BACKGROUND
In Egypt, the shortage of mental health services particularly for adolescents and young adults is apparent. Electronic Mental Health (EMH) has been brought forward as a solution to bridge the gap and better address the needs of young people. However, EMH is new to Egypt and crucial to its implementation and success is its acceptability among target populations.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to explore the interest of Egyptian youth for EMH, identify perceived barriers to EMH, and inform the design of EMH tools to best address the needs of youth.
METHODS
An online cross-sectional survey was distributed among medical students at Tanta University in Egypt. Chi-square and one-way ANOVA tests were performed for inferential analyses using a significance level of 0.05.
RESULTS
Of the 707 individuals who completed the survey (90.9% response rate), 60.5% were female, 62.0% lived in urban and suburban areas, and the mean age of the sample was 20.5 (±1.8) years old. The vast majority of participants had already used the internet to find information about mental health problems (73.8%), but the information was unsatisfactory for about half of them (45.6%). Almost all students reported that they would prefer internet-based therapy if EMH were available through a trustworthy national internet platform for youth mental health (85%). Students believed that emotional difficulties, social support, and coping strategies were the main topics that EMH should help with. The most common perceived barriers for using EMH in Egypt were concerns about privacy (54%) and a lack of technology literacy and unfamiliarity with EMH (50%).
CONCLUSIONS
EMH is a promising strategy for addressing gaps in mental health care for young people. To con-struct and implement a digital system of care that addresses the unique needs and preferences of youth, adolescents and young adults should be involved in the co-development and design.
CLINICALTRIAL