Developing and testing a smartphone health application for older people to improve their mental health

© 2018 Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved. There is an increasing number of smartphone health applications available to smartphone users. Mental health applications are becoming an increasingly influential part of healthcare. While the adoption of smartphones has emerged as a vital tool for health-related behavioural interventions, making mental health support more accessible, and reducing barriers to help seeking, little is known about the potential benefits that smartphone health applications can provide in the mental health care of older people. There are hardly any contributions that focus on smartphone mental health applications for older people. This paper asks what are the key features needed for smartphone health application designed to improve mental health of older people? To answer this question, a comprehensive literature review of studies conducted in information systems and mental health disciplines has been undertaken and a theoretical model is proposed. This study contributes to the existing knowledge base through the development of a new theoretical model and the introduction of the features of a mobile health application that may have a positive impact on older peoples' mental health