Mental health first aid improves mental health literacy among college students: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Objectives

Mental health first aid (MHFA) may have beneficial effects on the public’s knowledge, attitude, and behavior; however, its effectiveness in increasing mental health literacy on college students remains unknown.

Methods

We systematically searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to January 2020. We included trials that compared the effect between the MHFA program group and control group on the knowledge, stigmatizing attitudes, confidence, and intention of college students. A random-effects model was used.

Results

We analyzed five trials involving 1134 participants and found that the MHFA program could significantly increase the student’s knowledge (SMD: 0.49, 95% CI: [0.28–0.70]) and confidence (SMD: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.24–1.19).

Conclusions

Overall, the MHFA program could increase college students’ knowledge regarding mental health and confidence to support people with mental health problems. However, well-designed control trials are required to investigate the program’s effect on mental health literacy in college students.

Abbreviations

MHFA, Mental health first aid; GPs, General Practioners; CI, confidence interval; SMD, standardized mean24difference.

Keywords:

• College students
• mental health first aid
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

We thank all members of our study team for their whole-hearted cooperation and the original authors of the included studies for their wonderful work.

Authors’ contributions

Study concept and design: Yamin Li, Mining Liang; Acquisition of data: Qiongni Chen, Li He, Mining Liang; Analysis and interpretation of data: Jincai Guo, Zubin Mei, Mining Liang; Drafting of the manuscript: Yamin Li, Yang Zhang, Mining Liang; Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: all authors; Study supervision: Yamin Li, Zubin Mei, Mining Liang.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of China and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.

Data availability statement

The datasets and any other materials of our study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Ethics approval

No ethical approval is needed for this network meta-analysis, because we used published data.

Figure 5. Results of meta-analyses of effects of mental health first aid training on MHFA confidence.

Figure 6. Results of meta-analyses of effects of mental health first aid training on MHFA intentions.