What’s in it for me? Qualitative evaluation of the QoL- ME, a visual and personalized quality of life assessment App for people with severe mental health problems

Background: The QoL-ME is a digital, visual and personalized QoL assessment App for people with severe mental health problems. Research reveals that e-mental health Apps such as the QoL-ME frequently fall short of expectations regarding their impact on daily practice. Studies often indicate that e-mental health Apps ought to respect the needs and preferences of end-users to achieve optimal user-engagement Objective: The degree to which the QoL-ME matches the needs and preferences of end-users was investigated in this study. Special attention is paid to whether the QoL-ME is actionable and beneficial for its users. Methods: Eight end-users who gained experience using the QoL-ME contributed to semi-structured interviews. An interview guide was used to direct the interviews. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcriptions were analysed and coded thematically. Results: Analysis revealed three main themes 1) Obtained benefit, 2) Actionability and 3) Characteristics of the QoL-ME. Conclusions: The QoL-ME can be beneficial to users as it provides them with insight into their QoL and elicits reflection. Incorporating more functionalities that facilitate self-management, such as advice and strategies for improving lacking areas will likely make the App more actionable. Most of the additional characteristics of the QoL-ME, including its usability, design and content, match the needs and preferences of users. (JMIR Preprints 24/04/2020:19593) DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.19593 Preprint Settings 1) Would you like to publish your submitted manuscript as preprint? Please make my preprint PDF available to anyone at any time (recommended). Please make my preprint PDF available only to logged-in users; I understand that my title and abstract will remain visible to all users. Only make the preprint title and abstract visible. No, I do not wish to publish my submitted manuscript as a preprint. 2) If accepted for publication in a JMIR journal, would you like the PDF to be visible to the public? Yes, please make my accepted manuscript PDF available to anyone at any time (Recommended). Yes, but please make my accepted manuscript PDF available only to logged-in users; I understand that the title and abstract will remain visible to all users (see Important note, above). I also understand that if I later pay to participate in <a href="https://jmir.zendesk. com/hc/en-us/articles/360008899632-What-is-the-PubMed-Now-ahead-of-print-option-when-I-pay-the-APF-" target="_blank">JMIR’s PubMed Now! service</a> service, my accepted manuscript PDF will automatically be made openly available. Yes, but only make the title and abstract visible (see Important note, above). I understand that if I later pay to participate in <a href="https://jmir.zendesk. com/hc/en-us/articles/360008899632-What-is-the-PubMed-Now-ahead-of-print-option-when-I-pay-the-APF-" target="_blank">JMIR’s PubMed Now! service</a> service, my accepted manuscript PDF will automatically be made openly available. https://preprints.jmir. org/preprint/19593 [unpublished, non-peer-reviewed preprint] JMIR Preprints Buitenweg et al