BACKGROUND
Mental health problems are prevalent among employees and this negatively impacts their work engagement and productivity levels. Self-guided mobile interventions have recently emerged as a promising approach, offering greater accessibility, affordability, and anonymity compared to traditional employee assistance programs (EAPs). However, research on the effects of guided self-help features on occupational outcomes remains limited.
OBJECTIVE
Using a non-randomized controlled design, this study compares the effectiveness of the "Intellect" app's guided self-help features in improving employees’ mental and occupational health against a no-treatment control group over time.
METHODS
Data from a subset of Intellect users registered between January 2023 and January 2024 were initially included in the analysis. Of these, 1,761 employees met the inclusion criteria for the study: (a) being 18 years or older, (b) working full-time, and (c) having completed Intellect’s “Personal Insights” assessments across three timepoints. The "Personal Insights" assessment is a composite 20-item measure consisting of single items with higher factor loadings on their parent psychometric scales. These items assess various indicators of mental and occupational health. Participants who engaged with at least one guided self-help feature were assigned to the “Self-Guided Intervention” (SGI) condition (N = 1,555, Mage = 26.3, SDage = 9.06), while those who did not engage with any of Intellect’s features were assigned to the “Control” condition (N = 206, Mage = 28.8, SDage = 10.3).
RESULTS
At baseline, the average participant was severely depressed (MPHQ-4 = 10.2, SDPHQ-4 = 3.17) and took 84.87 days (SD = 79.05 days) to complete the third assessment. Linear mixed models revealed significant time by group interaction effects across various domains of mental and occupational well-being. SGI participants experienced significantly greater improvements in anxiety and depressive symptoms (P< .05), positive emotions (P< .05), perceived stress (P< .05), self-efficacy (P< .05), self-esteem (P< .01), work engagement (P< .05), turnover intentions (P=.05), psychological safety (P< .05), perceived organizational (P< .05) and social support (P< .01). Effect sizes for all of these improvements were small (Cohen’s d = 0.14 - 0.21)
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that the guided self-help features on Intellect, a publicly available mental health app, effectively improve mental and occupational health for employees.