effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress management in the mental health of iranian university students: a comparison of blended therapy, face-to-face sessions, and mhealth app (aramgar)

Background: stress is an important part of a college student’s life. psycho-technology has greatly helped students cope more effectively with stress. objectives: the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of three methods of intervention for stress management in students based on mindfulness-based stress reduction, including blended therapy, smartphone mobile application, and face-to- face therapy. methods: a quasiexperimental study was designed with pretests, posttests, and follow-ups for a month on randomly selected students. the first group was treated by the aramgar application only, the second group by both the face-to-face therapy and aramgar application, and the third group by the face-to-face therapy only. the dass-21 was utilized for both pretest and posttest administration. the anova and post hoc tests were applied to analyze the data. results: the mean age of the participants was 24.29 ± 3.21 years. there was a significant difference in the mean score reduction of depression, stress, and anxiety between the three groups (p < 0.001). the post hoc test showed that the blended therapy group had the greatest mean score reduction on stress, depression, and anxiety among the three groups. conclusions: the blended approach could improve the mental health of students more than the two other approaches. there- fore, the use of mobile platforms of new technologies is highly suggested along with face-to-face interventions in clinics to support people within their daily routine.