Identifying and Determining the Requirements for Designing and Developing a Mobile-Based Self-Care Application to Control and Reduce Students' Stress and Anxiety

Introduction: The increase in stress and anxiety among students has a negative effect on their physical and mental health and can prevent their efficient academic performance. Self-care applications can help control and reduce students' anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to determine the necessary requirements related to the design and development of a mobile-based self-care application to control and reduce stress and anxiety in students. Method: This research is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2022. To conduct this study, 38 students of Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences (Razavi Khorasan province, Mashhad city) were included in the study based on the inclusion criteria and answered the questions of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS version 25. Results: Out of 91 informational-educational needs and capabilities, 67 items with a mean score of ≥3.75 were considered essential for application design. Information-educational needs and capabilities were categorized into eight axes: user profile, clinical records, lifestyle, disease management and control, sedation instructions, warnings and reminders, reporting and application capabilities. Conclusion: Identifying and determining the requirements related to the design of an application based on a mobile phone is one of the basic principles of developing an application that by involving users and obtaining their opinions can have an important role in their continue use of these applications. Therefore, application designers can design and develop an organized mobile-based self-care application to control and manage students' stress and anxiety by using the information-educational needs and capabilities presented in the present study.