headspace (13%), and/or did not think Headspace would be useful (8%).
CONCLUSIONS
We discuss potential implications of our findings for offering and using apps such as Headspace as a mental health resource, along with factors that influence engagement with this app.