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Are you 16-24 years old and currently living in the UK? Do you have access to an Android smartphone? Are you comfortable reading and writing in English? Are you interested in getting insights into your mental health? If you answered YES to these questions, read on below or go directly to the MindKind app study website: https://www.mindkindstudy.org/hub

What is this study about?

This is a pilot study. We are trying to test if it's feasible to set up a global mental health databank to answer these questions:

  • Are young people willing to use an app to collect information (data) about their mental health? If so, will they use it for 3 months?
  • Are young people willing to share that data for health research? If so, under what conditions?

 

This study is funded by The Wellcome Trust, and lead by Dr. Lara Mangravite in the United States. It is being conducted under the supervision of scientists in South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom. You can learn more about our team of researchers on the UK study website here. This study has received the requisite ethical approval (University of Oxford Ref. R73366/RE001, University of Cambridge Ref. PRE.2021.031).

What will you ask me to do?

1. Go through the informed consent process on the MindKind app study website and ask any questions you have.

2. Install the MindKind study app on your Android phone.

3. Open the MindKind study app to take part.

4. Answer survey questions periodically. These questions will involve:

    • Week 1: answer questions about your health and background. It should take about 15 minutes. You can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.
    • Week 2 - Week 12: answer one or two surveys about your wellbeing. They should take less than 10 minutes each. You can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.
    • Also! We will ask for your permission to collect data directly from your phone, like screen-time and step count. We will NEVER collect your exact location. We will NEVER collect what you say or type outside of the app (voice memos, text messages, emails, etc.). If you don’t want to share data from your phone with us that’s okay -- you can still participate in the rest of study.

Potential Risks and Potential Benefits

Potential Risks

 

1.  Answering questions about your mental health could be tiring, frustrating, boring or may make you feel uncomfortable.

2. We will do our best to keep your information safe, but your data could be hacked. We will tell you if this happens.

3.  There may be other risks to participating that we do not know about yet. We will tell you if we learn of any risks that might change your mind about taking part in this study.

Potential Benefits

1. You may be contributing to valuable research.

2. You will get some insights into your mental health and lifestyle.

3.  You may help researchers better understand how young adults can manage their mental health. 

4. Shape the way future research data into mental health is collected, stored and shared. Allowing more meaningful and inclusive research to be done.

What will happen to the findings after the study ends?

We have provided detailed information on how we use your data on the MindKind app study website. In brief, this is a pilot study. The aim of the study is to really understand if we could feasibly set up a global mental health databank where youth share their mental health data in a way that affirms how young people want their health data shared, and under what conditions. 

We will communicate what we find in a variety of ways:

1. We will write reports to the funder highlighting what we found;

2. We will write academic peer-reviewed papers aimed at other researchers communicating our findings;

3. We will create youth-friendly outputs with our findings, such as blog posts, social media graphics, podcasts etc. All such outputs will be jointly developed with our professional youth advisors.

We are committed to preserving the youth voice at the heart of our study, including in using the findings of this promising study to influence future research, policy, and practice.