Barriers and motivators to electronic and mobile Health (e&mHealth) interventions in mental illness management amongst construction workers

Abstract

The alarming rate of mental illness in the construction industry has led to paralleled suicide rates benched at about 370% increase particularly in England, ranked the top cause of death in America and Australia. Thus, there is a growing interest to combat it by reinforcing researches in occupational health psychology and leveraging on information technology. e&mMental health interventions hold promises for increasing and quality mental illness management, however, there is a concern on increased dropout from such interventions without meeting the desired health goal. The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers and motivators to e&mhealth interventions in mental illness management. The result is intended to inform design implication for such technologies specific to the construction occupation. This study employed the qualitative method to gather data from 34 respondents. Information gathered were relating to likes, dislikes, and barriers to continual use of such interventions. The result was analyzed by systematic content analysis using MAXQDA software. The study showed that though respondents prefer the intervention due to stress reduction abilities, provision of access to quick solution and the monitoring of mental health and efficiency. However, respondents had concerns regarding battery life, synchronization and navigation demands, efficiency and practicability, cost of procurement and data access, boredom and lack of human interface. Therefore, future designs for construction industry should increase on the satisfaction measures and address the dissatisfaction measures which constitute the barriers to continual use. To motivate user engagement, the study recommends that video testimonials, coach and live support are needed for all interventions, they should equally be made affordable and easily comprehensible to the varying class of users.