2021/09/06 by Ananya Bhattacharjee, Bhattacharjee, Ananya, S M Taiabul Haque +11
Psychology · #COVID-19 and Mental Health #Digital Mental Health Interventions #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Mental Health Research Topics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2109.02838
openalex publication_date 2021/09/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Objective: This study aims to identify the social determinants of mental\nhealth among undergraduate students in Bangladesh, a developing nation in South\nAsia. Our goal is to identify the broader social determinants of mental health\namong this population, study the manifestation of these determinants in their\nday-to-day life, and explore the feasibility of self-monitoring tools in\nhelping them identify the specific factors or relationships that impact their\nmental health. Methods: We conducted a 21-day study with 38 undergraduate\nstudents from seven universities in Bangladesh. We conducted two\nsemi-structured interviews: one pre-study and one post-study. During the 21-day\nstudy, participants used an Android application to self-report and self-monitor\ntheir mood after each phone conversation. The app prompted participants to\nreport their mood after each phone conversation and provided graphs and charts\nso that participants could independently review their mood and conversation\npatterns.\n Results: Our results show that academics, family, job and economic condition,\nromantic relationships, and religion are the major social determinants of\nmental health among undergraduate students in Bangladesh. Our app helped the\nparticipants pinpoint the specific issues related to these factors as\nparticipants could review the pattern of their moods and emotions from past\nconversation history. Although our app does not provide any explicit\nrecommendation, participants took certain steps on their own to improve their\nmental health (e.g., reduced the frequency of communication with certain\npersons).\n Conclusions: Overall, the findings from this study would provide better\ninsights for the researchers to design better solutions to help the younger\npopulation from this part of the world.\n